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Summer Research Fellowship Project Descriptions 2023, Clark Science Center's Summer Research Fellows Program

SURF Abstracts (Women in Science)

A summary of research done by Smith College’s 2023 Summer Research Fellowship (SURF) Program participants. Ever since its 1967 start, SURF has been a cornerstone of Smith’s science education. Supervised by faculty mentor-advisors drawn from the Clark Science Center and connected to its eighteen science, mathematics, and engineering departments and programs and associated centers and units. At summer’s end, SURF participants were asked to summarize their research experiences for this publication.

Synthesis Of Copper Nano/Microparticles Via Thermal Decomposition And Their Conversion To Copper Oxide Film, Çağdaş Allahverdi̇

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

Copper nano/microparticles were synthesized in octadecene at 290 °C by thermal decomposition method. Copper acetate monohydrate, stearic acid, and 1-octadecanol were used as copper precursor, capping and mild reducing agents, respectively, at the synthesis. Borosilicate glass substrates submerged into the reaction solution during the synthesis were coated by copper nano/ microparticles. Thermal decomposition and coating techniques were combined in this study. Copper nano/microparticles were thoroughly characterised via X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray photoelectron, Raman, and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies, and scanning and transmission electron microscopies. The average minimum Feret?s diameter of these synthesized copper particles was measured as ~87 …

In-Person And Remote Employees And Information Security Policy Compliance, Joyce Yin Mui

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many workers have changed their working status from in-person to remote, in the past several years, with a large increase in the number of employees working remotely during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In parallel, the increasing costs of data breaches and number of security incidents continue to be a concern to organizations seeking to protect their organization, systems, and data. This studys research questions were formed using a theoretical framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to discover influences on employee behavior and the Social Bonds Theory (SBT) to address strength of relationships and impact to compliance. This …

Graph Neural Networks For Ethereum Fraud Detection, Charity Mwanza

Theses

Detecting fraudulent transactions on the Ethereum network can help cryptocurrency companies that operate on the Ethereum platform protect their users from exposure to fraudsters. The most common fraudulent activities in the cryptocurrency network include phishing and smart Ponzi schemes. Since cryptocurrency technology is still young, most investors lack knowledge of how the smart contacts used in the Ethereum platform operate; hence, they cannot evaluate the risks they are exposed to when carrying out cryptocurrency transactions. The key role that this paper looks at is the application of graph neural networks in the extraction of features of users in the Ethereum …

Software Defined Radio (Sdr) With Applications In Radar Systems, Makenzie Fogle

Theses

This research tests the validity of using a cost-effective SDR to implement a pulsed radar system. This cost-effective system would enable students to build and utilize this system to learn more about radar engineering and possibly pursue a career in radar engineering. Also, this system would enable a university to build a teaching laboratory for university students learning Radar principles. An adalm-pluto SDR is used along with the MIT “cantennas”. The software used to implement the system is discussed. The results from both indoor and outdoor tests are shown and validated. This research could have applications in education, industry, and …

The Role Of The Anthropogenic Fire Regime In Protected Areas In Kenya : A Case Study In The Mau Forest Region, Stefanie Mehlich

Theses

Kenya is frequently subject to fire activity. Natural fire occurrence is part of and beneficial to most of the country’s ecosystems. However, anthropogenic activities associated with agricultural practices increasingly introduce fire activity to ecosystems that are not fire adapted, such as forest systems. Registration of small-size burned areas below an extent of 1 square kilometer, especially from fires in mixed agricultural-forest interfaces, is a substantial gap in currently available products. Addressing this issue, an improved spatial resolution fire burned area product was generated, based on VIIRS Active Fire Detections and Landsat Surface Reflectance data products, and used to characterize fire …

Evaluation Of Atmospheric Land Exchange Inverse Model Evaporative Stress Index Utilizing Soil Climate Analysis Network Stations In Alabama, Corey Walker

Theses

The Atmospheric Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI) model uses Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) thermal bands to derive daily evapotranspiration estimates at the continental scale. These data are used to derive a weekly Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) representing standardized anomalies of the actual to potential evapotranspiration ratio (AET/PET). ESI is functionally related to the root zone soil moisture content. As the AET/PET ratio approaches unity, the greater the available water at the root zone is for agricultural fields, whereas the opposite is true during periods of drought. However, the relationship between ALEXI ESI and root zone soil moisture may not be …

Assessment Of Public Transit And Access To Essential Services And Facilities In Huntsville, Alabama, Sachin Shivashankar

Theses

This study aims to investigate the accessibility of public transit within the City of Huntsville, Alabama, in Madison County. Accessibility, in this context, refers to the distance between the residents in a certain census tract to essential amenities such as hospitals, schools, parks, workplaces, and other necessary services using public transportation. Data were obtained from the US Census Bureau and the City of Huntsville's Data Depot, focusing on aspects such as population socio-demographic attributes, and the distribution of essential amenities within the Huntsville city. Utilizing a range of Geographic Information System (GIS) methodologies and tools, including proximity analysis, random forest …

Design Of A High Altitude Simulation Apparatus For The Uah Solid Fuel Ramjet, Joseph Agnew

Theses

A modular high altitude simulation apparatus is designed and incorporated into the UAH connected-pipe flow facility for solid fuel ramjet studies. A literature review is conducted on solid fuel ramjets, high altitude simulation approaches, and parameters of gas ejectors. Next, a system-wide design process is detailed with validating calculations as well as high-level CFD simulations. Finally, a compilation of relevant test data is provided along with relevant analysis. The eductor system achieved 11 psia at 0.054 lbm/s of heated air flow rate, well short of the desired 8 psia at 0.062 lbm/s flow rate. Ejector efficiency was between 43 and …

A Scaling Relationship Between The Whim Density And The Luminosity Density Along Filament Regions Inside Of The Illustris Tng Simulation, Benjamin Byrd

Theses

This thesis presents the current progress towards deriving a scaling relation between the Luminosity density and the density of the Warm Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) located inside of filaments of the Illustris The Next Generation simulation 300-1 at redshift z=0. The filaments are located using the DisPerSE algorithm. This paper also presents a memory-efficient manner of performing nearest neighbor searches for large data sets for small dimensionality via the K Dimensional Tree, which enabled the limitation of the WHIM exterior to halos of the full simulation. The limited WHIM was binned into 6003 cells with a side length of .505 …

The Spiral Generator : Theory And Methods For Modeling And Fabrication, Jacob Kinsey

Theses

This thesis attempts to confront shortcomings of spiral generator knowledge of testing at low voltages, design techniques of spiral generators, and fabrication methods. To achieve this, basic fabrication methods were employed for generators to be tested at low and high voltage. This effort allowed development of a simple two-frequency model and winding machine. This two-frequency model depicts output waveform amplitude as a scaler of charging voltage and has been found to be adequate for using the model in comparison to less trivial models which can be less accurate in time-domain behavior. An updated winding machine was proposed as a result …

Solar Flare Forecasting : A Study Of Flare Coincidence, Christian W. Hall

Theses

Data mining techniques that can support the forecasting of solar flares are explored. The main focus is to investigate the effects of flare coincidence on the evaluation of forecasts. Coincident flares are solar flares in a region of the Sun in which another flare has occurred recently, whereas other flares are denoted as non-coincident flares. Dimensionality reduction and classification are two of the types of techniques examined, where binary classification is used to issue yes/no forecasts of major solar flares. Five algorithms are considered as binary classifiers: k-nearest neighbors (k-NN), logistic regression (LR), support vector machines (SVM), random forest classifiers …

The Effectiveness Of System-Wide Trust Repair Strategies, J. Andrew Atchley

Theses

This study considered whether contagion effects for trust extend to an interactive task that includes tasks that are visually incongruent and perform dissimilar task functions, and if trust repair strategies operate on a system-wide basis. Participants supervised three automated tasks over three blocks. The animal task decreased in reliability in block 2, and a trust repair strategy was issued prior to block 3. The findings indicated that there was a decrease in trust for the animal task only. The trust repair strategies were also ineffective for restoring trust. This study supported the idea that contagion effects do not extend to …

A Comprehensive Study Of Algorithmic Bias : Fairness In Ai, Ethical And Social Implications In Real World Applications, Lakshitha Rikhab Chand Jain

Theses

Algorithmic bias, also known as algorithmic discrimination or AI bias, is a pervasive phenomenon marked by the systematic and unjust treatment of specific demographic groups based on attributes like race, gender, age or other distinguishing characteristics. The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms across various domains has amplified concerns surrounding algorithmic bias, which has the potential to perpetuate discrimination and deepen societal inequalities. This thesis embarks on a comprehensive exploration of algorithmic bias, delving into its multifaceted nature. It dissects various forms of bias, including selection bias, confirmation bias, and measurement bias, shedding light on the …

Analysis Of Hippo Pathway Signalling In Schwannoma And Meningioma, Julio Grimm De Guibert

Peninsula Medical School Theses

This project focuses on two tumours of the nervous system, schwannoma and meningioma. A large group of schwannomas and meningiomas display the inactivation of the NF2 gene. The NF2 gene codes for the tumour suppressor protein Merlin and its loss is associated with a multitude of pro-tumourigenic mechanisms leading to the occurrence of schwannomas and meningiomas. The loss of Merlin function causes augmented Hippo signaling i.e. interaction of YAP and TAZ, both co-activators of gene expression and the two main effectors of the Hippo signalling pathway, and TEAD, a group of transcription factors binding to YAP and TAZ. There resulting …

Anastomotic Leakage In Rectal Surgery: Where Are We And Where Do We Go From Here?, Benjamin William Peter Rossi

Peninsula Medical School Theses

Anastomotic leak in colorectal surgery is a significant complication which is feared by surgeons and has considerable consequences for patients. It affects up to 17% of rectal resections and although there is significant knowledge regarding its detection and treatment, there are still no reliable methods for its prevention. We proposed the routine use of intra-operative endoscopy as a method of reducing the risk of anastomotic leak. This thesis explores current knowledge regarding anastomotic leaks, including the causes, prevention and management. We also present the findings from a feasibility trial into intra-operative endoscopy as a method for reducing anastomotic leak rate. …

Postmaterialism And Corporate Tax Avoidance, Yujia Cui, Jiwei Wang, Kangtao Ye

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using a proprietary dataset of China tax audits, we found that firms owned by investors from countries with higher postmaterialism values were less likely to engage in tax-avoidance behavior in China. In addition, we found some evidence that the negative association between postmaterialism and tax avoidance is more pronounced when tax enforcement is stronger, indicating that national culture and formal institutions act as complements. To check the external validity of our main results, we further used a cross-country sample from 21 countries over 22 years. The evidence from the cross-country sample was consistent with the findings obtained from the China …

Bilingual Interactional Contexts Predict Executive Functions In Older Adults, Hwajin Yang, Yue Qi Germaine Tng, Gilaine Rui Ng, Wee Qin Ng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Drawing on the adaptive control hypothesis, we examined whether older adults' bilingual interactional contexts of conversational exchanges would predict important indices of executive functions (EF). We assessed participants' engagement in each bilingual interactional context - single-language, dual-language, and dense code-switching - and their performance on a series of nonverbal EF measures. Sixty-nine healthy older adults (M-age = 70.39 years; ages 60-93) were recruited from local community centers. We found that the dense code-switching context was associated with enhanced overall EF, but not individual facets of EF (inhibitory control, shifting, and updating). These findings held true when we controlled for a …

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Natural Language Processing In The Legal Domain, Daniel Martin Katz, Dirk Hartung, Lauritz Gerlach, Abhik Jana, Michael J. Ii Bommarito

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In this paper, we summarize the current state of the field of NLP and Law with a specific focus on recent technical and substantive developments. To support our analysis, we construct and analyze a corpus of more than six hundred NLP and Law related papers published over the past decade. Our analysis highlights several major trends. Namely, we document an increasing number of papers written, tasks undertaken, and languages covered over the course of the past decade. We observe an increase in the sophistication of the methods which researchers deployed in this applied context. Slowly but surely, Legal NLP is …

Religious Exemption, Lgbt Rights, And The Social Construction Of Harm And Freedom, Emily Kazyak, Kelsy Burke, Maia Behrendt, Marissa Oliver

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

In this article, we examine how courts make decisions in religious exemption cases that implicate LGBT rights in a wide range of contexts including education, employment, and medical care. Through an in-depth qualitative analysis of 50 federal cases decided between 1990 and 2020, we demonstrate a shift in how anti-LGBT sentiment is expressed by parties bringing religion-based claims—from a broad condemnation of LGBT identity to a narrow condemnation of same-sex marriage—and find that courts are more likely to rule in favor of the latter. We show how courts construct competing understandings of harm and religious freedom depending on the context …

Efficacy Of A Compound Swallowing Training Program Incorporating Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation On Postoperative Chronic Dysphagia In Patients With Tongue Cancer, U-Hin Lai, Yu-Chi Huang, Ching-Yi Liao, Xiao-Rou Ding, Chau-Peng Leong

Rehabilitation Practice and Science

Objective: To investigate therapeutic effects of a compound swallowing training program(CSTP) that includes neuromuscular electrical stimulation, swallowing muscle strengthening, posture training, food texture modification, and the use of adaptive feeding devices on chronic dysphagia after surgical treatment of tongue cancer(TC), and review the long-term swallowing outcomes and possible adverse effects.

Materials and methods: In this retrospective longitudinal study, we included patients with chronic dysphagia after surgical treatment of TC, who received a total of 10 CSTPs three times weekly, for one hour each time. Penetration-Aspiration Scale (PAS), Functional Dysphagia Scale (FDS), and Swallowing Performance Rating Scale (SPS) scores were compared …

The Chinese Enterprise Income Tax, Wei Cui

All Faculty Publications

China’s Enterprise Income Tax (EIT) is the world’s largest corporate income tax by revenue, contributes a significant share to China’s total tax revenue, and is clearly the most substantial component of capital taxation in China. Yet scholarly research on the EIT is still limited. This overview chapter outlines the EIT’s main components from a legal perspective, while referring to empirical economic and accounting research that sheds light on these components. It discusses the personal scope of the EIT, so as to identify the significance of the pass-through and the tax-exempt sectors relative to the taxable corporate sector. It then examines …

Quantifying The Potential Health Impacts Of Unvented Combustion In Homes – A Meta- Analysis, P. Jacob Bueno De Mesquita, Nuria Casquero-Modrego, Iain Walker, Brennan D. Less, Brett C. Singer

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

While a growing body of scientific literature describes the population health impacts of fossil fuel production and burning via climate and air pollution pathways, less is known about the health impacts of indoor combustion. This paper summarizes the results of studies from the last two decades that investigated the association between exposure to sources of unvented combustion pollutants in homes and a range of health outcomes. We found gas combustion to be associated with 6-28% (95% confidence intervals) increased odds of asthma symptoms, 4-51% increased odds of systemic symptoms, 7-81% increased odds of asthma medication use, and 3-12% increased risk …

Far-Uvc: Technology Update With An Untapped Potential To Mitigate Airborne Infections, P. Jacob Bueno De Mesquita, Rosemary K. Sokas, Mary B. Rice, Edward A. Nardell

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Taste And Smell Abnormalities In Advanced Cancer: Negative Impact On Subjective Food Intake, Aidan O'Donoghue, Michelle Barrett, Pauline Uí Dhuibhir Pauline Uí Dhuibhir, Aileen Kennedy, Norma O'Leary, Declan Walshe

Articles

Background: Taste and smell abnormalities (TSAs) are present in all cancer stages and may contribute to malnutrition. Despite this, they are rarely screened for. This study examined the prevalence and characteristics of TSAs and their influence on subjective food intake in advanced cancer. Methods: Consecutive patients with advanced cancer were recruited. A modified Taste and Smell Survey assessed subjective TSAs. Objective TSAs were assessed with validated taste strips and "Sniffin Sticks." A six-item food intake questionnaire identified any effect TSAs had on food preferences/aversions. Nutrition status was evaluated with the abridged Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment. Results: All 30 participants had …

Assessment Of The Environmental Impact Of Food Consumption In Ireland-Informing A Transition To Sustainable Diets, Laura B Kirwan, Janette Walton, Albert Flynn, Anne P. Nugent, John Kearney, Nicholas M. Holden, Breige A. Mcnulty

Articles

Dietary changes are required to mitigate the climatic impact of food consumption. Food consumption databases can support the development of sustainable food based dietary guidelines (SFBDG) when linked to environmental indicators. An improved knowledge base is crucial to the transition to sustainable diets, and multiple environmental indicators should be considered to ensure this transition is evidence based and accounts for trade-offs. The current study aimed to quantify the environmental impact of daily diets across population groups in Ireland. Nationally representative food consumption surveys for Irish children (NCFSII; 2017-2018), teenagers (NTFSII; 2019-2020), and adults (NANS; 2008-2010) were used in this analysis. …

Energy Metabolism, Metabolite, And Inflammatory Profiles In Human Ex Vivo Adipose Tissue Are Influenced By Obesity Status, Metabolic Dysfunction, And Treatment Regimes In Patients With Oesophageal Adenocarcinoma, Fiona O'Connell, Eimear Mylod, Noel E. Donlon, Aisling B. Heeran, Christine Butler, Anshul Bhardwaj, Sinead Ramjit, Michael Durand, Gerard Lambe, Paul Tansey, Ivan Welartne, Kevin P. Sheahan, Xiaofei Yin, Claire L. Donohoe, Narayanasamy Ravi

Articles

Oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) is a poor prognosis cancer with limited response rates to current treatment modalities and has a strong link to obesity. To better elucidate the role of visceral adiposity in this disease state, a full metabolic profile combined with analysis of secreted pro-inflammatory cytokines, metabolites, and lipid profiles were assessed in human ex vivo adipose tissue explants from obese and non-obese OAC patients. These data were then related to extensive clinical data including obesity status, metabolic dysfunction, previous treatment exposure, and tumour regression grades. Real-time energy metabolism profiles were assessed using the seahorse technology. Adipose explant conditioned media …

Food And Nutrient Intakes And Compliance With Recommendations In School-Aged Children In Ireland: Findings From The National Children’S Food Survey Ii (2017–2018) And Changes Since 2003–2004., Laura Kehoe, Maria Breffini, Breige A. Mcnulty, John Kearney, Albert Flynn, Janet Walton

Articles

The childhood years represent a period of increased nutrient requirements during which a balanced diet is important to ensure optimal growth and development. The aim of this study was to examine food and nutrient intakes and compliance with recommendations in school-aged children in Ireland and to examine changes over time. Analyses were based on two National Children's Food Surveys; NCFS (2003-2004) (n 594) and NCFS II (2017-2018) (n 600) which estimated food and nutrient intakes in nationally representative samples of children (5-12 years) using weighed food records (NCFS: 7-d; NCFS II: 4-d). This study found that nutrient intakes among school-aged …

Hospital Outcomes In Patients Hospitalized For Covid-19 Pneumonia: The Effect Of Sars-Cov-2 Vaccination And Vitamin D Status, Martyna Sanecka, Modar Youssef, Mohammad Abdulsalam, Syed F. Raza, Abdul Qadeer, Julia Ioana, Alya Aldoresi, Syed I. Shah, Abdul Al Lawati, Joseph Feely, William P. Tormey, Eoghan O'Neill, Liam J. Cormican, Eoin P. Judge, Daniel Mccartney, John L. Faul

Articles

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination promises to improve outcomes for patients with COVID-19 pneumonia (most notably those with advanced age and at high risk for severe disease). Here, we examine serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) status and outcomes in both old (>70 years) and young vaccinated (n = 80) and unvaccinated (n = 91) subjects, who were hospitalized due to COVID- 19 pneumonia in a single center (Connolly Hospital Dublin). Outcomes included ICU admission and mortality. Serum 25(OH)D levels were categorized as D30 (/L), D40 (30–49.99 nmol/L) and D50 (50 nmol/L). In multivariate analyses, D30 was independently associated with ICU admission (OR: 6.87 …