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Write Free Or Die: Vol. 10, No. 02, Unh Writing Programs

Writing Program Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Courtroom Workgroup Dynamics And Implementation Of Three Strikes Reform, Elsa Y. Chen, Emily Chung, Emily Sands

Political Science

In 2012, California's voters passed a ballot initiative that scaled back the state's “Three Strikes” sentencing law and permitted certain individuals who were serving 25-to-life prison terms to petition for resentencing and potentially release. Using analysis of original qualitative interview data supplemented with court administrative records, this study examines how characteristics of courtroom workgroup members; their intergroup dynamics; political, professional, and administrative considerations; and allocated resources were perceived by court officials to facilitate or impede the implementation of this reform in county courts. Availability of staff and budget was associated with a higher proportion of completed case dispositions in the …

Using Pose Estimation To Identify Goalkeeper Movement Timing, Chethan Reddy

Health and Kinesiology Theses

Background: Markerless human pose estimation has the potential to revolutionize sports analytics by providing detailed insights into athlete movement. The research presented in this thesis explores how open source pose estimation can be utilized to identify goalkeeper dive initiation during soccer penalty kicks.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide an accessible, low-cost heuristic methodology for identifying goalkeeper dive initiation.

Methods: This study uses high-definition single camera broadcast footage (1080p resolution, 50 frames per second) of all 41 penalty kicks attempted during the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup. We isolated each penalty kick from kicker run-up to kick …

Damage Control Measures In Composites: Focus On Damage Tolerance Of Aerospace Structures, Kais Jribi

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Barely Visible Impact Damage (BVID) in composite materials presents a stealthy yet significant risk to structural integrity, particularly challenging due to its elusive nature. The approach adopted here diverges from traditional methodologies, focusing on the novel application of Digital Image Correlation (DIC) to map surface area changes during in-situ Compression After Impact (CAI) tests. This technique allows for an in-depth analysis of planar strains along the x and y axes, shedding light on the material's behavior under stress.

A pivotal advancement lies in developing a method for precisely identifying when BVID-induced delamination recommences. By meticulously analyzing strain pattern deviations along …

Optimization Of Human Interactions In The College Campus Model Via Simio Integration, Benjamin E. Chaback

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

College campuses are a significant part of life in some cities. Many students each year attend university, pursuing additional knowledge from faculty members. Both staff and faculty members rely on these students to have successful jobs and to ensure the university functions. Yet recently, more and more students are attending, leading to overcrowding, lower admission rates, and difficulty getting into good programs. Previous work exists on qualitative student affairs and quantitative retention data, yet little on using simulations to model this problem. This work aimed to (a) Determine the ability to successfully model human interactions/people flow on a college campus, …

Factors Predicting Public’S Willingness To Support National Aeronautics And Space Administration’S Artemis Mission, Sean Crouse

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

NASA's Artemis program aspires to return astronauts to the moon and aims to land the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface. The endeavor symbolizes the next evolution in space exploration and serves as a testament to the human spirit of discovery. In the face of this significant undertaking, gauging public sentiment and understanding the factors driving public support becomes necessary. The current study aimed to address a critical gap in the literature by examining public support for NASA’s Artemis mission, which is essential for sustaining the program’s momentum and cultivating a culture of innovation and exploration. …

Low Cost Magnetometer Calibration And Distributed Simultaneous Multipoint Ionospheric Measurements From A Sounding Rocket Platform, Joshua W. Milford

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Low-cost and low-size-weight-and-power (SWaP) magnetometers can provide greater accessibility for distributed simultaneous measurements in the ionosphere, either onboard sounding rockets or on CubeSats. The Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Laboratory (SAIL) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has launched a multitude of sounding rockets in recent history: one night-time mid-latitude rocket from Wallops Flight Facility in August 2022 and three mid-latitude rockets from White Sands Missile Range during the October 2023 annular solar eclipse. All rockets had a comprehensive suite of instruments for electrodynamics and neutral dynamics measurements. Among this suite was one science-grade three-axis fluxgate magnetometer (Billingsley TFM65VQS / TFM100G2) and up …

Development Of On-The-Fly Quasi-Steady State Approximation For Chemical Kinetics In Cfd, Abhinav Balamurugan

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This study analyzes the feasibility of On-The-Fly Quasi-Steady-State Approximation (OTF-QSSA) application for solving chemical kinetics within Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, aiming to reduce the computational demand of detailed mechanisms. An algorithm that dynamically identifies and designates Quasi-Steady-State (QSS) species at specific grid locations and instances during the simulation was developed. With this information, our method pseudo-delays the advancement of concentrations for these QSS species—effectively setting their rate of concentration change to zero for a set number iteration before updating using the detailed mechanism and thereby omitting the computationally intensive processes typically required for their calculation during those skipped iteration. …

Ti Nano Powder Speckle Pattern Creation And Use In Dic Of Zno Modified Single Carbon Fibers, James Matthew Harris

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

As the use of composites continues to grow across aerospace, naval, automotive, construction, 3D printing, and other countless industries, so does the desire to continuously improve their mechanical properties. Improving the adherence of the fiber-matrix interface is one important step for amplifying the capabilities of composites. Work has been performed in modifying carbon fibers by growing zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods in the fiber surface using a hydrothermal approach, increasing interfacial area and fiber-matrix friction. Macroscale evaluation has shown that the interfacial modification decreases the inter-ply movement and reduces the processing strains and residual stresses. To fully understand the mechanism taking …

Evaluating Flight Crew Decision-Making Through Part 121 Taxi Operations, Grant Marsh

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

With the mandate of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) going into effect at the start of 2020, commercial companies have been able to log and store information on aircraft identification, airspeed, heading, and altitude all in one database.to Now, anyone can access previously hard-to-obtain flight data for analysis using a commercially available database. While ADS-B provides information on “what is happening,” information on “why” flight crews operate aircraft in a certain way is not incorporated into ADS-B.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) collects reports written by flight crews, Air Traffic Control Specialists, and other …

Numerical Study In Wind Energy Extraction From Controlled Limit-Cycle Oscillations In Modified Glauert Airfoil, Ethan L. Deweese

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Typically, wind energy harvesting technology employs wind turbines. Towards the goal of meeting increasing energy needs with renewable energy sources a novel wind energy harvesting scheme is considered, utilizing a modified Glauert (MG) airfoil experiencing aeroelastic limit cycle oscillation (LCO) from which energy may be extracted. Synthetic jet actuators (SJA)s are used along with the unique geometry of the MG airfoil to control flow separation and amplify the LCO and energy generation potential of the system. The discussed wind energy harvesting scheme could provide flexibility in allowing installations previously unsuitable to wind turbines due to geometric or low wind velocity …

Passenger Traits That Predict The Bystander Intervention Model Steps During An Inflight Assault On A Flight Attendant, Michael Pettit

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Every major U.S. airline has experienced a violent inflight assault on one of their flight attendants. The problem is becoming more widespread, but industry leaders have few coping strategies. The first step toward addressing the issue is understanding the various aspects of the event, including the actions of other passengers (bystanders) who may witness the assault. There is ample literature on bystander reactions to similar events such as bullying, medical emergencies, injuries, and violent attacks, but none dedicated to a flight attendant assault or passenger reactions to it.

At the core of bystander action is the bystander effect, which postulates …

Implementation Of Path Planning Methods To Detect And Avoid Gps Signal Degradation In Urban Environments, Ayush Raminedi

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

In the modern world, various missions are being carried out under the assistance of autonomous flight vehicles due to their ability to operate in a wide range of flight conditions. Regardless, these autonomous vehicles are prone to GPS signal loss in urban environments due to obstructions that cause scintillation, multi-path, and shadowing. These effects that decrease the GPS functionality can deteriorate the accuracy of GPS positioning causing losses in signal tracking leading to a decrease in navigation performance. These effects are modeled into the simulation environment and are used as part of the path planning algorithm to provide better navigation …

The Use Of Virtual Reality Training Environments For Procedural Training In Fourth-Generation Airliners, Mark Edgar Mccullins

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This study examined the effectiveness of using virtual reality training environments for procedural training in fourth-generation airliners. Its goal was to assess whether the training outcomes from a recurrent training course for FAA certificated Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) technicians, which used a Full Flight Simulator (FFS) to deliver and assess training, differed from the same training delivered using a Virtual Reality (VR) device.

The study used an experimental design with three groups and two within-group measures of training effectiveness. The control group followed the current training program and was assessed in the FFS, while the second group was trained using …

Initial Orbit Determination Of Uncooperative Satellites Using Particle Swarm Optimization From The Point Of View Of A Novel Observer Orbit, Taylor Yow

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Initial orbit determination is an incredibly valuable tool in the field of space situational awareness (SSA). As the number of launches increases every year, more objects are being put into space around the Earth and with political tensions mounting between certain space-accessing countries such as the United States of America (USA), Russia, and China, the number of satellites whose orbits are unknown to a political rival are increasing as well. In this research, orbit estimation of uncooperative target satellites from the point of view of novel orbits using particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is explored. Two cost functions for the …

Implementing An Approach To Prevent Life-Threatening Bleeding: Guidance On Forming A Campus Initiative, Elizabeth Caulkins, Katheryn Courville Johnston, Belinda Deal, Amanda Swanberg, Glenn A. Barnes, Jessica Bowen

Nursing Faculty Publications and Presentations

A community that is trained to respond to life-threatening bleeding can reduce the risk of death from trauma and violence. Stop The Bleed is a nationally recognized, free, 1- hour bleeding control training designed for laypersons. Implementing a campus-wide Stop the Bleed initiative can be daunting, yet vital to creating a safe, prepared campus. Guidance is offered by faculty, staff, and students from a Stop the Bleed initiative at a public university in the southern United States. This guide provides real-life examples and recommendations based on experience. Utilization of population health nursing students is a fundamental component of success.

Petition

Catholic Dioceses in Bankruptcy

No abstract provided.

Synchronized Bionic Hand: Harmonizing Robotics With Rhythm, Deven Ayambem , '24

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This report explores the therapeutic potential of rhythmic movement to music, focusing specifically on the "wave dance" movements of the human hand. Utilizing a mechanical analog, the study models the hand as a system of five interconnected mass-spring-dampers to simulate the dynamic and kinematic responses of the hand's joints to rhythmic stimuli. Through a combined approach of MATLAB simulation and physical modeling with servo motors controlled by Arduino, the project aims to quantify and visualize the effects of rhythmic movements on joint dynamics. The simulation employs the mass-spring-damper system to represent each joint and uses an impulse response approach to …

Myoelectric Robotic Hand To Play Guitar, Oliver Garcia , '24

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Around 5.6 million people in the US have had an amputation or were born with limb difference. Some of these people find prostheses to be useful devices that allow them to perform desired activities that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to carry out. One form of prosthetic that, as far as I have found, has not been developed, is one for fretting chords on a guitar. Such a prosthetic would require multiple degrees of freedom for each finger, fine motor control, as well as quick actuation and signal interpretation. Most general purpose robotic prostheses today are either far too …

Longitudinal Evaluation Of Vitamin D Concentrations In Relation To The Onset Of Type 2 Diabetes In American Adults: A Secondary Data Analysis, Kathryn Michelle Schurr

Dissertations

Background: Prior research has suggested that low levels of Vitamin D may have negative effects on various biological functions, including Type 2 diabetes. The relationship between Vitamin D and the risk of Type 2 Diabetes has not yet been fully investigated. The objective of this research is to examine patients’ laboratory test data longitudinally to determine how vitamin D and other covariates of interest affect Type 2 diabetes status over time.

Methods: This study used retrospective data review from Quest Diagnostics from January 1, 2010, through December 31, 2022. Patients included in the study were required to have consecutive test …

Establishing Practical Equivalence Of Factor Loadings In Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Christopher Edward Shank

Dissertations

This dissertation compares the performance of equivalence test (EQT) and null hypothesis test (NHT) procedures for identifying invariant and noninvariant factor loadings under a range of experimental manipulations. EQT is the statistically appropriate approach when the research goal is to find evidence of group similarity rather than group difference; despite this, the conventional approach to measurement invariance analysis relies upon NHT. EQT has proved effective for invariance detection using global model-data fit statistics in simulated and real-world data (Counsell et al., 2020) but its use in partial measurement invariance (PMI) analysis for evaluation of factor loading differences between groups has …

Circumventing The Fourth Amendment: The Unconstitutional Nature Of Geofence Warrants, Shelby Stender

Utah Law Review

Federal and state law enforcement agencies are using a new tactic for gathering evidence: geofence warrants. These warrants allow law enforcement to gather historical location data collected by third party companies including Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. Armed with a geofence warrant today, law enforcement agencies can track the previous location of an individual at any point from the moment they acquired a cell phone—so long as the location history is turned on. The tactic has grown in popularity since 2019 and has been used to uncover suspects in cases where police had few leads. Troublingly though, the tactic has …

Interaction Between Continuous Pack-Years Smoked And Polygenic Risk Score On Lung Cancer Risk, Meredith S. Duncan, Hector Diaz-Zabala, James Jaworski, Hilary A. Tindle, Robert A. Greevy, Loren Lipworth, Rayjean J. Hung, Matthew S. Freiberg, Melinda C. Aldrich

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: Lung cancer risk attributable to smoking is dose dependent, yet few studies examining a polygenic risk score (PRS) by smoking interaction have included comprehensive lifetime packyears smoked. Methods: We analyzed data from participants of European ancestry in the Framingham Heart StudyOriginal (n = 454) andOffspring (n = 2,470) cohorts enrolled in 1954 and 1971, respectively, and followed through 2018. We built a PRS for lung cancer using participant genotyping data and genome-wide association study summary statistics froma recent study in theOncoArray Consortium. We used Cox proportional hazards regression models to assess risk and the interaction between pack-years smoked and …

Genetic Associations With Dementia-Related Proteinopathy, Yuriko Katsumata, David W. Fardo, Lincoln M.P. Shade, Xian Wu, Shama D. Karanth, Timothy J. Hohman, Julie A. Schneider, David A. Bennett, Jose M. Farfel, Kathryn Gauthreaux, Charles Mock, Walter A. Kukull, Erin L. Abner, Peter T. Nelson, Maria Carrillo, Eric M. Reiman, Kewei Chen, Donna Masterman, Robert C. Green, Carole Ho, Adam Fleisher, Andrew J. Saykin, Kwangsik Nho, Liana G. Apostolova, Shannon L. Risacher, Jonathan Jackson

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: Although dementia-related proteinopathy has a strong negative impact on public health, and is highly heritable, understanding of the related genetic architecture is incomplete. METHODS: We applied multidimensional generalized partial credit modeling (GPCM) to test genetic associations with dementia-related proteinopathies. Data were analyzed to identify candidate single nucleotide variants for the following proteinopathies: Aβ, tau, α-synuclein, and TDP-43. RESULTS: Final included data comprised 966 participants with neuropathologic and WGS data. Three continuous latent outcomes were constructed, corresponding to TDP-43-, Aβ/Tau-, and α-synuclein-related neuropathology endophenotype scores. This approach helped validate known genotype/phenotype associations: for example, TMEM106B and GRN were risk alleles …

Neurological Diagnoses In Hospitalized Covid-19 Patients Associated With Adverse Outcomes, Meghan R Hutch, Jiyeon Son, Trang T Le, Chuan Hong, Xuan Wang, Zahra Shakeri Hossein Abad, Michele Morris, Alba Gutiérrez-Sacristán, Jeffrey G Klann, Anastasia Spiridou, Ashley Batugo, Riccardo Bellazzi, Vincent Benoit, Clara-Lea Bonzel, William A Bryant, Lorenzo Chiudinelli, Kelly Cho, Priyam Das, Tomás González González, David A Hanauer, Darren W Henderson, Yuk-Lam Ho, Ne Hooi Will Loh, Adeline Makoudjou, Simran Makwana, Alberto Malovini, Bertrand Moal

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Few studies examining the patient outcomes of concurrent neurological manifestations during acute COVID-19 leveraged multinational cohorts of adults and children or distinguished between central and peripheral nervous system (CNS vs. PNS) involvement. Using a federated multinational network in which local clinicians and informatics experts curated the electronic health records data, we evaluated the risk of prolonged hospitalization and mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients from 21 healthcare systems across 7 countries. For adults, we used a federated learning approach whereby we ran Cox proportional hazard models locally at each healthcare system and performed a meta-analysis on the aggregated results to estimate …

Deciphering The Functional Connections Between The Nuclear Paraspeckle And Rad51 Homologous Recombination Proteins Using A Yeast Protein Interaction System, Eric J. Nutz

Senior Theses

Homologous recombination (HR) is a repair pathway for DNA double-stranded breaks. Mutations in HR genes contribute to genomic instability and increase the prevalence of cancer. Exploiting HR deficiency in tumor cells has led to improved synthetic lethality outcomes. RAD51 paralogue protein complexes are known to be involved with HR. Proteomic analysis of RAD51 paralogues reveals a connection to the nuclear paraspeckle. A paraspeckle is a little-known, specialized organelle found in the interchromatin space of the nucleus in mammalian cells. Its three central protein components include SFPQ, NONO, and PSPC1. RAD51D is an HR protein shown previously to interact with SFPQ …

A Third Way: Christian Philosophy Of Music, Eric S. Gardner

Senior Theses

Philosophers have posed many difficult-to-answer questions regarding music. For example, what counts as beautiful music? Can beauty be objectified, or is beauty in the eye of the beholder? What counts as a performance of a piece of music? Besides, what counts as music anyways? Where does the noise stop, and where does the music begin? In this thesis, I want to show that the Christian worldview offers the philosophical building blocks to answer these questions. By working with biblical truths and Christian presuppositions, I hope to show that the Christian worldview can offer satisfying answers to these philosophical questions.

Meme Stocks, Robinhood, And Wall Street: Retail Investors And Changing Market Dynamics, Nick Murray, Spencer Brosnan

Senior Theses

This thesis explores the rise of retail investors in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they have changed the landscape of financial markets. We outline the full timeline of the GME and AMC social media craze that exemplified the power of retail investors in the market and investigate the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on this group. Through the use of VandaTrack, a software that tracks retail investors’ trading activity, we were able to quantify the impact that retail investors have on US equities and ETFs and compare them to the market as a whole. We utilized this …

A Covenant People: Providentialism In Seventeenth-Century New England And Its Impact On The Development Of The Salem Witch Trials, Gracie L. Vess

Senior Theses

This project explores the New English Puritan ideology of providentialism from the first settlement of New England in 1620 to the Salem Village witch trials in 1692. During this period New England watched its motherland experience civil war, the overthrow of the monarchy, the installation of a commonwealth, the failure of the Puritan Reformation, the restoration of the monarchy, and the Glorious Revolution. These events influenced the way New Englanders saw England’s relationship with God as well as the meaning behind their providential purpose by allowing them to believe God had turned his wrath on England, so the colonists needed …

The Lawgiver And "The Progress Of Evil", Andre Chang

Senior Theses

The study advances a reinterpretation of Madison’s concept of “constitutional liquidation,” presenting it not merely as a theory of legal interpretation but as a broader political strategy for preserving republican government amid recurring crises. Through an analysis of Madison’s responses to the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, and the nullification controversy, the thesis demonstrates how Madison sought to balance constitutional stability with principled conflict, allowing fundamental questions of authority, justice, and union to be resolved through disciplined public deliberation rather than force or procedural formalism.

Finally, the thesis contends that Madison’s commitment to national supremacy and …