Digital Commons Network^™

Characterizing And Modeling Spectral State Dynamics In Human Cortex, Heraclitos Maximos Lefcochilos-Fogelquist

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

There is increasing evidence that the large-scale spectral dynamics of human cortex can exhibit non-Gaussian features and marked variation over a range of timescales in resting state. Robust documentation and characterization of such complex phenomena, however, remains a challenge and is comparatively sparse, given the paradigmatic complexity of the human brain. Here, we adopt a methodological approach which can account for dynamic changes in spectral signals of electrophysiological data by explicitly using a measure of spectral variation over time, for which we can generate single-variable time courses, enabling robust characterization of the real-time activity of spectral modes across various timescales. …

Acquisition Of Hydrogen To Earth-Like Planets By The Solar Wind Radiation: A Possible Way To Get Water Within The Snowline During Planetary Formation, Qinting Jiang

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Volatile delivery of terrestrial planets within the snowline is one of the key issues in planetary science. The solar wind has been considered a significant contributor to the volatile acquired by dust within the snowline and of airless planetary bodies surfaces. This thesis explores the effects of solar wind implantation on planetary materials through a series of experimental and theoretical studies, focusing on three interrelated aspects: volatile acquisition, lattice damage mechanical weakening dust grains, and volatile isotopic evolution of the irradiated mineral grains. First, we performed hydrogen implantation experiments on olivine, orthopyroxene, and quartz to investigate the distribution and concentration …

Chemosensory Variation Within And Across Bacterial Species, Jeremy Philippe Moore

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Bacteria use a highly conserved sensory pathway to navigate chemical gradients. In particular, the chemotactic signaling pathway of Escherichia coli is one of the best-characterized systems in biology. However, despite decades of study, there are still open questions about bacterial chemotaxis, including how clusters of receptors cooperatively amplify signals, how variability in the composition of these arrays affects behavioral diversity, and how findings in E. coli generalize to diverse motile behaviors across bacteria. In this thesis, we explore diversity in chemosensory capabilities within and across bacteria species. First, we characterize the distribution of sensitivities to various chemical attractants in populations …

Building Certified Systems With Compositional Semantics, Yu Zhang

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Formal verification has emerged as the most rigorous approach for building reliable computer systems. Certified systems, in particular, are accompanied by a formal specification and a machine-checkable proof of correctness, enabling independent verification by third parties. However, verifying large-scale, heterogeneous systems presents significant challenges that current techniques cannot adequately address. Such systems require compositional methods that can flexibly integrate diverse verification approaches, including program logic, certified compilation, and data abstraction. While compositional semantics offers a promising foundation, existing frameworks are typically built on specialized operational models that resist integration with one another. This dissertation presents a three-dimensional algebraic compositional structure …

Unwanted Transitions Of A Superconducting Qubit Induced By Microwave Drives, Pavel Kurilovich

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Quantum bits built from microwave superconducting circuit components such as capacitors, inductors, and tunnel junctions are one of the leading platforms for realizing a fault-tolerant quantum computer. A roadblock towards this goal is the insufficient fidelity of operations -- single-qubit gates, two-qubit gates, and readout measurements -- performed on the quantum bits via microwave pulses. The main limitation of operation fidelity comes from decoherence. If the operation is performed too slowly compared to the decoherence time, a qubit error will happen. Usually, it is possible to speed up the operations by increasing the power of the microwave pulse. However, reducing …

Inference Of Somatic Selection In Cancer: Methods And Applications, Jeffrey Mandell

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Cancers are predominantly understood as diseases in which somatic tissue lineagesacquire genetic or epigenetic alterations that confer traits which lead to aberrant cell growth. Such phenotypes include maintenance of proliferative signaling, resistance of apoptotic signaling, and immune suppression. In a microcosm of classical evolution, which progresses via random genetic drift and natural selection, somatic cells accumulate mutations throughout the life course. The small subset of mutations (or other heritable alterations) that provide proliferative advantages to the cells in which they occur tend to gain prevalence in subsequent generations, which may eventually lead to clonal evolution of cancer cell traits. While …

Unveiling The Spatial Cellular Dynamics And Regulatory Network In Glioblastoma, Shuozhen Bao

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a grade IV astrocytoma, the most common malignant brain tumor in adults, which has a poor prognosis and high recurrence. To better understand the disease's fundamental mechanism, tremendous effort has been made to investigate the molecular and cellular interactions between malignant cells and the tumor microenvironment using single-cell technology. However, the spatial intra-tumoral information of GBM, including the disease progression regulatory network and cellular dynamics, has yet to be widely constructed. Our investigation undertakes a novel approach to address the challenges. Specifically, we employ different spatial omics technologies at all levels from epigenetics, transcriptomics, post-transcriptomics, and proteomics, …

Extending And Improving The Study Of Gene Expression Regulatory Mechanisms, Isaac William Vock

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Gene expression levels are a product of RNA synthesis and degradation kinetics. In addition, the bulk rates of RNA synthesis and decay are a function of the rates of several highly regulated biochemical steps, from transcription initiation, productive elongation, RNA processing, export from the nucleus, and degradation in either the cytoplasm or nucleus. When gene expression levels need to be regulated, cells can tune any combination of these kinetic parameters to achieve the desired change. If one only studies the levels of mature RNA and their fluctuations, one misses out on understanding the intricate kinetic regulation underlying gene expression. Because …

Development Of Quantum Machine Learning Methods Applied To Drug Discovery, Anthony Michael Smaldone

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

At the intersection of quantum computing and machine learning, quantum machine learning (QML) has the potential to drive major breakthroughs in chemistry and drug discovery. This dissertation explores the development of quantum neural networks and their application within drug discovery tools, navigating a deliberate path from current methodologies towards quantum enhancement under progressively more practical assumptions. Initially, we present novel Quantum Convolutional Neural Network (QCNN) architectures for multi-channel supervised learning (Chapter 2), laying the groundwork for use in a wide variety of drug discovery tasks such as protein-ligand binding affinity and structure prediction. Despite state-of-the-art performance among QCNNs on benchmark, …

Learning Randomized Reductions For Security, Privacy, And Side-Channel Resilience, Ferhat Erata

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Modern computing systems face multifaceted challenges in security, privacy, and leakage resilience. This dissertation makes four key contributions to addressing these challenges through novel combinations of symbolic reasoning, machine learning, and neurosymbolic techniques. First, it develops symbolic AI techniques for analyzing side-channel vulnerabilities in low-level code and quantum computers. I introduce novel symbolic register analyses to automatically detect power side-channel vulnerabilities in constant-time cryptographic implementations. Additionally, I demonstrate an algebraic reconstruction method using Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) optimization to reverse-engineer quantum circuits from power traces, enabling extraction of proprietary circuit information. Second, my research pioneers automated learning of randomized self-reductions …

Curriculum Vitae Of Mark L. Weinstein, Mark Weinstein

Collected Papers of Mark Weinstein

No abstract provided.

‘Waves Of Imagination’ Unconditional Spectogram Diffusion Using Diffusion Architecture., Rahul Vanukuri

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

The swift evolution of wireless communication technologies,particularly in the field of rf signals or in CBRS bands,demands increasingly sophisticated signal processing techniques to ensure efficient transmission, reception, and spectrum management.Traditional approaches to signal generation and reconstruction, although effective in controlled environments, often struggle to cope with the challenges presented by real-world noisy conditions, hardware constraints, and limited access to large-scale datasets. In response to these limitations, this thesis explores the application of diffusion models—a class of generative models known for their ability to produce high-fidelity samples—to the domain of spectrogram generation for communication signals.

Different from conventional strategies to simulate …

Transient Thermal Finite Element Simulation For Process Modeling In Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing, Satya Sai Kumar Pilli

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This thesis presents the development of a transient thermal framework for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) created using ANSYS Workbench. This study aims to understand the inherent properties and thermal behavior of WAAM by using the Finite Element (FE) simulation technique to reduce the need for experiments. Specifically, the transient thermal WAAM simulation framework uses the heat source Goldak model to understand the thermal behavior for a given voltage, initial temperature, and travel speed during the process to predict process temperature. The outcomes of this thesis aim to significantly decrease material waste and repetitive experiments and accelerate production process design …

Design Of Aluminum-Copper Alloy With Scandium In Solution, Austin M. Depottey

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The 2xxx series of precipitation-strengthened aluminum-copper alloys are commonly used in high-temperature applications (up to 300°C) where lightweight metals are required. Scandium additions to aluminum-copper alloys have gained recent academic interest due to improved high-temperature mechanical properties, by forming coarsening- resistant Al3Sc dispersoids and stabilization of θ′ precipitates. However, gaps in knowledge about the effects of scandium present a challenge to successful commercialization of aluminum-copper-scandium alloys. This work seeks to explore these knowledge gaps and ultimately design and test a commercially feasible aluminum- copper alloy with scandium. To better understand the processing conditions required to avoid the detrimental W-phase (Al8Cu4Sc), …

The Implications Of A Rise In The Minimum Wage: Evidence From Female Workers In Mexico, Isabella Cardenas Padilla

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis analyzes the 2019 minimum wage reform in Mexico, evaluating its impact on female labor market outcomes, including labor force participation, formal employment, and informal employment. This reform introduced a new geographic minimum wage zone along municipalities bordering the United States, accompanied by fiscal incentives, creating a natural experiment for analysis. Using difference-in-differences regression specifications, the study finds that the minimum wage increase was associated with a rise in formal sector employment and a corresponding decline in informal employment among women with low educational attainment. This study finds a magnitude of 6 percentage points in each direction, an economically …

Benched Judges, Anna Roberts

Indiana Law Journal

In multiple jurisdictions, if the prosecutor wants to attack the credibility of a person testifying in their own defense with that witness’s prior felony convictions, the judge has no power to say no. Judges decry their powerlessness. Their opinions reveal three types of concerns: that these convictions lack probative value on the issue of credibility, that they inflict unfair prejudice that jury instructions cannot ameliorate, and that the power transferred by these provisions from judge to prosecutor is undeserved and abused.

There is much that could be done to address these concerns. The rules could be reinterpreted or rewritten to …

Enhancing Patient-Centered Care Through Predictive Modeling To Optimize Appointment Scheduling In Pediatric Care, Linda Anna Penitusi-Burford

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

This study evaluated the predictive performance of three forecasting models—Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), Prophet, and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)—to determine which most accurately forecasts pediatric appointment availability. The research was guided by the theory that accurate forecasting can enhance healthcare scheduling by aligning appointment supply with patient demand, thereby advancing patient-centered care (PCC).

A quantitative, comparative design was employed using two years of pediatric online scheduling records. The methodological framework incorporated multiple forecast horizons (30–180 days) and statistical analyses, including ANOVA, paired sample t-tests, and regression. Model performance was assessed using standard error metrics: Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean …

The Relevance Of Dnajb1 Protein Dimerization Against The Human Neurodegenerative Diseases, Erina Kotreli, Trang Le, Szymon Ciesielski

Dean's Leadership Council Library Research Prize

All biological functions in living organisms depend on the activity of proteins, long molecules that must twist and fold into specific shapes to become functional. A subset of proteins known as molecular chaperones is essential for maintaining cellular health by assisting other proteins in folding correctly and refolding those damaged by stress. When proteins misfold and clump together, they can form toxic aggregates linked to many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), one of the leading causes of death in the United States. In AD, these protein aggregates form organized, elongated structures referred to as amyloid-like fibrils, which damage neurons …

Bitcoin Adoption And Beliefs In Canada: A Reply To Van Hove (Journal Of Comments And Replications In Economics, 2025), Daniela Balutel, Christopher Henry, Jorge Vásquez, Marcel Voia

Economics: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Exploring Minority Students’ Perceptions Of Using Open Educational Resources In A Computer Game Design Course, Yu-Tung Kuo, Yu-Chun Kuo, Hungwei Tseng

Research, Publications & Creative Work

With the increasing use of open educational resources (OERs) in higher education, and the potential of OERs to enhance student learning, this study investigated minority students’ perceptions of using OERs in learning computer programming. The influence of minority students’ OER perceptions on their learning outcomes, as well as the relationships of the perception variables were explored. The participants were minority students from an HBCU institution in the southeastern United States. Quantitative approaches were used to analyze the collected data. The results indicated that the minority students’ perceptions of using OERs had a significant influence on their perceived learning outcomes in …

Institutionalisation And Institutional Evolution: A Model Of Selecting Government Officials In Ancient China, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

The evolution of institutions in selecting government officials in ancient China reflected efficiency considerations and increased power concentration in the hands of the ruler. Selecting government officials in ancient China became more rule‐based over time, and standardisation and centralisation were some key features of this process. In this dynamic model, a higher volume of transactions, shown as the number of candidates needed to be evaluated, leads to institutionalisation, which has a higher fixed cost but a lower marginal cost in processing each transaction. In the steady state, a ruler with a more encompassing interest chooses a higher level of institutionalisation. …

The Grim Reaper Argument Is An Argument For No One, Daniel Linford, Alex Malpass

Philosophy Faculty Publications

According to a prominent philosophical argument for the beginning of time – the Grim Reaper Argument (GRA) – had it been possible for the past to be infinite, then a provably impossible scenario could have been constructed. Such a scenario is not possible, so, the GRA concludes, the past cannot be infinite. Here, we show that the GRA includes one premise acceptable only for Humeans and another premise acceptable only for anti-Humeans. Since, plausibly, everyone is either a Humean or an anti-Humean, the GRA is an argument for no one. Additionally, we argue that there may not be a way …

Application Of Fuzzy Logic For Evaluation Of Student Performance, M. Tomovic, C. Tomovic, V. Jovanovic, S. Bawab

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The evaluation of student performance is a multifaceted process that traditionally relies on rigid grading systems, often failing to capture the complexity of student abilities and learning dynamics. This paper explores the application of fuzzy logic to enhance the accuracy and adaptability of student performance evaluation. By leveraging fuzzy logic principles, such as membership functions and linguistic variables, we model and assess the various factors influencing student performance—ranging from academic grades to engagement, participation, and personal learning styles. The approach allows for the representation of imprecise, uncertain, and subjective data, offering a more holistic view of a student’s progress. We …

Building Cyber Resilience: Educational Programs In K-12 Education, Mildred Jones, Vukica Jovanovic, Petros Katsioloudis

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The article discusses the challenges of teaching cybersecurity in K-12 education. Topics mentioned include the lack of access to resources and appropriate professional development, the career and technical education cybersecurity pathways, the fundamental pathways for cybersecurity and information technology and the results of program evaluation in several local community high schools from 2021 and 2022.

Assessing Gender Differences In The Students’ Academic Performance, Aptitude, Emotional Intelligence And Grit, Farheen Nasir, Athari Almuraikhi, Asma Alkusayer, Fatima Saeed, Abdulmohsen Alkushi, Areej S. Alowfi, Muhammad Alghaihab, Faizan Nasir

Health Professions Education

Purpose: This research aimed to assess gender differences in academic performance, aptitude, emotional intelligence, and grit among the students.

Method: The sample included 302 students (250 females and 52 males) from Saudi health sciences institutes, located in Riyadh, Jeddah and Alahsa. Data collection was done through Google Forms which was based on demographic information, Self-Report Measure of Emotional Intelligence and Grit Scales. Results: Statistical analysis was done through STATA-16 by applying ANOVA. Results indicated a significant gender difference in students’ CGPA, aptitude and emotional intelligence. However, there was an insignificant gender difference in students’ grit scores. Conclusion: The findings show …

Role Of Environmental Attitudes And Demographic Factors In Predicting Quality Of Life: The Mediating Role Of Environmental Awareness, Wan Jamaluddin Z, Nanang Supriadi, Suherman Suherman

Health Professions Education

Purpose. The aim of this study was to explore the role of environmental awareness as a mediator in the connections between environmental attitudes, demographic factors, and quality of life.

Method. A total of 397 students in higher education had an average age of 19.1+1.06 years participated in this study. Structural equation modelling was applied for data analysis, revealing satisfactory construct validity and instrument reliability.

Results. The finding highlighted a both environmental attitudes and awareness has positive association with quality of life, while demographic factors were anticipated to positively relate to it. Interestingly, environmental awareness acted as a mediator between demographic …

Gramseq-Dta: A Grammar-Based Drug-Target Affinity Prediction Approach Fusing Gene Expression Information, Kasul Debnath, Pratip Rana, Preetam Ghosh

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Drug–target affinity (DTA) prediction is a critical aspect of drug discovery. The meaningful representation of drugs and targets is crucial for accurate prediction. Using 1D string-based representations for drugs and targets is a common approach that has demonstrated good results in drug–target affinity prediction. However, these approach lacks information on the relative position of the atoms and bonds. To address this limitation, graph-based representations have been used to some extent. However, solely considering the structural aspect of drugs and targets may be insufficient for accurate DTA prediction. Integrating the functional aspect of these drugs at the genetic level can enhance …

Mentoring Experiences Of Student Teachers During Teaching Practice In Nigeria, Osita Victor Ossai, Sarita Ramsaroop

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A growing number of stakeholders in teacher education in Nigeria have raised concerns about the quality of mentoring in schools. In this study, we aim to explore the mentoring experiences of student teachers during their field experiences. Using a mixed-methods study, data were collected from student teachers in the education faculty at a University in Nigeria. Quantitative data on student-teacher mentoring experiences were collected using the Student-Teacher Mentoring Experience Questionnaire. Qualitative data comprised individual interviews and was analysed thematically. Findings indicated that student teachers lacked adequate mentoring and support and without timely evaluations and quality feedback, their ability to reflect …

Basic Skills Of 21st Century Teachers, Ömer Cem Karacaoğlu

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study aims to determine the basic skills that 21st century teachers should have. The study is based on the opinions of 79 teachers working in different disciplines on four different campuses in Izmir. The qualitative study used storage technique and content analysis. The opinions of the participants were evaluated to clarify the skill expressions, create themes and determine data categories. The study found that teachers prioritized several core competencies, including creativity, empathy and communication, critical thinking, problem solving and crisis management, and collaboration, curiosity and digital literacy. Other skills were determined as reading comprehension, learning to learn, patience, emotional …

Assessment Of Initial Teacher Education From The Evaluated’ Perspective: A Literature Review, Carla E. Förster, Andrea Ruffinelli, Tatiana Cisternas, Francisca Donoso

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Many quality assurance policies for teacher education are linked to the assessment of their training and although this is widely studied, the subjects’ perspectives have not been taken into consideration. This study sought to answer: how do the subjects perceive these education assessments and how do those assessments influence their training? A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) search was conducted, rendering the selection of 12 articles. The results indicate that the studies incorporating the subjects' opinions were limited to two instruments: the edTPA from the United States and LANTITE from Australia. Both the performance-based format (edTPA) and the measurement of literacy …