Digital Commons Network^™

Let’S Have A Playdate! Comparing Autistic Children's Social Behavior During Play Sessions With Siblings Versus Peers, Clare Boldt

Scripps Senior Theses

Autistic individuals can struggle with social interactions and forming friendships. While siblings and peers are used for social skills intervention, there is a paucity of research analyzing differences in autistic children’s play with siblings versus peers. Investigating these behavior differences helps clinicians learn how to best support social skill development, improve sibling relationships, and determine ideal peer mediators for interventions. I compare social behaviors of autistic children during play sessions with their sibling versus a non-sibling peer. The behaviors measured were prosocial behaviors, cooperative and parallel play, verbalizations (appropriate and inappropriate), aggressive behaviors, eloping, and stereotypy. Based on previous literature, …

Effect Of Ldh On The Dissolution And Adsorption Behaviors Of Sulfate In Portland Cement Early Hydration Process, Zedong Qiu, Limin Deng, Shuang Lu, Guoqiang Li, Zhen Tang

Faculty Publications

In recent years, it has been widely recognized that the incorporation of Mg-Al-LDH into cement-based materials can improve the salt corrosion resistance of cement-based materials. The reason for the improvement comes from the anion adsorption capacity of Mg-Al-LDH. It was confirmed that the addition of Mg-Al-LDH would accelerate the setting and hardening of cement paste. With the increase in the Mg-Al-LDH content, the initial setting time of cement slurry with different gypsum contents will decrease by 10-50% and the viscosity of the cement slurry will increase by 100-200%. Depending on different gypsum contents, the degree of cement hydration varied. This …

Event-Triggered Control For Discrete-Time Systems Using A Positive Systems Approach, Frederic Mazenc, Michael Malisoff, Corina Barbalata, Zhong Ping Jiang

Faculty Publications

We provide an output feedback event-triggered controller for discrete-time linear systems. We make novel use of positive systems, interval observers, an event-triggered state estimator, and triggering times that are computed from estimator values. This provides a discrete-time analog of our recent positive systems approach for continuous-time systems. A key novel ingredient in our discrete-time event triggers is their use of vectors of absolute values, instead of the usual Euclidean norm. We illustrate the benefits of our method using a model for event-triggered BlueROV2 underwater vehicles.

Decay Of Oil Residues In The Soil Is Enhanced By The Presence Of Spartina Alterniflora, With No Additional Effect From Microbiome Manipulation, Stephen K. Formel, Allyson M. Martin, John H. Pardue, Vijaikrishnah Elango, Kristina Johnson, Claudia K. Gunsch, Emilie Lefèvre, Paige M. Varner, Yeon Ji Kim, Brittany M. Bernik, Sunshine A. Van Bael

Faculty Publications

Recent work has suggested that the phytoremediation potential of S. alterniflora may be linked to a selection by the plant for oil-degrading microbial communities in the soil, in combination with enhanced delivery of oxygen and plant enzymes to the soil. In salt marshes, where the soil is saline and hypoxic, this relationship may be enhanced as plants in extreme environments have been found to be especially dependent on their microbiome for resilience to stress and to respond to toxins in the soil. Optimizing methods for restoration of oiled salt marshes would be especially meaningful in the Gulf of Mexico, where …

Classification Of Surface Pavement Cracks As Top-Down, Bottom-Up, And Cement-Treated Reflective Cracking Based On Deep Learning Methods, Nirmal Dhakal, Mostafa A. Elseifi, Zia U.A. Zihan, Zhongjie Zhang, Christophe N. Fillastre, Jagannath Upadhyay

Faculty Publications

The treatment and repair strategies for reflective and fatigue cracking that initiate at the pavement surface (i.e., top-down cracking) and at the bottom of the asphalt concrete layer (i.e., bottom-up cracking) are noticeably different. However, pavement management engineers are facing difficulties in identifying these cracks in the field because they usually appear in visually identical patterns. The objective of this study was to develop artificial neural network (ANN) and convolutional neural network (CNN) applications to differentiate and classify top-down, bottom-up, and cement-treated reflective cracking in in-service flexible pavements using deep-learning models. The developed CNN model achieved an accuracy of 93.8% …

Audio Virology And Affect Contagion In The Times Of Preemptive Power And Sonic Futurism: The Sonic Warfare Of Fatima Al Qadiri, Aram Kavoossi

Media and Cultural Studies Honors Projects

This project examines the State’s use of sound technologies in particular to conjure affects facilitative of the maintenance and control of human bodies and political activities. In tension with this current, it will also study the subversion of sonic war machinery by cultural workers and musicians in the production of transnational political solidarities against the state militarization/securitization of life and preemption/commodification of death–a socio-economic paradigm fed by the (neo)colonial underbellies of capitalist modernity, from the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the colonization and military exploitation of the ‘Middle East’.

Event-Triggered Prediction-Based Delay Compensation Approach, Frederic Mazenc, Michael Malisoff, Corina Barbalata

Faculty Publications

We provide a new event-triggered delay compensation approach for linear systems with arbitrarily long constant input delays. Our prediction map is expressible as a solution of a discrete time system. Our method ensures input-to-state stability. We also provide an analog under measurement delays, where the prediction map is expressible as a solution of a continuous-discrete system. Significant novel features are our combined use of matrices of absolute values and our prediction based event triggers, instead of Euclidean norms, and the fact that the predictor dynamics always has the same dimension as that of the original system. Our marine robotic example …

Event-Triggered Control For Continuous-Time Linear Systems With A Delay In The Input, Frederic Mazenc, Michael Malisoff, Corina Barbalata

Faculty Publications

We provide an event-triggered control technique for a family of linear time-varying continuous-time systems with a constant known pointwise delay in the input. We adopt a subpredictor based prediction technique, and we provide sufficient conditions that ensure that Zeno behavior does not occur. At each time, only delayed measurements are needed to implement the control. Also, the delay can be an arbitrarily large constant. We prove an input-to-state stability property for the closed-loop system, using the theory of cooperative systems. We apply our method to a gyroscopic control problem for a curve tracking dynamics arising in marine robotics.

High-Tide Floods And Storm Surges During Atmospheric Rivers On The Us West Coast, Christopher G. Piecuch, Sloan Coats, Sönke Dangendorf, Felix W. Landerer, J. T. Reager, Philip R. Thompson, Thomas Wahl

CCPO Publications

Amospheric rivers (ARs) effect inland hydrological impacts related to extreme precipitation. However, little is known about the possible coastal hazards associated with these storms. Here we elucidate high-tide floods (HTFs) and storm surges during ARs through a statistical analysis of data from the US West Coast during 1980-2016. HTFs and landfalling ARs co-occur more often than expected from random chance. Between 10%-63% of HTFs coincide with landfalling ARs, depending on location. However, only 2%-15% of ARs coincide with HTFs, suggesting that ARs typically must co-occur with anomalously high tides or mean sea levels to cause HTFs. Storm surges during ARs …

The Atlantic Surfclam Fishery And Offshore Wind Energy Development: 2. Assessing Economic Impacts, Andrew M. Scheld, Jennifer Beckensteiner, Daphne M. Munroe, Eric N. Powell, Sarah Borsetti, Eileen E. Hofmann, John M. Klinck

CCPO Publications

The Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) fishery generates approximately USD 30 million in landings revenues annually, distributed across ports throughout the US Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Overlap between areas of Atlantic surfclam harvests and offshore wind energy leasing make the fishery vulnerable to exclusion and effort displacement as development expands in the region. An existing integrated bioeconomic agent-based model, including spatial dynamics in Atlantic surfclam stock biology, heterogeneous captain behaviour, and federal management processes, was extended to incorporate costs and revenues for fishing vessels and processors and used to evaluate the potential economic effects of offshore wind development on the …

Special Forum: Undergraduate Perspectives On Feminism, Sabrinna Fogarty, Jeannette E. Riley

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Gender Unfreedom: Gender Diverse Perspectives From Digital India, Sara Bardhan

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Tolerance And Adaptability Of Tomato Genotypes To Saline Irrigation, Carlos Eduardo Da Silva Oliveira, Tiago Zoz, Arshad Jalal, Eduardo Pradi Vendruscolo, Thiago Assis Rodrigues Nogueira, Arun Dilipkumar Jani, Marcelo Carvalho Minhoto Teixeira Filho

Biology, Agriculture and Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

High salt concentration in irrigation water is often a limiting factor to tomato production in Brazil. However, there is limited information available regarding the tolerance of tomato genotypes to saline irrigation. An experiment was conducted in a protected environment using a randomized block design with four replications. Treatments consisted of 12 tomato genotypes cultivated in an environment with varying levels of salt stress. Moderate and severe salt stress affected plant height, transversal and longitudinal diameter of fruit, fresh mass, yield, and number of tomato fruit per plant. Cluster analysis, stability, and adaptability provided the best estimates to identify the most …

Environmental Dna Metabarcoding Is A Promising Method For Assaying Fish Diversity In Cenotes Of The Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, S. Elizabeth Alter, Jairo Arroyave

Biology, Agriculture and Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The karst aquifer of the Yucatán Peninsula (YP) in southeastern Mexico is a unique ecosystem in which water-filled sinkholes, locally known as cenotes, connect subterranean waters with the surface. This system is home to around 20 species of freshwater fishes, including several that are endemic and/or threatened. Studies on this unique ichthyofauna have been partially hampered by the technical difficulties associated with sampling these habitats, particularly submerged caves. In this proof-of-concept study, we use environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding to survey the diversity of freshwater fishes associated with the YP karst aquifer by sampling six cenotes from across the Ring of …

Deciphering The Microbiome: Integrating Theory, New Technologies, And Inclusive Science, Kathryn C. Milligan-Mcclellan, José Pablo Dundore-Arias, Jonathan L. Klassen, Ashley Shade, Linda L. Kinkel, Benjamin E. Wolfe

Biology, Agriculture and Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

The diversity and functional significance of microbiomes have become increasingly clear through the extensive sampling of Earth's many habitats and the rapid adoption of new sequencing technologies. However, much remains unknown about what makes a “healthy” microbiome, how to restore a disrupted microbiome, and how microbiomes assemble. In December 2019, we convened a workshop that focused on how to identify potential “rules of life” that govern microbiome structure and function. This collection of mSystems Perspective pieces reflects many of the main challenges and opportunities in the field identified by both in-person and virtual workshop participants. By borrowing conceptual and theoretical …

Composted Sewage Sludge Application In A Sugarcane Seedling Nursery: Crop Nutritional Status, Productivity, And Technological Quality Implications, Rafael Dos Santos Silva, Arshad Jalal, Raimunda Eliane Nascimento Do Nascimento, Nathércia Castro Elias, Karen Cossi Kawakami, Cassio Hamilton Abreu-Junior, Fernando Carvalho Oliveira, Arun Dilipkumar Jani, Zhenli He, Fengliang Zhao, Marcelo Carvalho Minhoto Teixeira Filho, Raffaella Rossetto, Gian Franco Capra, Thiago Assis Rodrigues Nogueira

Biology, Agriculture and Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations

Composted sewage sludge (CSS) contains large amounts of organic matter and nutrients and can be used as an organic fertilizer to improve growth, yield, and quality of sugarcane. However, there is a lack of information regarding the impact of CSS application on sugarcane seedling performance in nursery environments. A field study was conducted using a randomized complete block design to evaluate the development, nutritional status, productivity, and technological quality of sugarcane seedlings after CSS application with or without mineral fertilizer. Morphological variables (stem height, diameter, and number, as well as leaf area), technological attributes (total recoverable sugar: ATR; quantity of …

The Role Of Private Lands In Conserving Yellowston'e Wildlife In The Twenty-First Century, Arthur Middleton, Temple Stoellinger, Drew E. Bennett, Travis Brammer, Laura Gigliotti, Hilary Byerly Flint, Sam Maher, Bryan Leonard

Wyoming Law Review

No abstract provided.

Women With Many Hats: The Lived Experience Of Tenure-Track Mothers With A Cacrep Accredited Doctorate In Counselor Education And Supervision, Princess Gabrielle Gabor Ed.D.

All Capstone Projects

Prior to the 1950s, most women did not have a career, and instead would marry, have children, and become stay-at-home mothers (Brykman, 2016; Coontz, 2016; Friedan, 1997). Since the 1950s, more mothers began careers, causing them to struggle with feeling obligated to take care of their children and experiencing guilt for taking time away from their family (Allabaugh, 2013; Blair-Loy, 2003; Friedan, 1997; Gilbert, 2008; Norr, 2011; Trepal & Stinchfield, 2012; Ward & Wolf-Wendel, 2004). The focus in this dissertation was to study the experience of mothers who worked toward tenure and held a Council for Accreditation of Counseling and …

Evolutionary Kuramoto Dynamics, Elizabeth A. Tripp, Feng Fu, Scott D. Pauls

Mathematics Faculty Publications

Biological systems have a variety of time-keeping mechanisms ranging from molecular clocks within cells to a complex interconnected unit across an entire organism. The suprachiasmatic nucleus, comprising interconnected oscillatory neurons, serves as a master-clock in mammals. The ubiquity of such systems indicates an evolutionary benefit that outweighs the cost of establishing and maintaining them, but little is known about the process of evolutionary development. To begin to address this shortfall, we introduce and analyse a new evolutionary game theoretic framework modelling the behaviour and evolution of systems of coupled oscillators. Each oscillator is characterized by a pair of dynamic behavioural …

A Micro-Environmental System For Fast Propagation Of Blueberries, Tristan Bonifield

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The demand for blueberries has continued to rise over the decades as its popularity has spread in North America and the world. Propagation of new plants to supply new farms and individuals is needed to meet that demand. Here we report the invention of a closed system that was tested by examining the growth of the cuttings (plant length, rooting, and root length) after a one-month period in both the proposed system and a traditional mist system. The proposed system showed a few statistically significant advantages over the traditional mist system with no consistent trend, besides a decrease in wilting …

Impact Of Sleep And Training On Game Performance And Injury In Division-1 Women’S Basketball Amidst The Pandemic, Samah Senbel, S. Sharma, S. M. Raval, Christopher B. Taber, Julie K. Nolan, N. S. Artan, Diala Ezzeddine, Kaya Tolga

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

We investigated the impact of sleep and training load of Division - 1 women’s basketball players on their game performance and injury prediction using machine learning algorithms. The data was collected during a pandemic-condensed season with unpredictable interruptions to the games and athletic training schedules. We collected data from sleep monitoring devices, training data from coaches, injury reports from medical staff, and weekly survey data from athletes for 22 weeks.With proper data imputation, interpretable feature set, data balancing, and classifiers, we showed that we could predict game performance and injuries with more than 90% accuracy. More importantly, our F1 and …

Improving Student Knowledge Transfer Between Mathematics And Engineering Courses Through Structured Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: A Summit-P Initiative, Laura Ellwein Fix, Afroditi Filippas, Maila Brucal-Hallare, Rebecca Segal

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

Student learning across STEM disciplines has been shown to increase with greater integration of applications in mathematics courses. One challenge of this effort is that identical constructs are often presented differently in the partner disciplines than in the mathematics courses. This leads to student confusion and an inability to transfer critical knowledge in their disciplinary courses, even for students who have mastered the mathematical paradigms. An interdisciplinary team at VCU consisting of mathematics and engineering faculty has worked to improve the knowledge transfer required for the integration of applications in the Differential Equations curriculum. This work is part of the …

Perceptions Of Female Gender Norm Violations: The Case Of Occupation And Body Hair, Kacie M. Kinkade

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Many studies have looked at perceptions or attitudes toward women who violate a single type of gender norm but not the effect of multiple gender norm violations. The purpose of this study was to examine the perception and perceived success of a female who violated either body hair norms and/or occupational norms as part of her online dating profile. Two hundred eighty participants were asked to read one of four online dating profiles where the occupation was either kindergarten teacher or mechanic (e.g., occupational norm maintained or violated) and shaving products were either utilized or not utilized (e.g., body hair …

The Classic, Winter 2021-2022, Public Relations

The Classic, 2020-present

Zwemer View: On the Mound for Northwestern; Around the Green: Solidarity in Song, New Counseling Graduate Programs; Ranked Among the Best; Welcomed Home; Camus Life Men at Work; Source of Support; Honored Prof; Record Enrollment; New Online Bachelor's Program; Perfect--Again; Standout Scores; Face Value Sally Oakes Edman; Micro Commitment, Macro Benefits; Change Makers; Giving to Northwestern College in 2020-21; Steadfast Service Brenda Meyer; Hammock Haven; Faculty Learning Communities; A Life of Ministry Barb DeWald; Exemplary: Alumni Honors; 1,000 Words Adventure is out there; Warm Campus Welcome; Stand Out Students: Katlyn Keeler, Brandon Kjonegaard, Chau Le, Sonia Vasilyeva ,Cade Moser, Trey …

Fur-Ever Homes After Divorce: The Future Of Pet Custody, Sara Mićković

Animal Law Review

More than ever, Americans are considering their companion animals to be members of their families. However, the majority of states plainly consider companion animals to be personal property under the law in custody disputes. Therefore, when a pet custody dispute emerges in these states' courts, separated couples proceed to divide companion animals the same way they would other material belongings. At the same time, married couples in the United States are divorcing at increasing rates making these types of pet custody disputes an increasing issue in family courts around the country. Despite most states adopting this approach where companion animals …

The (Symbolic) Legislative Recognition Of Animal Sentience, M.B. Rodriguez Ferrere

Animal Law Review

This Article will draw conclusions from the legislative recognition of animal sentience in animal welfare legislation of Oregon, New Zealand and Quebec. A range of jurisdictions have, in recent times, amended their animal welfare legislation to recognize that animals are "sentient." While seemingly a progressive and welcome advance, there are a range of reasons to doubt the actual impact of such amendments. The limited impact of the amendments within animal welfare case law in these jurisdictions appear to confirm these doubts. This Article questions whether such symbolic amendments are benign or have a damaging effect on the attempt to reform …

Defining "Habitat" Post-Weyerhaeuser: Critical Habitat Regulations Under The Endangered Species Act Must Promote Species Recovery, Nate Mccabe

American University Law Review

As one of the strongest federal environmental statutes, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a powerful tool for environmental litigators to uphold the important conservation objectives articulated by Congress in 1973. In recent years, the role of “critical habitat” within the ESA has come into question. The Supreme Court decided in Weyerhaeuser that “critical habitat” must also qualify as “habitat,” but it failed to articulate any guidelines for determining what “habitat” actually is. This decision incited a regulatory tug-of-war over the proper definition of “habitat” within the ESA. This Comment explores the approaches to defining “habitat” employed by the Trump …

Polluters Paradise: The Dark Canon Of The United States Supreme Court In Pollution Control Law, Oliver A. Houck

American University Law Review

This Article is the last in a series of four articles exploring the Supreme Court's destructive legacy on environmental protection in the United States. This Article specifically explores the relationship between the Supreme Court and pollution through the lens of four landmark cases. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these cases together evince the Court’s tendency to distort both facts and law to reach outcomes that will benefit industrial polluters and emitters alike.

In the first case, Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, the Court disregarded EPA regulations banning the discharge of toxic materials into waters to approve a pollution-heavy mining operation. …

Sarah And Sam Make Contact: Thoughts On The Contact Sports Exception And Title Ix At 50, Adam Epstein

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Write Stuff - Autumn 2022 (Vol. 19, No. 4), Research Medical Library

Write Stuff 2022

• Updated guidelines on reporting race and ethnicity in the AMA Manual of Style
• ARRIVE 2.0 and MDAR Framework guide methods reporting for animal research and other life sciences research
• SciScore: A tool to measure reproducibility
• Tips for using figures effectively in grant proposals
• Unusual terms used in scientific writing and publishing: Format-free submission