Digital Commons Network^™

Iterative Machine Learning Of A Cis-Regulatory Grammar, Ryan Z. Friedman

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Gene regulation allows for the quantitative control of gene expression. Gene regulation is a complex process encoded through cis-regulatory sequences, short DNA sequences containing clusters of transcription factor binding sites. Each binding site can occur millions of times in multicellular genomes, and seemingly similar collections of binding sites can have very different activities. A leading model to explain these degeneracies is that cis-regulatory sequences follow a “grammar” defined by the number, identity, strength, arrangement, and/or context of the underlying binding sites. Understanding cis-regulatory grammar requires high-throughput technology, quantitative measurements, and computational modeling. This thesis describes an iterative machine learning approach …

Essays On Macroeconomics, Zheliang Zhu

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation has three chapters. The first chapter examines the information transmissionfrom the central bank to the private sector regarding the public signal interest rate. The second chapter presents a proposed belief-driven Taylor rule and analyzes the rule’s impact on private expectation anchoring and social welfare loss. The third chapter studies the relationship between corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices and their associated financing costs. Omitted proofs in each chapter are presented in the last section of each chapter.In the first chapter, we study the information transmission from the central bank to theprivate sector regarding the public signal interest …

Hydrolysis-Directed Vapor-Phase Synthesis And Solution Processing Of Nanostructured Conducting Polymers, Haoru Yang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Conducting polymers are a class of organic material that possesses semiconducting properties. Their unique molecular structure facilitates charge transport via delocalized π-electron network in the polymer backbone. Creating nanostructures in a conducting polymer increases its surface area to volume ratio and promotes molecular interaction at the surface of the polymer, resulting in enhanced physical and chemical properties, such as ion transfer, adsorption/desorption efficiency, and electrical conductivity. This dissertation focuses on synthesizing nanostructured conducting polymers and their composites from the vapor phase. The mechanisms in a novel synthetic strategy that utilizes iron corrosion products to initiate polymerization and template nanostructure formation …

The Influence Of The Built Environment On The Community Participation Of Adults Aging With Long-Term Physical Disabilities: A Mixed Methods Approach, Rachel H. Desai

WUSM Theses and Dissertations – All Programs

Adults living with a long-term physical disability experience difficulties living independently and participating in the community as they age. A combination of personal (e.g., fatigue) and environmental (e.g., transportation accessibility) factors influence these restrictions in participation. The impact of the built environment is a key aspect to consider when understanding community participation restrictions for adults aging with long-term physical disabilities (AAwPD) because these factors are often more modifiable. However, the processes by which the built environment impacts AAwPD are not well understood. Interventions targeting these factors to address the community participation needs of AAwPD are limited.

Research informing community-based organizations …

Dual Color Optogenetic Control For Analyzing Cardiac Function In Drosophila, Jiantao Zhu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Prolonged consumption of carbohydrate-rich diets and immobile lifestyles frequently cause metabolic disorders and obesity and, as a result, may lead to progressive heart dysfunction among broad social groups of the population. Drosophila melanogaster serves as an essential model organism in cardiovascular disease research due to conserved physiological and genomic traits shared with humans, its genetic and molecular toolbox versatility, and cost-effective maintenance. Here, we combine optogenetics and optical coherence tomography to study cardiovascular function in D. melanogaster. A new optogenetic pacing system has been developed, employing a transgenic line carrying two opsins: ChR2 and NpHR2.0. A custom-built hardware setup …

L2 Readers’ Strategy Use With Academic Texts: The Role Of Working Memory, Interest, And Strategic Adjunct Questions, Yanjie Li

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Aiming to promote L2 learners’ academic success at the university level by cultivating strategic readers, this dissertation reported the findings of three original studies. With intermediate-advanced level Chinese EFL learners, the first two studies investigated working memory capacity (WMC) and reader interest as well as how these variables were associated with L2 reading strategy use during reading. Building on the findings of the first two studies, the third study, an intervention study, implemented five types of higher-order adjunct questions (AQs), which asked the participants to carry out five corresponding reading strategies during reading. This study examined whether answering these strategic …

Development Of A Multispectral Vis-Swir Imaging Modality For Cutaneous Water Assessment, Quinlan Mcgrath

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Inflammatory skin diseases are estimated to impact 20% of the global population and are the fourth leading cause of nonfatal disability worldwide. Diagnosis and management are predominantly based on clinician visual assessment of disease related changes in skin morphology. The qualitative nature of this method can result in misdiagnosis and underdiagnoses of treatable diseases. There persists systematic undertreatment of skin of color patients given the more subtle presentation of erythema against pigmented skin. There exists a clinical need for a quantitative and objective inflammation assessment tool that meets the needs of a diverse patient population. The accumulation of interstitial fluid …

Report On 2022-2023 Compliance With Continuous Quality Improvement Legislation, University Of Northern Iowa

Institutional Effectiveness & Planning Documents

A report provided to the Iowa Board of Regents regarding continuous improvement processes in courses at the University of Northern Iowa.

Data-Driven Platform And Digital Operations, Bing Bai

Olin Business School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to study the emerging operations issues on data-driven platforms and digital operations. With the increasing availability of data and the development of information technologies, platforms process a large amount of data in order to efficiently make daily operational decisions. Understanding human behaviors and the human-algorithm connection is instrumental to the success of this process. In my research, I implement field experiments and use structural models to study in-warehouse worker behavior and out-of-warehouse customer behavior in the last mile of logistics.

In Chapter 1, “The Impacts of Algorithmic Work Assignment on Fairness Perceptions and Productivity: …

Essays On Customer Relationship Management, Nan Zhao

Olin Business School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The general topic of my dissertation is customer relationship management. Specifically, I use quasi-experimental causal inference methods, randomized field experiments, and machine learning methods to study and measure consumer response to co-branded credit cards and email communications promoting subscriptions.

In Chapter 1, “The Impact of Co-branded Credit Card Adoption on Customer Loyalty”, we estimate the treatment effects of adopting a co-branded credit card on spending and loyalty behaviors using a comprehensive longitudinal dataset from a North American airline. Our data set contained detailed records of both airline credit card adopters and non-adopters, including their travel and loyalty program activities over …

A Framework For Investigating Random Ensembles Of Structured Ecosystems And Quantifying Their Emergent Coarse-Grainability, Jacob Moran

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The interface between statistical physics and theoretical ecology has a long history, employing powerful concepts such as ensemble approaches and typicality to study emergent properties of ecosystems. This of course raises the question of what ensembles are useful to describe the typical behaviors of evolution and ecology, but so far, the traditional context of high-diversity ecology has considered ensembles of random, unstructured ecosystems. Although much insight has been gained in this regime, one naturally wonders how representative are random ensembles of real, natural ecosystems that are arguably atypical and highly structured by evolution. Moreover, the question of coarse-graining ecosystems has …

Using In Situ Single-Particle Imaging To Understand The Role Of Structural Distortions During Anion Exchange In Cesium Lead Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals, Dongyan Zhang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Colloidal cesium lead halide (CsPbX3, X = Cl, Br, I) perovskite nanocrystals are being investigated as promising materials for light-emitting devices and fluorescence probes due to their strong absorption and emission (1.55 eV – 3.05 eV) of visible light. Anion exchange is a facile, post-synthetic method to tune the bandgap emission of CsPbX3 nanocrystals, covering most of the spectrum of visible light. However, structural heterogeneities in nanocrystals formed during anion exchange will lead to lower photoluminescence quantum yield and a broader range of emission wavelengths. A single batch of nanocrystals will contain a distribution of sizes, shapes, surface structures, and …

Immunologic Predictors For Clinical Responses During Immune Checkpoint Blockade In Patients With Myelodysplastic Syndromes, Sung-Eun Lee, Feng Wang, Maison Grefe, Abel Trujillo-Ocampo, Wilfredo Ruiz-Vasquez, Koichi Takahashi, Hussein A Abbas, Pamella Borges, Dinler Amaral Antunes, Gheath Al-Atrash, Naval Daver, Jeffrey J Molldrem, Andrew Futreal, Guillermo Garcia-Manero, Jin S Im

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to determine immune-related biomarkers to predict effective antitumor immunity in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) during immunotherapy (IMT, αCTLA-4, and/or αPD-1 antibodies) and/or hypomethylating agent (HMA).

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Peripheral blood samples from 55 patients with MDS were assessed for immune subsets, T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire, mutations in 295 acute myeloid leukemia (AML)/MDS-related genes, and immune-related gene expression profiling before and after the first treatment.

RESULTS: Clinical responders treated with IMT ± HMA but not HMA alone showed a significant expansion of central memory (CM) CD8+ T cells, diverse TCRβ repertoire pretreatment with increased clonality and …

Validity Of Fitbit And Garmin Devices While Ascending And Descending Flights Of Stairs, Alan Garcia

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Two popular wearable fitness device brands are Fitbit and Garmin. The validity of Fitbit and Garmin’s wrist-worn devices in measuring step counts in various settings, such as walking up and down a staircase, is unclear. PURPOSE: To determine if four devices, the Fitbit Charge 2, Fitbit Versa 2, Garmin Fēnix 5 and Garmin Vívosmart HR+ record valid measures of step count when ascending and descending flights of stairs at three different speeds. METHODS: Twenty-eight participants (n=28) were tested individually. Two devices were randomly selected to be placed on each wrist. Participants climbed up and then down one, two, and three …

From Instability To Civil Liberties: Nonviolent Resistance In Afghanistan, Rachel L. Knowles

Master's Theses

When people have a fundamental issue at stake, giving in is not an option. For these types of conflict, when people’s rights are being violated, when their countries are occupied, or when they are oppressed and humiliated, they need a powerful way to persist and fight back. Oftentimes when people are left with no choice they will use the terrible and destructive nature of violence. For decades nonviolent resistance (NVR) movements have been associated with Gandhi and Martin Luther King, but people have been using nonviolent action for years. In fact, NVR has been a part of political life for …

The Association Between Rape Myths And Continued Contact With The Perpetrator Following Sexual Abuse, Jainee Smith

Student Theses

Sexual violence is a widespread phenomenon. The term rape myth was first coined in 1980 by Martha Burt, and she defined it as “prejudicial, stereotyped, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims, and rapists” (Burt, 1980 p. 217). These myths, as well as any continued contact after a sexual assault, often lead to victim blaming, making it more difficult for victims to report any sexual assault. While rape myths were developed based on adult sexual assault, some research suggests that they also applied to child sexual abuse. This study will explore and expand the literature on rape myth acceptance and …

Goal Setting And Goal Management For Chronic Conditions: Intervention And Implementation Strategies, Eunyoung Kang

WUSM Theses and Dissertations – All Programs

Adults with chronic conditions experience limited participation in personally meaningful activities and roles. Chronic conditions can present challenges across personal factors such as cognitive, psychological, physiological, or neurobehavioral functions. These personal factors then dynamically interact with environmental factors, occupation, and performance, ultimately hindering adults with chronic conditions in achieving their goals to fully participate in meaningful activities and roles.

Goal setting and goal management has evolved from diverse theories including Social Cognitive Theory, Self-Determination Theory, and The Theory of Intentional Action Control. These theories emphasize the importance of addressing influential theoretical constructs such as self-efficacy and outcome expectancy but also …

Developing Tools For The Implementation And Evaluation Of Participatory Worker Health Promotion Interventions, Ryan J. Walsh

WUSM Theses and Dissertations – All Programs

The chronic disease burden among American workers leads to substantial expenditures on healthcare, lost productivity at work, and reduced quality of life. Workers from communities of lower socioeconomic status (SES) shoulder a disproportionate burden of chronic diseases and costs. A promising strategy for addressing this population health burden is to develop and implement participatory worker health promotion interventions in workplaces. Part of this effort to develop and implement these programs entails improving the quality of evaluation tools and approaches. Thus, we completed a series of secondary analyses of a large participatory worker health promotion program trial called Working For You. …

Radiation Detecting Robot, Matthew Hajjar, Jacob Trivisonno, Omar Martinez, Jeivet Kenelak, Jack Honan

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

Team 10, The Radiation Detecting Robot was requested by Dr. Bahram Nassersharif at the University of Rhode Island to design a robot capable of detecting multiple radiation sources/spills within a lab environment. The criteria that must be satisfied inorder to fulfill the request of Dr. Nassersharif is that the robot must be able to scan a 12ft by 12ft room in less than 30 minutes while accurately visualizing the location of any radiation spill. The robot must also be able to avoid any obstacles that could be in its path while being fully autonomous, with the creation of an efficient …

The Evolutionary And Comparative Elements Of Social Roles, Jake A. Funkhouser

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In human societies, individuals who hold social roles are recognized by others as possessing context- or task-specific proficiencies and skills. The social roles that are arguably unique to our societies confer many functional benefits, however multidisciplinary interests in the topic lack an evolutionary framework that allows for the comparative elements and emergence of social roles to be investigated. In this research, we put forth four elements of social roles in societies that can be compared across species: those that are context-specific, expressed over time, offer functional advantages, and individuals who hold social roles are recognized by conspecifics as possessing characteristics. …

A Peeling Art, Terry Rim

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Action is greater than words, interaction is greater than viewing, and experience is greater than theory. So I came up with a way to make my art into an act of criticism toward consumerism. My art resembles colorful Pop Art on the surface but follows the defiant spirit of Dadaism at the core. It reveals the content full of dark humor and cynicism once the viewer “peels off” the appealing surface by interacting with it. The four artworks analyzed in the paper — Hole, The Twelephone and Alarming Alarm, Self-Destructive Ashtray, and Heavenly Cow — are designed …

Birthing Reimagined: Perceptions Of Safety And Autonomy In Birth Experiences Among Postpartum Individuals During Covid-19, Beldina Orinda

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

Background: Safety during childbirth is a priority for care providers, but patients' perceptions of safety may differ from those of providers, especially in biomedical settings.1–4 This can influence health outcomes and satisfaction with the birth experience.5–7 We hypothesize that autonomy, defined as the ability to make decisions about care during childbirth, may enhance feelings of safety and positive mental health outcomes.9,15

Methods: Surveys via REDCap v11.1.29 captured the experiences and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) scores of pregnant and postpartum women. Participants (n=49) included 15 pregnant and 34 postpartum individuals, aged 18 and older, who had given …

The Juris Master: A Proposal For Reducing Excessive Public Defender Caseloads, Blake Comeaux

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

The US public defense system is underfunded, understaffed, and underdelivering on the Constitutional promises of the 6^th Amendment, the right to a fair and speedy trial. This state of our public defense system results in monstrous impacts for indigent defendants nationwide. Through indefinite delays in litigation, being abandoned in jail while sitting on waiting lists for public defenders, and being outright denied representation, indigent defendants are deprived of their rights. Beyond just defendant neglect, our current system puts immense strain on public defenders, prosecutors, and state budgets. In an attempt to combat this current state of affairs, this paper …

The Role Of Ns1 In Flavivirus Immunity And Pathogenesis, Alex W. Wessel

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATIONThe Role of NS1 in Flavivirus Immunity and Pathogenesis by Alex W. Wessel Doctor of Philosophy in Biology and Biomedical Sciences Immunology Washington University in St. Louis, 2023 Professor Michael Diamond, Chair Flaviviruses are a genus of enveloped, arthropod-transmitted RNA viruses that include clinically relevant pathogens such as yellow fever, dengue, Zika, and West Nile viruses. These viruses cause a spectrum of potentially life-threatening diseases including hepatitis, vascular shock, congenital abnormalities, and encephalitis. Dengue virus, alone, infects up to 390 million individuals in any given year, and its endemic regions continue to expand along with the geographical …

Individual And Social Influences On Cigarette Smoking During Pregnancy, Alexandra Noel Houston-Ludlam

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Population-level trends on sociodemographic risk factors for cigarette smoking during pregnancy (SDP) and outcomes for offspring exposed to maternal SDP are well established. However, the more complex task of understanding individual risk-prediction, including differences by maternal race/ethnicity, and its clinical application, remains incomplete. Characterizing the relative influence of environmental and individual characteristics as risk or protective factors for continued SDP is a necessary next step for informing individual- and public health-level interventions to produce successful smoking cessation prior to pregnancy, substantially reducing smoking-related mortality in child-bearing people. In this dissertation, I wanted to explore how multiple levels of influence, from …

Trpm5'S Role In Vascular Development, Megan Goeckel

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Blood vessels are composed of two main cell types, endothelial cells (ECs) and mural cells (MCs). Endothelial cells comprise of the inner-most layer of the vessel and sense changes in blood flow to recruit mural cells. The mechanism for how endothelial cells sense these hemodynamic changes is not well understood and deciphering this mechanism is the focus of this thesis. We hypothesize that transient receptor potential melastatin 5 (TRPM5), a transmembrane channel protein, is involved in this process. Here, using cultured human endothelial cells and the zebrafish model, we show that inhibition of TRPM5 decreases vessel formation and increases EC-MC …

On The Six-Cornered Snowflake, Jackson Hescock

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

On the Six-Cornered Snowflake, named after Johannes Kepler’s 1611 essay on geometrically covering surfaces, is both the title of both my final thesis work and essay. Beginning with an inquiry into the nature of hand-made object as intrinsically valuable, my earlier sculptural work surrounding quilting is broken down and considered as a form of reverence for the American object. This is partly achieved through a comparison to traditional Japanese packing techniques and how my own assembly mirrors and converses with the graceful and sensitive packing of Japanese hand-made goods. Early 20^th-century flight experiments are also hand-made objects of …

The Role Of The Neurodevelopmental Disorder Gene Myt1l In Mammalian Brain Development, Jiayang Chen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Recent human genetic studies have associated mutations in a gene called Myelin Transcription Factor 1 Like (MYT1L) with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Patients with MYT1L loss of function (LoF) mutations (MYT1L Syndrome patients) demonstrate shared symptoms such as microcephaly, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and obesity. Despite prior studies showing MYT1L overexpression facilitates neuronal differentiation in vitro, its functions in vivo, especially in the mammalian brain, and how its mutation leads to human disease pathology remains poorly understood. Here, I established the first mouse model of MYT1L Syndrome mimicking a patient specific LoF mutation. I found mice with Myt1l heterozygous …

Wide-Field Optical Imaging Of Neurological Disorders And Sleep In Mice, Lindsey M. Brier

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Neuroimaging has revolutionized the way in which we understand the hierarchical organization of the amazingly complex, interconnected human brain. Neuroimaging techniques, like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have provided high quality structural and functional data, providing multiple in-depth analyses and biomarkers of disease processes. In animal models, mechanistic studies can uncover root pathologies that aren’t explorable in humans. In mice, brain functional connectivity (FC) can be measured via Optical Intrinsic Signal (OIS) imaging – a modality that measures vascular reactivity as a surrogate for neural activity via quantification of fluctuations in oxygenated-hemoglobin (similar to the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) …

Maternal-Fetal Circadian Communication During Pregnancy, Keenan Bates

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Circadian rhythms in gene expression and hormones are ubiquitous across species and across cell types. Circadian rhythms depend on a transcription-translation negative feedback loop that drives many daily rhythms in behavior and physiological processes. Circadian rhythms regulate many aspects of reproduction, such as fetal development and birth timing. Mammalian pregnancy presents a unique situation with circadian rhythms in the mom and, eventually, in the fetus. Prior studies showed that circadian rhythms develop in utero and that maternal signals, such as glucocorticoids, may act to entrain or drive daily rhythms in the fetus. However, there remains considerable debate about when and …