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A Relaxable Vortex Wake Model For Modern Supersonic Panel Methods, Joshua J. Hurwitz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis presents an improved vortex wake model for unstructured, supersonic panel methods. Panel methods are numerical methods that utilize inviscid flow assumptions and other simplifications to allow efficient computation of pressure distributions, velocity fields, and aerodynamic forces. They are commonly used for preliminary design, automatic design codes, and automatic optimization routines. Most existing supersonic panel methods do not include automatic wake generation and relaxation. This prevents the accurate analysis of many geometries, including those with conventional horizontal stabilizers or canards. This thesis first outlines the derivation of a relaxable generalized supersonic vortex filament equation. Next, it explores other necessary …

Constitutive Chefs: The Ethos And Constitutive Rhetoric Of Anthony Bourdain, Sean Sherman, And Mashama Bailey., Michael Jared Benjamin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation project explores the motivation of chefs to become Public Chef Intellectuals and how they cultivate and engage with an audience that will never taste their food. Using a case study approach, this dissertation analyzes the intellectual missions of Anthony Bourdain, Sean Sherman, and Mahsama Bailey as told through their television shows, memoirs, cookbooks, and restaurant menus. I argue that for each chef, their cultural identity is inextricably tied to their ultimate purpose – the use of food as a Trojan horse to promote their vision for a collective American culture. This project underscores that this process happens dialogically …

Analysis Of The Robustness And Sensitivity Of Deep Learning Models For Automatic Target Recognition., Wael Bouchaala

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) is an essential technology in various domains such as security, autonomous vehicles, and military applications. ATR systems are designed to detect, recognize, and classify objects of interest using sensor data, typically infrared imagery, to ensure reliable real-time operations under varying environmental conditions. However, the robustness and accuracy of ATR systems are often challenged by factors such as target occlusion, varying distances, and environmental perturbations. This thesis investigates the application of state-of-the-art deep learning techniques to enhance the performance and robustness of ATR systems. Specifically, we explore the use of Vision Transformers (ViT), Swin Transformer, and a …

Nickel Electrocatalysts On Carbon Supports For The Hydrogen Evolution Reaction., Mohan Paudel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hydrogen is an important energy storage alternative to fossil fuels due to its high energy density. Currently, most hydrogen is produced through petroleum feedstocks, which produce large amounts of carbon dioxide. However, a more eco-friendly method is the electrocatalytic splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen. Efficient catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are typically platinum group metals, which are rare and expensive. There is growing interest in developing HER electrocatalysts with earth-abundant metals for water electrolysis. Nickel, which lies in the same group in the periodic table as Pt and has similar chemical properties, is explored extensively for …

Myosin Xva Isoforms Participate In The Mechanotransduction-Dependent Remodeling Of The Actin Cytoskeleton In Auditory Stereocilia, Ana I. López-Porras, Ava M. Kruse, Mark T. Mcclendon, A. Catalina Vélez-Ortega

Neurology Faculty Publications

Auditory hair cells form precise and sensitive staircase-like actin protrusions known as stereocilia. These specialized microvilli detect deflections induced by sound through the activation of mechano-electrical transduction (MET) channels located at their tips. At rest, a small MET channel current results in a constant calcium influx which regulates the morphology of the actin cytoskeleton in the shorter ‘transducing’ stereocilia. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in this novel type of activity-driven plasticity in the stereocilium cytoskeleton are currently unknown. Here, we tested the contribution of myosin XVA (MYO15A) isoforms, given their known roles in the regulation of stereocilia dimensions during hair …

Promise And Progress: Assessing Achievements, New Directions, And Gaps In Leadership Studies, Sandra J. Peart

Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies

Leadership is a relational process characterized by persuasion and context, but leadership studies programs sometimes fail to address what we mean by “good” leadership or the “greatest good.” We rarely ask students to study bad leadership or to examine the constraints—or lack of constraints—on leaders. We do our students a disservice if we fail to ask them first to investigate these thorny questions using historical, literary, and philosophical texts.

A Graph Theoretical Approach To Experimental Prioritization In Genome-Scale Investigations., Stephen K Grady, Kevin A Peterson, Stephen A Murray, Erich J Baker, Michael A Langston, Elissa J Chesler

Faculty Research 2024

The goal of systems biology is to gain a network level understanding of how gene interactions influence biological states, and ultimately inform upon human disease. Given the scale and scope of systems biology studies, resource constraints often limit researchers when validating genome-wide phenomena and potentially lead to an incomplete understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Further, prioritization strategies are often biased towards known entities (e.g. previously studied genes/proteins with commercially available reagents), and other technical issues that limit experimental breadth. Here, heterogeneous biological information is modeled as an association graph to which a high-performance minimum dominating set solver is applied to …

Net Evaporation-Induced Mangrove Area Loss Across Low-Lying Caribbean Islands, Isamar M. Cortés, Jorge Lorenzo-Trueba, Andre S. Rovai, Robert R. Twilley, Mark Chopping, Temilola Fatoyinbo

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Although mangroves provide many beneficial ecosystem services, such as blue carbon storage and coastal protection, they are currently under threat due to changes in climate conditions, such as prolonged drought exposure. Under drought conditions, evaporation exceeds precipitation and high soil salinities can lead to stunted growth and die-back. To quantify this interplay, we developed a database for low-lying and uninhabited mangrove islands in the Caribbean under various evaporation and precipitation regimes. We extracted physical and biological information from each island using remote sensing techniques and coupled it with a process-based model. We used this database to develop a model that …

Green Gatekeepers, Luca Enriques, Alessandro Romano, Andrew F. Tuch

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

Products are routinely labeled “carbon neutral,” “recycled,” “biodegradable,” “ocean-friendly,” and “sustainable.” Bonds are marketed as “green” and mutual funds as “ESG,” while firms may pledge to become “net zero.” But are statements concerning environmental qualities reliable? It is often hard for consumers and investors to tell. Environmental qualities tend to have credence attributes; they cannot be verified even after consumption. Green gatekeepers constitute an increasingly important response to this problem. Occasionally required by law but more often enlisted voluntarily by firms, green gatekeepers certify claims made about the green qualities of products or firms, promising to significantly mitigate information asymmetries …

Reconceptualizing "Background Principles" In Takings Law, Timothy M. Mulvaney

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

Both libertarians and progressives rejoiced in the result reached by the Supreme Court in the 2023 matter of Tyler v. Hennepin County. This Article asserts that such unified celebration has overshadowed the extent to which the Supreme Court’s reasoning calls into question even our most foundational assumptions about the meaning of property and the takings protections the Constitution affords to it. Followed to its literal end, Tyler remarkably suggests that owners may well need to ground their expectations in the background principles of property laws endorsed by a majority of states rather than in those underpinning the laws of their …

Unveiling Misconceptions Of Tunneling: Market Capitalization-Based Analysis, Sang Yop Kang

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

In internal transactions between affiliated companies, there are two opposite directions of wealth-transfer: (1) in the “forward transfer of wealth” (FTW), the wealth-transfer arises from an affiliated company where a controller’s “economic interest” (i.e., “cash-flow right”) is smaller relative to another affiliated company where the controller’s economic interest is larger; (2) in the “reverse transfer of wealth” (RTW), the wealth-transfer arises from an affiliated company where a controller’s economic interest is larger relative to another affiliated company, where the controller’s economic interest is smaller. This Article puts forward a new finding that the extent of internal-transaction tunneling is affected not …

An Empirical Study On The Capability Of Large Language Models In Learning Causality, Joseph Bergin

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Large language models (LLMs), including Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s GPT series, and Meta’s Llama, have driven remarkable advancements in artificial intelligence, achieving complex, human-like performance across many fields. These transformer-based models are skilled at processing and generating many types of textual information, enabling them to perform a variety of tasks. However, an important question remains about their actual capacity to grasp causal relationships—whether these models can truly differentiate between causal directions or simply respond based on learned patterns. This thesis tests this ability by evaluating LLMs on tasks created to test their understanding of causal, anti-causal, and third-party reasoning. We conduct …

A Preliminary Trauma-Informed Guide For School-Based Occupational Therapists And Other Disciplines To Address Students That Have Experienced Trauma, Chesney Friesenhahn

Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstones

This doctoral capstone experience focused on gaining expertise in trauma-informed and trauma-specific care to address the needs of school-aged children who had experienced psychological trauma. One of the objectives of this capstone project was to increase the understanding of acute, chronic, and complex trauma and the occupational impact that trauma could have on children within the school system. Existing research supported the role of occupational therapists in integrating trauma-informed care into practice to address trauma-related symptoms that interfered with rest, sleep, education, play, social participation, behavior, emotional regulation, sensory processing, and overall health and well-being. As revealed in the literature …

Pediatric Slipping Rib Syndrome And Pectus Excavatum: An Occupational Therapy Approach, Haley Bohannon

Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstones

The purpose of this project was to determine how patient/family education increases the quality of life for a child diagnosed with Pectus Excavatum and Slipping Rib Syndrome. As part of the capstone experience, educational handouts for the child and their parent or guardian were developed and refined in coordination with the site mentor to meet the needs of the site. The handouts focus on environmental modifications, occupational adaptations, postural re-education, and body mechanics. The goal of this project was to establish occupational therapy services as a critical component of chest wall deformity care for the pediatric population.

The Parental Perspective: Experiences And Challenges In Pediatric Feeding Therapy, Amber Brandmeyer

Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstones

This capstone aimed to identify parent experiences in feeding therapy. The literature highlights the high prevalence of pediatric feeding disorder and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder among the pediatric population with the prevalence numbers growing in children with disabilities. Occupational therapists provide a unique contribution to a feeding therapy team, examining the diverse needs of every individual in a holistic manner including physical, developmental, cognitive, and psychosocial factors. Current literature often overlooks parent perspectives when looking at feeding therapy. Literature acknowledges the stress inducing nature of feeding therapy on parents but falls short in exploring viable solutions to these challenges. …

The Ugly Rhetoric Of Dobbs, Or, Why Jack Balkin Is History, Andrew Koppelman

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Essay has three claims. First, I want to emphasize an underappreciated ethical virtue elicited by the practice of rhetoric: it demands that the speaker get out of his own head and focus on his audience and what they care about. History matters because it speaks to us. It tells us who we are and why we are doing what we are doing. The rhetorical deployment of historical narrative in political discourse can help to forge a collective identity in which we all can recognize ourselves, and so make the polity more inclusive. Second, if this aspect of rhetoric is …

Originalism's Selection Problem, Darrell A.H. Miller

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Essay examines the problem of selection with any originalist theory and what it means for constitutional adjudication. Part I surveys the major branches of originalism, explains how each share a commitment to the pursuit of objective, knowable, falsifiable fact, and then use that fact as a fixed point to constrain discretion. Part II discusses how each of these theories are vulnerable to methodological challenges familiar to all empirical projects. Part III explores the implications of these methodological challenges for originalism in particular and for constitutional doctrine and theory more generally.

This abstract has been taken from the author's introduction.

Legitimacy And Transparency: Building Trust Through The Sec's Climate Disclosure Rule, Cassidy Sky Meyer

Standard Theses

This paper examines stakeholder reactions to the climate disclosure rule from the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) to understand how investors see government mandated disclosure as a legitimizing force. It analyzes a subsample of 230 original comments from various stakeholders and sorts them into themes. The themes and sentiments shared in the comments are viewed through the lens of legitimacy theory. It reveals that the informational requirements for legitimacy have shifted amongst some stakeholders to the point that voluntary climate disclosures are not sufficient. Government disclosures like the one from the SEC are seen by some as more transparent and trustworthy. …

Artificial Intelligence Computational Techniques Of Flywheel Energy Storage Systems Integrated With Green Energy: A Comprehensive Review, Abdelmonem Draz, Hossam Ashraf, Peter Makeen

Electrical Engineering

In recent years, the operation of the electric power grid has become more efficient and resilient due to the integration of renewable energy sources (RESs). Solar and wind energy are being incorporated aggressively into the main grid, while other RESs like biomass and geothermal energy are also on the rise. However, the intermittent nature of these RESs necessitates the use of energy storage devices (ESDs) as a backup for electricity generation such as batteries, supercapacitors, and flywheel energy storage systems (FESS). This paper provides a thorough review of the standardization, market applications, and grid integration of FESS. It examines the …

Effective Project Management With Sap Project System (Ps): Balancing Scope, Time And Budget Constraints, Falguni Panchal, Shabduli Khokrale

School of Professional Studies

SAP (Systems, Applications, and Products) is a leading ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system that provides integrated business functions such as Customer Relationship Management, Financial Management, Business Intelligence, Product Planning, and Supply Chain Management. It enables organizations to streamline workflows, improve business efficiency, and enhance decision-making by sharing common data across various departments. SAP is highly customizable, allowing businesses to tailor it to their specific processes and integrate it with other systems, thus transforming organizational operations. However, the successful implementation of SAP depends on the software and effective project management to ensure the project is delivered on time, within budget, and …

Defining An Affirmative Public Benefit: Where Does Cicero Leave Fair Market Value Acquisitions Of Municipally Owned Utilities?, Noah Eastman

Penn State Law Review (2003 - Present)

No abstract provided.

A Machine-Learning Approach To Predicting The Achievement Of Australian Students Using School Climate; Learner Characteristics; And Economic, Social, And Cultural Status, Myint S. Khine, Yang Liu, Vivek K. Pallipuram, Ernest Afari

Pacific Faculty Work

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a global survey conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to assess educational systems by evaluating the academic performance of 15-year-old school students in mathematics, science, and reading. In PISA 2022, 13,437 students from Australia participated in the test. While the PISA main questionnaire assesses the subject knowledge, the student background questionnaire solicits contextual information such as school climate, learner characteristics, and socioeconomic status. This study analyses how these contextual variables predict student achievement using the machine-learning models Ridge Linear Regression, K-Nearest Neighbours, Decision Trees, eXtreme Gradient Boosting, and …

Interpreting Strain Caused By Transient Well Testing, Soheil Roudini

All Dissertations

Understanding reservoir properties and structure is essential to managing subsurface operations, such as geologic storage of CO₂ or production of water, hydrocarbons or heat. Previous work demonstrated the potential of analyzing strain data during transient well tests by estimating hydraulic diffusivity using a type-curve-like approach. The following dissertation aims to pursue this potential by developing and evaluating methods for interpreting strain tensor data to improve subsurface characterization. The research advances the classic, intuitive method of using type-curves to interpret well tests, but it also brings together modern computational methods from machine learning, proxy modeling and Bayesian inversion, and it …

Understanding The Relationship Between Humble Leadership, Reflecting Dialogue, Psychological Safety And Job Satisfaction: A Study Of Japanese Correctional Officers, Yayoi Kimura

Theses

This study investigates the relationships between humble leadership, reflecting dialogue, psychological safety, and job satisfaction among correctional officers in Japanese correctional institutions. Correctional officers face high levels of stress due to their demanding roles in rehabilitating and managing inmates, yet the impact of organizational factors on their job satisfaction remains underexplored. As Japan undergoes significant changes in its penal system, understanding the factors that contribute to a supportive work environment is crucial. First, this study examines the relationship between psychological safety and job satisfaction among correctional officers. Second, it explores whether facilities that practice reflecting dialogue and humble leadership experience …

Household Vegetable Gardening In Quezon City, Philippines: Practices, Benefits, And Constraints, John Luis D. Lagdameo, Angelica Nicolette B. Dejaresco, Ma. Cecilia M. Gonzales, Liz Ignowski, Pepijn Schreinemachers, Arma R. Bertuso

Leadership and Strategy Faculty Publications

The study collected a wide range of information from respondents. It included details about their identities, such as names, ages, and genders. Additionally, it examined household characteristics, including house size, sources of income, and the number of floors in their homes. The research also explored urban food production and planting practices, identifying the types of vegetables grown, the locations of these planting activities, and the technologies used. Moreover, it investigated food acquisition and meal preparation, focusing on sources of food, safety concerns, and the challenges faced in obtaining these items. Diet diversity was assessed through a one-month recall of food, …

Securing Modbus Via Proxied Approach, Kyle Korman

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated the network performance of introducing a Transport Layer Security (TLS) proxy to secure the Modbus protocol. To address the lack of security of the Modbus protocol, a proxy based on Python’s socket, ssl, and threading packages was developed and tested. Additional network latency generated by the inclusion of this proxy was assessed for TLS handshakes, as well as Modbus operations. Statistically significant figures were generated, proving that this device introduces overhead (though negligible in implementations). A more featured proxy leaves a path open for future research. The study showed an avenue that could remedy problems present in …

Citation Bias, Diversity, And Ethics, Keisha S Ray, Perry Zurn, Jordan D Dworkin, Dani S Bassett, David B Resnik

Faculty and Staff Publications

How often a researcher is cited usually plays a decisive role in that person's career advancement, because academic institutions often use citation metrics, either explicitly or implicitly, to estimate research impact and productivity. Research has shown, however, that citation patterns and practices are affected by various biases, including the prestige of the authors being cited and their gender, race, and nationality, whether self-attested or perceived. Some commentators have proposed that researchers can address biases related to social identity or position by including a Citation Diversity Statement in a manuscript submitted for publication. A Citation Diversity Statement is a paragraph placed …

Observing Dynamic Emotional Faces From Many Generations, Tashaunda Grimmett

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study sought to further understand emotion perception capabilities in younger and older adults. Previous studies examining emotion perception have consistently found emotion recognition deficits with age. The most common technique used to investigate age differences in emotion perception is a label selection task that presents static images of actors expressing emotion. More recently, dynamic stimuli have been developed; they portray realistic facial expressions that are more comparable to what one sees in real life. The use of dynamic stimuli has been found to ameliorate most age differences in the recognition of basic emotion categories. The current study presented dynamic …

The Effects Of Tiktok Use On Mental Health Outcomes And Stigma, Alecia Hatfield

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The present study aimed to examine the relationship between TikTok use, mental health, and mental health stigma. There were three hypotheses for this study: TikTok use would be associated with decreased mental health stigma, TikTok use would be associated with increased anxiety, and TikTok use would be associated with increased depression. A total of 115 participants were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), and they completed an online Qualtrics survey. Regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between TikTok use and anxiety, depression, and mental health stigma. Results indicated that increased time spent on TikTok was associated with an …

Intentional Unlearning Practices In Postmassified University Systems: Reformation For The Metamodern Era, Mihaela A. Lynn

Journal of Global Education and Research

A crucial aspect of the learning cycle, unlearning has recently received more attention in academic discussions about the future of higher education. In an attempt to improve equality and equity of access to quality educational experiences in the wake of postmassification, the recent literature has highlighted the need to incorporate unlearning practices to transform university learning experiences. This literature review examines the role of the unlearning process in engaging diverse student populations in tertiary learning environments. First, traditional and contemporary conceptualizations of unlearning are explored. Next, specific issues related to unlearning in higher education are discussed before synthesizing current studies …