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The Known Unknown, Tevvon Hines May 2025

The Known Unknown, Tevvon Hines

Theses - ALL

Understanding that artists are not obligated to reflect a faithful reality is a realization that is both freeing and intimidating. My graduate filmography is identifiable by its affinity towards fictional narratives that depict the resolution of internal conflicts through intimate relationships and spiritual connections. This thesis investigates my practice by paying close attention to the psychology and philosophy of my screenplays. This is followed by an inspection of my aesthetic approach in order to distinguish their narrative importance and examine subtext. The completed film is then properly defined against the fantasy genre in order to distinguish my narrative choices from …

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Black Filmmaking As Archival Practice, Caroline Charles May 2025

Black Filmmaking As Archival Practice, Caroline Charles

Dissertations - ALL

Black Filmmaking as Archival Practice argues that cinema has offered Black cultural workers a generative space to creatively challenge the constraints of traditional archival repositories. I claim that Black filmmakers participate in a tradition of Black archival practice; they intervene in dominant collections and utilize their materials to create filmic counter-histories that negotiate the archive’s limits and attend to Black humanity, life, and memory. I engage with a diverse constellation of late twentieth and early-twenty-first century films that consider archives of Black social movement, abject images, enslavement and portraiture, Black queer and trans existence, and Black family photography. Through historical …

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An Unrealized Solution: The Systemic Barriers Facing Green Hydrogen In The United States, Daniella Drespel May 2025

An Unrealized Solution: The Systemic Barriers Facing Green Hydrogen In The United States, Daniella Drespel

Student Theses 2015-Present

This thesis investigates the systemic barriers that hinder the development and implementation of green hydrogen in the United States. Beginning by tracing the two-century history of hydrogen energy, from early scientific discovery and utopian visions to cycles of hype, failure, and policy stagnation, this thesis examines why green hydrogen remains unrealized despite its transformative potential. Chapter I examines the environmental consequences of fossil fuel dependence and presents green hydrogen as a transformative energy alternative. Chapter II explores the technological landscape of hydrogen energy, detailing production methods, roadblocks to adoption, and ongoing U.S. hydrogen projects. Chapter III analyzes the economic dynamics …

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Breaking Down Black Beauty: Deconstructing Unsustainable Racist Practices In The Beauty Industry, Jaron Givens May 2025

Breaking Down Black Beauty: Deconstructing Unsustainable Racist Practices In The Beauty Industry, Jaron Givens

Student Theses 2015-Present

The glitter of the beauty industry creates an undeniably attractive fantasy. Cosmetics and dermatology allow for finding a new sense of self through beauty. However, is beauty's fantasy world accessible to everyone, specifically the Black dance community? The beauty industry, historically and presently, has disproportionate effects on people of color communities like the Black dance community. The unsustainable practices and toxic products in the beauty industry hinder the health of Black individuals at different rates than other racial counterparts. There is still work to be done in deconstructing the racist practices of the beauty industry and in facilitating environmentally sustainable …

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Breaking Down Black Beauty: Deconstructing Unsustainable Racist Practices Within The Beauty Industry, Jaron Givens May 2025

Breaking Down Black Beauty: Deconstructing Unsustainable Racist Practices Within The Beauty Industry, Jaron Givens

Student Theses 2015-Present

The glitter of the beauty industry creates an undeniably attractive fantasy. Cosmetics and dermatology allow for finding a new sense of self through beauty. However, is beauty's fantasy world accessible to everyone, specifically the Black dance community? The beauty industry, historically and presently, has disproportionate effects on people of color communities like the Black dance community. The unsustainable practices and toxic products in the beauty industry hinder the health of Black individuals at different rates than other racial counterparts. There is still work to be done in deconstructing the racist practices of the beauty industry and in facilitating environmentally sustainable …

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Consider The Culture: The Role Of Local Engagement In Global Conservation, Nicole Bailey May 2025

Consider The Culture: The Role Of Local Engagement In Global Conservation, Nicole Bailey

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper discusses global conservation efforts, making a case for community-led conservation on the bases of efficacy and long-term sustainability. As environmental conservation grows ever-important, it’s imperative that the people local to these efforts are holistically integrated into the conservation work and considered as the stakeholders they are. Local human interests are a key condition to assess when aiming for lasting, practical conservation. This paper opens with a look at the reforestation of Gunung Palung National Park as a case study of successful community-led conservation. Chapter 1 outlines the harm of environmental degradation and habitat loss through quantitative data. Here, …

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The Deterrence Dilemma: Is It Time For Canada To Abandon General Deterrence As A Sentencing Objective?, Caitlin Salvino May 2025

The Deterrence Dilemma: Is It Time For Canada To Abandon General Deterrence As A Sentencing Objective?, Caitlin Salvino

Dalhousie Law Journal

When Canada first codified its sentencing framework in the Criminal Code, Parliament included deterrence as a sentencing objective. The sentencing objective of deterrence encompasses two aspects: specific deterrence for the individual offender and general deterrence for other potential offenders. I engage with the concept of general deterrence and its incorporation into Canadian sentencing law throughout this article. I argue that Parliament should abandon general deterrence as a sentencing objective under the Criminal Code. After reviewing the jurisprudence on general deterrence and conducting a systematic review of its current application in Ontario sentencing decisions, I argue that general deterrence should be …

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Ecologies Of Urban Encroachment: How La’S Built Environment Shapes Urban Ecosystems And Wildlife, Ainsley Ramin May 2025

Ecologies Of Urban Encroachment: How La’S Built Environment Shapes Urban Ecosystems And Wildlife, Ainsley Ramin

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper examines the impact of Los Angeles’ built environment on its ecosystems and biodiversity through the destruction of wildlife corridors and habitats and the threats urbanization poses to its native species. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, Chapter 1 describes the current threats that wildlife faces and ecosystem services that are at stake in Los Angeles due to suburban sprawl and the impacts of urbanization on its ecosystems. This chapter introduces data on the decrease in population of important species and statistics on how urbanization has been encroaching on and breaking apart habitats. Chapter 2 explores the history of …

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Three Essays On Improving Access To Healthcare In Ethiopia, Abdela Alite Hilo May 2025

Three Essays On Improving Access To Healthcare In Ethiopia, Abdela Alite Hilo

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract Achieving universal health coverage necessitates equitable access to healthcare services. The World Health Organization estimates that nearly half of the global population lacks full coverage of essential health services, with Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) being disproportionately affected. The situation is further exacerbated by the increasing frequency and severity of climate change-induced extremes, which are deepening health equity challenges in these regions. In response, governments and various international and national organizations have implemented numerous policy initiatives to improve healthcare access for marginalized populations in LMICs. Given the growing emphasis on achieving universal health coverage in developing countries, there is …

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Hacking Adhd: Activating Adaptations Through Technological Affordances, Victoria Masi May 2025

Hacking Adhd: Activating Adaptations Through Technological Affordances, Victoria Masi

Dissertations - ALL

The last two decades have brought about the actualization of powerful new affordances in online information environments. Online networking platforms such as YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, and TikTok have enabled individuals across the globe and in various marginalized groups to access information, take action, and form communities in ways that were never before possible. In the last decade, hacker culture has taken root in communities bound not by their passion for technology but empowered by the affordances of technology and bound by a shared need, motivation, and ethic. The accessibility of online affordances for marginalized populations combined with the re-emergence of …

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Identifying Strategies In Moral Decision Making, Ilaria Siriner May 2025

Identifying Strategies In Moral Decision Making, Ilaria Siriner

Theses - ALL

This study explored the strategies used in moral decision-making, within the context of selfdriving car scenarios. Our goal was to uncover the strategies people use when faced with moral dilemmas, using methodological approaches previously applied to the study of decision-making. The strategies that we were interested in were those that align with the ethical frameworks of utilitarianism, deontology or a blend of the two. In this study, participants were confronted with a series of moral dilemmas involving self-driving cars. Their choices and decision-making processes were analyzed using Machine Learning Strategy Identification (MLSI), which incorporated features related to the information participants …

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Disabling Structures: Disability And Graduate Student Professionalization, Gabriella Wilson-Kopko May 2025

Disabling Structures: Disability And Graduate Student Professionalization, Gabriella Wilson-Kopko

Dissertations - ALL

While scholarship on graduate education and graduate teacher assistant training has emerged as a growing trend in the field of rhetoric and composition, perspectives from disabled graduate students about their navigation of academic spaces remain understudied and undervalued (Lutkewitte, Kitchens, Scanlon; Macaulay; Badenhorst, Amell, Burford; Brown). An often neglected and precarious student population, disabled graduate students’ experiences are critical to graduate education scholarship because their lived experiences offer insight into critiques of normative and disabling academic structures. This IRB-approved study contributes to scholarship on graduate education by carefully analyzing the cultural expectations of normativity, ability, and productivity that are implicitly …

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How Toxic Communications In Chinese Online Fan Groups Affect Fan Engagement, Tian Xia May 2025

How Toxic Communications In Chinese Online Fan Groups Affect Fan Engagement, Tian Xia

Theses - ALL

Abstract The study used a Self-Determination Theory (SDT) theoretical framework to explore how toxicity impacts fan engagement in online fan groups in China. An online survey method in China with a sample size of 205 participants was used to measure the hypotheses 1)Toxicity causes fans to feel less autonomy in online groups, 2) Toxicity causes fans to feel less skilled (competence) in online groups, 3) Toxicity causes fans to feel less relatedness in online groups and research questions and the research questions 1) How will autonomy, competence, and relatedness relate to specific fandom behaviors? 2) What is the difference between …

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Resisting (Un)Accountability: Rhetorical Strategies Of Forgetting Denmark’S Iud Campaign In Greenland, Cæcilie Paarup Madsen May 2025

Resisting (Un)Accountability: Rhetorical Strategies Of Forgetting Denmark’S Iud Campaign In Greenland, Cæcilie Paarup Madsen

Theses - ALL

This thesis explores how colonial amnesia manifests rhetorically in media representations and public discourse about Denmark’s IUD campaign in Greenland. Beginning in the mid-1960s, this state-led initiative systematically targeted Greenlandic Inuit girls and women, fitting them with IUDs as part of a nationwide birth control campaign, some without their consent or knowledge. During the campaign’s most intensive years from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, approximately 4,500 girls and women – half of the fertile female population – were subjected to this reproductive violence. The spiral campaign was largely forgotten by the Danish public until an investigative podcast, Spiralkampagnen, brought it to …

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What Makes Me Feel Cold Is Not Winter Or Night, Yushan Liu May 2025

What Makes Me Feel Cold Is Not Winter Or Night, Yushan Liu

Theses - ALL

This thesis examines how cinematic form can render visible the lived experiences of displacement, temporal disjunction, and marginalization among transnational subjects, particularly international students navigating between legal regimes, emotional landscapes, and cultural systems. Through a practice-led methodology anchored in film theory, phenomenology, and spatial analysis, the project explores how space and time function not as narrative backdrops but as agents of affective rupture. The film WHAT MAKES ME FEEL COLD IS NOT WINTER OR NIGHT employs disjunctive spaces—such as parking garages, mini-golf courses, and restaurant interiors—as sites of perceptual tension, drawing from Deleuze’s concept of the “any-space-whatever.” These locations, stripped …

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Chinese Women’S Perspectives In Metaphorical Narratives: Exploring Identity, Growth, And Societal Expectations Through Illustration, Cancan Jin May 2025

Chinese Women’S Perspectives In Metaphorical Narratives: Exploring Identity, Growth, And Societal Expectations Through Illustration, Cancan Jin

Theses - ALL

This thesis explores the struggles and growth of Chinese women through metaphorical narratives, focusing on how they navigate societal expectations, gender inequality, and personal identity. First, it examines the importance of metaphor and anthropomorphism in storytelling. It analyzes how these techniques are used to address women's issues. Second, it explores the social background of Chinese women, from the May Fourth Movement, which challenged traditional gender roles, to the socialist era’s push for labor equality, and the modern struggles of workplace discrimination and the "double burden." Third, it introduces Tortoise on the Way, a visual thesis written and illustrated by the …

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Love Against The Machine, Jalal Ghias Beygi May 2025

Love Against The Machine, Jalal Ghias Beygi

Theses - ALL

The ties that bind existence to meaning offer powerful forms through which we can examine the nature of Being. I examine technology through opposing concepts of death, time, and space. My work is a mirror reflecting how the technology of this century has evolved into an individualistic desire machine. While confronting these forces, it ultimately finds salvation through the exercise of inner freedom. Here, art becomes a form of resistance and reclamation, the last stand for humanity against commodifying systems.

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The Idiot's Asylum: What Better Place To Do It Than From My Own Grave?, Kara Stallings May 2025

The Idiot's Asylum: What Better Place To Do It Than From My Own Grave?, Kara Stallings

Theses - ALL

The Idiot's Asylum: “What better place to do it than from my own grave?” is an essay that examines how vulnerability and collaboration operate as the throughlines of collective creativity. By utilizing live performance, large-scale installation, video, food, and humor, I explore how immersing my audience in a unique experience encourages them to bear witness to or physically engage in a social and vulnerable act of trust – especially within a state of uncertainty. I consider historical and cultural movements centered around radical play, humor, and participation such as Dada, Surrealism, Fluxus, Situationism, and feminist performance art to be foundational …

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Allegories In Fiction: Shaping Our Thoughts And Outcome Of Technological Advancements, Rick Li May 2025

Allegories In Fiction: Shaping Our Thoughts And Outcome Of Technological Advancements, Rick Li

Theses - ALL

This thesis investigates how fictional storytelling, particularly in science fiction films, games, and literature, influences real-world technological advancements and public perception of innovation. By examining recurring themes such as automation, technological overdependence, ethical dilemmas in AI, this study highlights how media functions as a cultural reflection to reality, and as a speculative tool. While drawing on popular examples like The Terminator (1984), Fahrenheit 451 (1953), I, Robot (2004), and The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021), this research also considers the importance of contemporary and minority voices like artist Kapwani Kiwanga in reimagining futures beyond dominant Western narratives. These stories reflect …

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Reds Risk In Physically Active Females And Inflammation: Is There A Correlation?, Julia Galindo Sebe May 2025

Reds Risk In Physically Active Females And Inflammation: Is There A Correlation?, Julia Galindo Sebe

Theses - ALL

Background: Low Energy Availability (LEA) is a key factor in the Female Athlete Triad and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs), affecting performance, metabolism, and inflammation. Uric acid (UA), a byproduct of purine metabolism, has been proposed as a potential inflammatory marker. We hypothesize that EA will be inversely correlated with inflammation and that collegiate athletes will exhibit lower EA compared to recreational athletes. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 51 physically active female college students (18–24 years), including 28 collegiate athletes. LEA risk was assessed using the Low Energy Availability in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q), while energy availability (EA) …

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Existing Now In Space And Time: In A Body With Limits On Both, Kirstin Dunlap May 2025

Existing Now In Space And Time: In A Body With Limits On Both, Kirstin Dunlap

Theses - ALL

Kirstin Dunlap’s work is deeply rooted in her understanding of the personal connection between the body and the Earth. Every individual’s life experience is shaped by their relationship with these two bodies—both of which undergo growth, erosion, and decay processes. For Dunlap, there is a striking similarity between these two realms: both are places of tension, where struggles for survival unfold. She sees herself in the fringes of the Earth, in areas where natural forces collide. This conflict mirrors a personal battle within her own body, where her immune system mistakenly attacks itself, resulting in a body that is progressively …

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In Favor Of The Mother-Artist: The Case For Self-Actualization In Motherhood, Lottie Elizabeth Caiella May 2025

In Favor Of The Mother-Artist: The Case For Self-Actualization In Motherhood, Lottie Elizabeth Caiella

Theses - ALL

This thesis paper discusses the symbiotic relationship between the roles of mothering and being an artist and makes the case for why art made by mothers can have a lasting impact on both society as well as within the family dynamics of the artists’ lives. The obstacles that stand in the way of mothers pursuing art, or even pursuing becoming her full self, are many. This paper reimagines what the role of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs might look like from the lens of a caretaker, and how it can be an overall triumph for society from a wider perspective. This …

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Mannose: The Hands Of Fate – Overexpressing A Pinus Taeda Hemicellulose Biosynthesis Gene In Populus Tremula × Alba Leads To Increased Height And A Modified Cell Wall Sugar Profile, Joseph Baxter Colbert May 2025

Mannose: The Hands Of Fate – Overexpressing A Pinus Taeda Hemicellulose Biosynthesis Gene In Populus Tremula × Alba Leads To Increased Height And A Modified Cell Wall Sugar Profile, Joseph Baxter Colbert

Dissertations - ALL

Lignocellulosic biomass as an input for biofuel generation has gained popularity in recent decades due to attainable feedstock ubiquity and an anatomical propensity to fix and sequester carbon. A major challenge facing the integration of such feedstocks is the presence of recalcitrant polymers that are extant in their cell walls, namely lignin and various hemicellulose species. Many studies have illustrated methods in which cell wall modification through genetic means has produced phenotypic improvements with regard to biomaterial generation, though to this point, none have overexpressed exogenous hemicellulose genes to shift the composition of the Populus tremula × alba cell walls. …

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Chemical Reversal Of Beta-Lactam Resistance And Induction Of Hyper-Susceptibility In Pseudomonas Aeruginosa By Limiting Horizontal Gene Transfer Under Beta-Lactam Stress, Aimee Iradukunda May 2025

Chemical Reversal Of Beta-Lactam Resistance And Induction Of Hyper-Susceptibility In Pseudomonas Aeruginosa By Limiting Horizontal Gene Transfer Under Beta-Lactam Stress, Aimee Iradukunda

Dissertations - ALL

The emergence of antibiotic resistance poses a significant threat to global health, with certain bacterial strains evolving to resist multiple drugs. Urgent action is necessary to develop new antibacterial agents that effectively target these resistant strains; however, no new classes of antibiotics have been approved in recent decades. This research employs innovative biological tools to identify and highlight factors influencing resistance dynamics. Additionally, this study refines the novel approach by utilizing adjuvants to chemically repurpose existing antibiotics and improve their effectiveness against antibiotic-resistant strains. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, recognized for its adaptability, persistent infections—especially in cystic fibrosis patients—and widespread antibiotic resistance, serves …

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Multifunctional Hydrogel Scaffolds For Tissue Engineering And Wound Healing Applications, Nghia Le Ba Thai May 2025

Multifunctional Hydrogel Scaffolds For Tissue Engineering And Wound Healing Applications, Nghia Le Ba Thai

Dissertations - ALL

Wound healing is a complex physiological process in reaction to tissue injury. Our bodies are generally capable of healing wounds on their own, unless the wound volume is too large and/or the normal physiological functions are interrupted due to disease. In these cases, the principles of wound healing can be applied in tissue engineering to develop new tissues that replace damaged tissue. Despite significant advances in research, key challenges in wound healing and tissue engineering remain unsolved, including chronic wound non-healing and complex, but scalable scaffold construction. Hydrogels are crosslinked polymers with three-dimensional networks that can hold excess amounts of …

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The Formation And Control Of Wrinkling Topographies On 4d Printed Substrates, Johnson Nana Agyapong May 2025

The Formation And Control Of Wrinkling Topographies On 4d Printed Substrates, Johnson Nana Agyapong

Dissertations - ALL

Mechanical instability-driven wrinkling atop shape memory polymer (SMP) substrates is a cost-effective surface patterning alternative to soft lithography that offers spatiotemporal control of surface topography for applications in thin film metrology, biomimicry, microfluidics, and cell studies. The wrinkle morphologies demonstrated to date have been predominantly simple aligned wrinkles on the surface of 2D geometries, so there remains a need for a straightforward SMP strain programming strategy that can achieve simple and complex wrinkle morphologies on 2D and 3D geometries. To address this need, we integrated a single-step SMP fabrication approach, programming via printing (PvP), with mechanical-instability-driven wrinkling to fabricate 2D …

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Stranded In Transit: Migrants' Borderland Experiences En Route To Europe, Ibrahim Emre Yanik May 2025

Stranded In Transit: Migrants' Borderland Experiences En Route To Europe, Ibrahim Emre Yanik

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation explores the lived experiences of migrants stranded in prolonged transit amid the intensifying securitization of the European border regime. While contemporary policy frameworks aim to deter unauthorized migration through externalized controls, digital surveillance, and restricted legal pathways, these measures have instead produced new forms of precarity, immobilization, and liminal existence. Focusing on Istanbul as a key site of transit and containment, the research examines how migrants navigate conditions of legal uncertainty, economic marginalization, and social isolation while resisting the structural constraints imposed upon them. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Istanbul—including semi-structured interviews and participant observation—this study adopts …

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Body Size Trends Of Late Devonian Dacryoconarid Tentaculitoids And Protocol Development For I/Ca Analysis In Corals By La-Icp-Ms, Ashley Prow-Fleischer May 2025

Body Size Trends Of Late Devonian Dacryoconarid Tentaculitoids And Protocol Development For I/Ca Analysis In Corals By La-Icp-Ms, Ashley Prow-Fleischer

Dissertations - ALL

Paleoclimatology provides context for understanding the timescales and animal responses to environmental change under modern climate change scenarios. The key drivers of climate variability are identified using proxies for environmental conditions. Biological archives are especially useful for linking changing conditions to ecosystem responses. This dissertation establishes the foundation for utilizing dacryoconarid microfossils as biostratigraphic indicators of environmental change in the Paleozoic. It also presents a protocol for measuring iodine-to-calcium (I/Ca) ratios—an established proxy for localized hypoxia—in coral skeletons using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Studying Paleozoic microfossils presents challenges due to the high degree of induration of …

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Anticipating The Adoption Of Quantum Computing Technology By Organizations, Kenneth Shui May 2025

Anticipating The Adoption Of Quantum Computing Technology By Organizations, Kenneth Shui

Dissertations - ALL

This study investigated the challenges that may influence the successful adoption of adiabatic quantum computers based on an analysis of three case studies of organizations that adopted technologies adjacent to adiabatic quantum computers. Through the lens of the affordance framework, a mixed methods approach identified common challenges and themes when adopting different forms of classical computing. The qualitative method involved analyzing pre-existing documentation on classical computing technologies through a reflexive narrative review of the case studies. For the quantitative aspect, an A/B testing approach was used to compare the performance of D-Wave adiabatic quantum computers in solving a well-established computer …

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Deformations Of Thin Membranes In Incompatible Geometries And Interactions In Mechanical Hysteron Systems, Zachariah Schrecengost May 2025

Deformations Of Thin Membranes In Incompatible Geometries And Interactions In Mechanical Hysteron Systems, Zachariah Schrecengost

Dissertations - ALL

Soft reconfigurable systems exhibit behaviors which are highly dependent on their geometries. Thin membranes can deform in a myriad of ways as they navigate geometries different from their own in an energy efficient manner. Behaviors in mechanical hysteron systems are influenced by the geometry of the interactions and global driving. This dissertation focuses on two different types of systems which are governed in part by their geometries: thin membranes in geometrically incompatible configurations and interacting mechanical hysterons. A thin membrane forced into a conflicting geometry with an incompatible metric will deform in highly non-trivial ways. These deformations are an attempt …

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