Digital Commons Network^™

Interpretable Design Of Reservoir Computing Networks Using Realization Theory, Wei Miao, Vignesh Narayanan, Jr-Shin Li

Publications

The reservoir computing networks (RCNs) have been successfully employed as a tool in learning and complex decision-making tasks. Despite their efficiency and low training cost, practical applications of RCNs rely heavily on empirical design. In this article, we develop an algorithm to design RCNs using the realization theory of linear dynamical systems. In particular, we introduce the notion of α-stable realization and provide an efficient approach to prune the size of a linear RCN without deteriorating the training accuracy. Furthermore, we derive a necessary and sufficient condition on the irreducibility of the number of hidden nodes in linear RCNs based …

Fish And Invertebrate Use Of Restored Vs. Natural Oyster Reefs In A Shallow Temperate Latitude Estuary, Jonathan H. Grabowski, Christopher J. Baillie, Adam Baukus, Rachael Carlyle, F. Joel Fodrie, Rachel K. Gittman, A. Randall Hughes, David L. Kimbro, Juhyung Lee, Hunter S. Lenihan, Sean P. Powers, Kevin Sullivan

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Coastal marine habitats continue to be degraded, thereby compelling largescale restoration in many parts of the world. Whether restored habitats function similarly to natural habitats and fully recover lost ecosystem services is unclear. In estuaries, oyster reefs have been degraded by multiple anthropogenic activities including destructive fishing practices and reduced water quality, motivating restoration to maintain oyster fisheries and other ecosystem services, often at relatively high cost. We compared fish and invertebrate communities on recently restored (0–1 year post-restoration), older restored (3–4 years post-restoration), and natural oyster reefs to determine if and when restored reefs support functionally similar faunal communities. …

Effect Of Duration Of 120 °C Baking On The Performance On Superconducting Radio Frequency Niobium Cavities, B. D. Khanal, P. Dhakal

Physics Faculty Publications

Over the last decade much attention was given in increasing the quality factor of superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities by impurity doping. Prior to the era of doping, the final cavity processing technique to achieve the high accelerating gradient includes the "in situ" low temperature baking of SRF cavities at temperature ~ 120 °C for several hours. Here, we present the results of a series of measurements on 1.3 GHz TESLA shape single-cell cavities with successive low temperature baking at 120 °C up to 96 hours. The experimental data were analyzed with available theory of superconductivity to elucidate the effect …

An Investigation Of Mathematics Self-Efficacy, The Sources Of Mathematics Self-Efficacy, And Mathematics Achievement Among Primary School Students In Trinidad And Tobago, Ronald Sinanan

Dissertations

Purpose of the Study

This dissertation addressed two problems in the literature. Firstly, while many study findings have highlighted the critical role of self-efficacy in students' achievement, additional research was needed about the four hypothesized sources that influence the improvement of students' mathematics self-efficacy. Many studies on self-efficacy sources were conducted with measures not closely tied to social cognitive theory and have not demonstrated sufficient reliability. Using the Sources of Mathematics SelfEfficacy Scale, Usher and Pajares (2009) addressed this problem. They suggested several recommendations for future research (Usher & Pajares, 2008b, 2009), including exploring the validity of their scale in …

Isaac Newton As A Prophetic Interpreter, Kenneth Jørgensen

Dissertations

Throughout his life, Sir Isaac Newton was deeply dedicated to the science of decoding biblical apocalyptic writings. To understand and appreciate Newton's prophetic scheme, it will be advantagous to have a certain grasp of what sources and ideas might have influenced him. No comprehensive study before this one has helped us see Newton from that perspective. A survey of the development of canonical apocalyptic hermeneutic and interpretation, beginning before the time of Christ and ending with Newton, shows that four distinct systems of hermeneutics had developed by that time. Historicism was the earliest and the preferred system among Protestants until …

An Ambitious Vision For The Future Of Scientific Ocean Drilling, Paula Bontempi

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Efficient Elliptic Curve Operators For Jacobian Coordinates, Wesam Eid, Turki F. Al-Somani, Marius C. Silaghi

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

The speed up of group operations on elliptic curves is proposed using a new type of projective coordinate representation. These operations are the most common computations in key exchange and encryption for both current and postquantum technology. The boost this improvement brings to computational efficiency impacts not only encryption efforts but also attacks. For maintaining security, the community needs to take note of this development as it may need to operate changes in the key size of various algorithms. Our proposed projective representation can be viewed as a warp on the Jacobian projective coordinates, or as a new operation replacing …

Investigaion Of The Gamma Hurdle Model For A Single Population Mean, Alissa Jacobs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A common issue in some statistical inference problems is dealing with a high frequency of zeroes in a sample of data. For many distributions such as the gamma, optimal inference procedures do not allow for zeroes to be present. In practice, however, it is natural to observe real data sets where nonnegative distributions would make sense to model but naturally zeroes will occur. One example of this is in the analysis of cost in insurance claim studies. One common approach to deal with the presence of zeroes is using a hurdle model. Most literary work on hurdle models will focus …

Artificially Intelligent Boards And The Future Of Delaware Corporate Law, Christopher Bruner

Scholarly Works

This article argues that the prospects for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to impact corporate law are at once over- and under-stated, focusing on the law of Delaware – the predominant jurisdiction of incorporation for US public companies. Claims that AI systems might displace human directors not only exaggerate AI’s foreseeable technological potential, but ignore doctrinal and institutional impediments intrinsic to Delaware’s competitive model – notably, heavy reliance on nuanced applications of the fiduciary duty of loyalty by a true court of equity. At the same time, however, there are discrete AI applications that might not merely be accommodated by Delaware corporate …

On-Road Vehicle Emission Measurements And Their Use In Evaluating Emission Control Effectiveness {Presentation}, Gary A. Bishop

Fuel Efficiency Automobile Test Publications

No abstract provided.

Monitoring And Modelling The Dynamics Of The Cellular Glycolysis Pathway: A Review And Future Perspectives, Nitin Patil, Hugh Byrne, Orla L. Howe, Paul A. Cahill

Articles

Background

The dynamics of the cellular glycolysis pathway underpin cellular function and dysfunction, and therefore ultimately health, disease, diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Evolving our understanding of this fundamental process and its dynamics remains critical.

Scope of review

This paper reviews the medical relevance of glycolytic pathway in depth and explores the current state of the art for monitoring and modelling the dynamics of the process. The future perspectives of label free, vibrational microspectroscopic techniques to overcome the limitations of the current approaches are considered.

Major conclusions

Vibrational microspectroscopic techniques can potentially operate in the niche area of limitations of other …

The In Vitro Effect Of Hypochlorous Acid-Metal Nanoparticles Combination On Salmonellaunder Different Temperature Conditions, Serkan Kemal Büyükünal, Karlo Muratoğlu, Ahmet Koluman

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

Hypochlorous acid (HClO) is an excellent surface disinfectant and classified as nonhazardous but maintaining a steady HClO solution is extremely difficult. This study aimed to mix HClO with various metal nanoparticles (NPs) to improve stability. The efficiency of the prepared solutions against Salmonella Typhimurium, Salmonella Enteritidis, Salmonella Dublin, and Salmonella Infantis was assessed using the culture method in five distinct experimental groups at varying temperatures (4 °C, 10 °C, 25 °C, 40 °C, and 50 °C). The type of metal NPs, HClO, and application temperatures utilized in the combined solutions for bacterial decontamination did not result in a significant difference …

Faculty Authors & Achievers Bibliography 2022, Luke Vilelle

WRL: Faculty Authors & Achievers Bibliographies

The office of Academic Affairs and the Wyndham Robertson Library congratulate all Hollins faculty who published or presented creative or scholarly works from Fall 2020 - Summer 2022. These pages include a list of those activities.

Universal Owners, Shareholder Primacy, And Stakeholderism, Daniel Irvin

Emory Business Law Review

The rise of massive asset owners like large pension funds and sovereign wealth funds has created interest in the phenomenon of Universal Owners. The climate crisis, environmental degradation, and worsening inequality have also led to challenges to the current models of corporate governance, with a particular interest on the idea of corporate purpose. This paper fills a gap by addressing the intersection of these two trends, proposing a framework by which Universal Owners should view corporate purpose. I argue that from a returns-maximizing perspective, Universal Owners should prefer a flavor of shareholder primacy that believes the corporation’s purpose is to …

Role Of Prior Knowledge In Timing Of Computer-Generated Feedback, Julie Faye Shirah

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Although often helpful, feedback sometimes has neutral or negative effects on learning (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Kluger & DeNisi, 1996). For example, Fyfe and colleagues have found that the effects of feedback timing are moderated by students’ prior knowledge such that feedback has been useful for students with low prior knowledge, but has mixed effects on students with high prior knowledge (e.g., Fyfe et al., 2012; Fyfe, 2016). In this study, I extended Fyfe’s work by re-conceptualizing prior knowledge as knowledge of more familiar foundational concepts a learner brings to a learning task (Sidney & Alibali, 2017), which can be …

Liquid Core Detection And Strand Condition Monitoring In A Continuous Caster Using Optical Fiber, Deva Prasaad Neelakandan, Dinesh Reddy Alla, Jie Huang, Ronald J. O'Malley

PSMRC Faculty Research

Real-time monitoring of the liquid core position during the continuous casting of steel has been demonstrated using low-cost distributed optical-fiber-based strain sensors. These sensors were installed on the containment roll support structures in the segments of a production continuous caster to detect the position of the solid–liquid interface and monitor the strand condition during the continuous casting. Distributed Fiber Bragg Grating sensors (FBGs) were used in this work to monitor strain at six roll positions in the caster. The sensor performance was first validated by comparing optical strain measurements with conventional strain gauge measurements in the lab. Next, optical strain …

A Transformative Framework To Investigate The Influences Of Chineseness On Chinese International Students’ Learning Experiences On U.S. College Campuses, Wenjin Guo

Dissertations

This study applied a mixed-methods, social-justice approach to explore how Chinese international students interpret their success and/or challenges influenced by their Chinese forms of community cultural wealth in their academic learning at a predominately White Catholic university in the Midwest of the United States for over one year. I adopted a transformative paradigm to guide my study. Since the reviewed theoretical frameworks solely failed to form a profound comprehension of how Chineseness influenced Chinese international college students, I analyzed essential components of socio-cultural and critical race theories and created China as Method as the framework to guide my study.

This …

Rhodium-Catalyzed Decarbonylation Of Aroyl Chlorides, Wiktoria M. Koza

Dissertations

The development of efficient strategies for the synthesis of aryl–halogen bonds is highly desirable due to the prevalence of these moieties in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and organic synthesis. Although there are numerous applications of aryl chlorides in chemistry, an efficient strategy for the preparation of these molecules is underdeveloped. Transition metal-catalyzed decarbonylation provides an efficient and selective approach for aryl–halogen bond formation. There has been significant progress in the development of new decarbonylation strategies, particularly involving aldehydes for the synthesis of new carbon–hydrogen (C–H) bonds or for cross-coupling reactions. However, transition metal-catalyzed decarbonylation methods for carbon–halogen (C–X) bond formation have been …

Supporting Latine Children’S Informal Engineering Learning And Spatial Thinking Through Tinkering And Storytelling, Diana Acosta

Dissertations

In the United States, the Latine community is the fastest growing minority group. Projections estimate that by the year 2060, they will represent 28% of the total population. Yet, Latines continue to be underrepresented and underserved in STEM fields and careers. Providing equitable informal STEM learning opportunities to young children may be a way to increase access and interest in STEM, to address the broader goal of increasing representation. Importantly, for these learning experiences to be truly equitable they must be meaningful and engage everyday cultural practices. Guided by a strengths-based approach, the current study examines how oral stories as …

Facing The Mass Exodus: Reconsidering The Moral Responsibilities For And Obligations Toward Large Numbers Of Refugees In An Age Of Global Crises, Muhammet Ali Asil

Dissertations

The global refugee crisis has revealed an essential moral question regarding helping the forcibly displaced persons in protracted refugee crises: how do we determine if our community has done “enough” for a particular refugee group? Different answers have been provided to this question. This dissertation takes up this question from a normative standpoint. It develops an ethics-based burden-sharing model, that is, a “meaning-based model,” as a method to determine our political communities’ moral duties toward different refugee groups in various refugee crises. The model challenges the conventional wisdom by claiming that not every community has the same moral obligations toward …

The Role Of Lived Experiences In Culturally Responsive School Leaders’ Administrations: A Phenomenological Case Study, Angela Dolezal

Dissertations

This phenomenological case study explored how the lived experiences of three self-identifiedculturally responsive high school leaders impacted the systemic decisions they made for their school and their students. The study also investigated how these lived experiences informed the leaders’ responses to their stakeholders’ reactions to the systemic decisions. The three school leaders participated in a three-part interview series to answer these three questions (1) What are the personal and educational life histories of three self-identified culturally responsive school leaders in a predominantly White school? (2) How do the life experiences described in the self-identified culturally responsive school leaders’ life histories …

An Ethics Of Doctrinal Emergence: Reading Newman With Augustine And Contemporary Information Theory, Jeffrey John Campbell

Dissertations

Jeffrey J. CampbellLoyola University Chicago AN ETHICS OF DOCTRINAL EMERGENCE: READING NEWMAN WITH AUGUSTINE AND CONTEMPORARY INFORMATION THEORY The aim of this essay is to begin the process of a reconfiguration of the theological category of doctrinal development and to integrate an “emergent doctrinal ethics of belief” as an inextricable dimension of this category. Most scholarly writing on doctrinal development has taken place in the wake of the Enlightenment with its focus on epistemology, and doctrine is conceived of as “referencing” a quasi-metaphysical “res.” I attempt to “update” the guiding metaphors of doctrinal development with the goal of moving discussions …

An Interpretive Phenomenological Study Of Women’S Struggles, Hopes And Reasons For Participation In Professional Power-Based Community Organizing In Chicago, Mary Dungy-Akenji

Dissertations

Mary K. L. DungyLoyola University Chicago AN INTERPRETIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF WOMEN’S STRUGGLES, HOPES AND REASONS FOR PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL POWER-BASED COMMUNITY ORGANIZING IN CHICAGO Professional power-based community organizing is a practice of grassroots change in which paid organizers guide community members as they band together to make demands on elite groups to redistribute resources (Bobo et. al, 2001; Sites et al., 2007). Conflict-based tactics may be utilized to demand structural improvements from key stakeholders, usually towards progressive political ends that build towards a more just society (Bobo et. al 2001; Wilkinson & D’Angelo, 2019). Community organizing has some roots …

Harnessing The Power Of Interdisciplinary Research With Psychology-Informed Cyberbullying Detection Models, Deborah Hall, Yasin N. Silva, Brittany Wheeler, Lu Cheng, Katie Baumel

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Cyberbullying has become increasingly prevalent, particularly on social media. There has also been a steady rise in cyberbullying research across a range of disciplines. Much of the empirical work from computer science has focused on developing machine learning models for cyberbullying detection. Whereas machine learning cyberbullying detection models can be improved by drawing on psychological theories and perspectives, there is also tremendous potential for machine learning models to contribute to a better understanding of psychological aspects of cyberbullying. In this paper, we discuss how machine learning models can yield novel insights about the nature and defining characteristics of cyberbullying and …

The Lick Agn Monitoring Project 2016: Velocity-Resolved Hβ Lags In Luminous Seyfert Galaxies, Vivian U, Aaron J. Barth, H. Alexander Vogler, Hengxiao Guo, Tommaso Treu, Vardha N. Bennert, Gabriela Canalizo, Alexei V. Filippenko, Elinor Gates, Frederick Hamann, Michael D. Joner, Matthew A. Malkan, Anna Pancoast, Peter R. Williams, Jong-Hak Woo, Bela Abolfathi, L. E. Abramson, Stephen F. Armen, Hyun-Jin Bae, Thomas Bohn, Benjamin D. Boizelle, Azalee Bostroem, Andrew Brandel, Thomas G. Brink, Sanyum Channa, M. C. Cooper, Maren Cosens, Edward Donohue, Sean P. Fillingham, Diego González-Buitrago, Goni Halevi, Andrew Halle, Carol E. Hood, Keith Horne, J. Chuck Horst, Maxime De Kouchkovsky, Benjamin Kuhn, Sahana Kumar, Douglas C. Leonard, Donald Loveland, Christina Manzano-King, Ian Mchardy, Raúl Michel, Melanie Kae B. Olaes, Daeseong Park, Songyoun Park, Liuyi Pei, Timothy W. Ross, Jordan N. Runco, Jenna Samuel, Javier Sánchez, Bryan Scott, Remington O. Sexton, Jaejin Shin, Isaac Shivvers, Chance L. Spencer, Benjamin E. Stahl, Samantha Stegman, Isak Stomberg, Stefano Valenti, L. Villafaña, Jonelle L. Walsh, Heechan Yuk, Weikang Zheng

Physics

We carried out spectroscopic monitoring of 21 low-redshift Seyfert 1 galaxies using the Kast double spectrograph on the 3 m Shane telescope at Lick Observatory from 2016 April to 2017 May. Targeting active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with luminosities of λLλ(5100 Å) ≈ 1044 erg s−1 and predicted Hβ lags of ∼20–30 days or black hole masses of 107–108.5 M⊙, our campaign probes luminosity-dependent trends in broad-line region (BLR) structure and dynamics as well as to improve calibrations for single-epoch estimates of quasar black hole masses. Here we present the first results from the campaign, including …

Runoff And Discharge Pathways Of Microplastics Into Freshwater Ecosystems: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, J. Wang, K. Bucci, P. A. Helm, T. Hoellein, M. J. Hoffman, R. Rooney, C. M. Rochman

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Although many studies have focused on the importance of littering and (or) illegal dumping as a source of plastic pollution to freshwater, other relevant pathways should be considered, including wastewater, stormwater runoff, industrial effluent/runoff, and agricultural runoff. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis focused on these four pathways. We quantified the number of studies, amount and characteristics of microplastics reported, and the methods used to sample and measure microplastics from each pathway. Overall, we found 121 studies relevant to our criteria, published from 2014 to 2020. Of these, 54 (45%) quantified and characterized microplastics in discharge pathways. Although most focused on …

Microplastic Accumulation In Riverbed Sediment Via Hyporheic Exchange From Headwaters To Mainstems, Jennifer D. Drummond, Uwe Schneidewind, Angang Li, Timothy J. Hoellein, Stefan Krause, Aaron I. Packman

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In rivers, small and lightweight microplastics are transported downstream, but they are also found frequently in riverbed sediment, demonstrating long-term retention. To better understand microplastic dynamics in global rivers from headwaters to mainstems, we developed a model that includes hyporheic exchange processes, i.e., transport between surface water and riverbed sediment, where microplastic retention is facilitated. Our simulations indicate that the longest microplastic residence times occur in headwaters, the most abundant stream classification. In headwaters, residence times averaged 5 hours/km but increased to 7 years/km during low-flow conditions. Long-term accumulation for all stream classifications averaged ~5% of microplastic inputs per river …

Bias Mitigation For Toxicity Detection Via Sequential Decisions, Lu Cheng, Ahmadreza Mosallanezhad, Yasin N. Silva, Deborah Hall, Huan Liu

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Increased social media use has contributed to the greater prevalence of abusive, rude, and offensive textual comments. Machine learning models have been developed to detect toxic comments online, yet these models tend to show biases against users with marginalized or minority identities (e.g., females and African Americans). Established research in debiasing toxicity classifiers often (1) takes a static or batch approach, assuming that all information is available and then making a one-time decision; and (2) uses a generic strategy to mitigate different biases (e.g., gender and racial biases) that assumes the biases are independent of one another. However, in real …

Dbsnap 2: New Features To Construct Database Queries By Snapping Blocks, Yasin N. Silva, Alexis Loza, Humberto Razente

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Block-based environments for creating computer programs have become very useful learning tools in computer science as they enable focusing on the logic of a program rather than on its syntactical details. While most block-based environments support conventional (imperative) instructions, a few tools have been proposed to create database queries. One of these tools is DBSnap, a highly dynamic and open-source tool to create database query trees by dragging and connecting visual blocks representing datasets and database operators. In this paper, we introduce DBSnap 2, an extension of DBSnap that provides a set of improvements to facilitate the creation of simple …

Biocatalytic Intramolecular C−H Aminations Via Engineered Heme Proteins: Full Reaction Pathways And Axial Ligand Effects, Yang Wei, Melissa Conklin, Yong Zhang

Chemistry: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Engineered heme protein biocatalysts provide an efficient and sustainable approach to develop amine-containing compounds through C−H amination. A quantum chemical study to reveal the complete heme catalyzed intramolecular C−H amination pathway and protein axial ligand effect was reported, using reactions of an experimentally used arylsulfonylazide with hemes containing L=none, SH−, MeO−, and MeOH to simulate no axial ligand, negatively charged Cys and Ser ligands, and a neutral ligand for comparison. Nitrene formation was found as the overall rate-determining step (RDS) and the catalyst with Ser ligand has the best reactivity, consistent with experimental reports. Both RDS and non-RDS (nitrene transfer) …