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Parameter Density Estimation For Cardiac Electrophysiology Models Using Data Consistent Deep Learning, Michael Luo

Dissertations

Mathematical models of biological rhythms and excitable systems can provide insights into mechanisms underlying cardiac electrical dynamics. However, estimating the parameters of these models from experimental observations is often difficult due to noise, heterogeneity, and unobserved variables. For example, in an electrocardiogram (ECG) recording, information about the electrical properties of different regions of the heart is compressed into a single voltage trace. Additionally, variability within these signals may contain important information about population heterogeneity, regional differences in electrophysiology, and time-dependent modulation.

This dissertation develops, explores, and evaluates methods that perform feature-based distributional inference for complex nonlinear dynamical systems. The objective …

Transcranial Ac Modulation Of Cerebellar Nuclear Activity In Awake Animals, Nuran Kavakli

Dissertations

Entrainment of cerebellar nuclear (CN) cells via cerebellar transcranial alternating current stimulation (ctACS) has been reported in animals under ketamine/xylazine anesthesia. Our main objective was to demonstrate modulation of CN activity in unanesthetized, freely moving animals using ctACS. Multi-channel carbon-fiber electrodes were implanted into the interpositus nucleus for recording multi-unit (MU) activity, and thin-film electrodes were implanted subcutaneously over the posterior cerebellum for stimulation. A frequency-domain-based metric was developed to quantify modulation from MU signals. The results demonstrated modulation in a wide range of frequencies (4 Hz-300 Hz) as in anesthetized animals. In contrast, the amplitude of the peak in …

A Network-Cascade Framework For Short-Run Production Failure Under Maritime-Energy Chokepoint Disruption, Siyao Liu

Double Helix Methodology

Abrupt maritime-energy disruption can generate system-wide production losses before firms and policymakers can adjust. Existing assessments usually emphasize direct exposure or long-run equilibrium responses, which makes them less suitable for short-run risk assessment in energy-dependent production systems. We develop a threshold-cascade framework that combines dual-track dependence topology, edge-level inventories, smooth operability bands, and a separate price-validation step to identify the blockade intensity at which a localized chokepoint shock becomes systemic production loss. The framework is evaluated against the March 2021 Suez blockage and the 2022 Russia–Ukraine producer-price episode, and then applied to a 2026 Strait of Hormuz stress scenario using …

Mapping The Future Of Digital Logistics: A Multi-Layered Analysis Of Technological Evolution And Integration, Jiang Yu

Double Helix Methodology

In the context of accelerating digital transformation and increasingly complex global supply chains, this study develops a multi-layered analytical framework to investigate the technological evolution and future trajectory of digital logistics. Using 107,202 patent records from the IncoPat database covering 1960–2023, the study integrates the entropy weight method, grey relational analysis, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), and a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) to identify core patents, extract technological topics, and forecast their dynamic evolution through 2028. The findings identify 27 major technological topics and reveal a significant transition from traditional operational optimization toward integrated intelligence and autonomous execution. Technologies related to …

Evaluating Flood Risk Management Performance Under Climate Change Based On Nature-Based Solutions — Empirical Evidence From Taihu Lake Basin, Shaofeng Chen, Conglin Zhang

Double Helix Methodology

Identifying a flood risk management (FRM) performance evaluation method that aligns with the sustainable development goals of the natural-social complex ecosystem is essential for effective and timely responses to flood risks. Using the Taihu Lake Basin (TLB) as a case study, this research systematically examines the evolving needs of FRM under climate change and proposes a performance evaluation method based on Nature-based Solutions (NbS). The method covers multiple dimensions including flood resources, socio-economic, and environmental factors. Principal component analysis (PCA) is employed to assess changes in the FRM level in TLB from 2010 to 2020. The key findings are as …

Empowering Lifelong Choice: Supporting Older Individuals With Idd To Thrive At Work, Transition To Retirement With Dignity, And Maintain Community Connections, Leslie Quarles

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This synthesis addresses the need to support older individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in their engagement in continued work. The project traces the journey from an initial focus on supporting older individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to work as long as they wish to an eventual shift toward a phased retirement approach. It considers issues such as a reimagined visualization of the support team structure, integration of tailored job supports and Community Life Engagement (CLE). The author's familial history sparked a sense of injustice that would not stay buried, shaping a career path in disability services and access. …

Omama-Db: The Oregon-Massachusetts Mammography Database, Avanih Kanamarlapudi

Graduate Masters Theses

Public datasets for training AI models in breast cancer screening are limited in size and quality, making it difficult to develop reliable systems. We introduce OMAMA-DB, an extensive publicly available collection of 2D mammograms and 3D tomosynthesis volumes. Starting from 967,991 images, we created a curated set of 231,080 images us ing a multi-stage filtering process that removes missing labels, uncommon dimensions, rare scanner types, duplicate studies, and invalid DICOM files. All 2D images then undergo additional outlier detection using histogram filtering and a variational autoen coder to remove low-quality outliers. OMAMA-DB includes pathology-based cancer labels and automated lesion annotations …

Petals And Pride: A Botanical History Of Queer Expression, Sarah O. Kowal

Graduate Masters Theses

“Petals and Pride” examines the historical use of flowers as enduring symbols of queer expression and persecution across diverse cultures and time periods, paying particular attention to violets, green carnations, roses, lilies, pansies, and lavender. This study begins with the appearance of violets in the works of the Ancient Greek poet Sappho and traces their adoption by the lesbian community of Paris at the turn of the twentieth century. Around this same time, another floral symbol emerged across the English Channel: the green carnation. Popularized by Oscar Wilde, the green carnation functioned in Victorian Britain as an emblem of sexuality …

The Hunt For Prestige: An Econometric Study Of The Impact Of Cost Of Attendance Stipends In College Football On Cost Of Attendance And Student Loan Debt, Greg Chick

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

In 2015, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) authorized Division I institutions to provide Cost-of-Attendance (COA) stipends to student-athletes, marking the first NCAA-endorsed form of direct athlete compensation. Critics warned that institutions would inflate COA estimates to offer larger stipends, potentially increasing student loan borrowing among the broader student population. Drawing on Bowen's (1980) revenue theory of cost and O'Meara's (2007) theory of striving institutions, this dissertation examines whether Group of 5 and FBS independent institutions increased their published COA following stipend adoption, and whether Power 5 institutions experienced downstream effects on student loan debt.

Results indicate null effects across …

Adapting Population Genetics, Practice, And Policy For Plant Conservation In A Changing World, Cooper M. Kimball-Rhines

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Biodiversity conservation is an inherently interdisciplinary goal that requires effective collaboration among academics, ecosystem managers, policymakers, and other stakeholders. Codesigning research with these groups ensures experiments are useful and improves adoption of policy and practice recommendations while advancing our understanding of basic science. This dissertation explores the power of codesigned research in shaping plant conservation strategies using stakeholder engagement, causal inference, demographic modeling, and multi-omic sequencing techniques. In chapter 1 I discuss the history of New England ecosystems and the need for research-driven changes to plant conservation policy and practice in the face of global change. In chapter 2, I …

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?: A Phenomenological Case Study Of Teacher Turnover In An Urban School Merger, Haven Jones

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

School mergers are becoming a more common occurrence in urban school districts within the U.S., as an attempt to address student enrollment declines and resulting budgetary concerns. Yet very little research has been conducted to understand how the context of a school merger influences known K-12 education phenomena, such as the teacher turnover decision-making process. This study utilized a phenomenological case study approach to explore the impact of a school merger on teacher turnover within a specific middle school-high school merger in a Northeastern city. Fifteen teacher participants were interviewed and three primary source documents were analyzed to determine what …

Pipelines And Power: Governance, Conflict, And Hybrid Political Orders In Nigeria's Niger Delta, Nkasiobu Wodu

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

Many conflict-affected states in the Global South can be described as Hybrid Political Orders—governance arrangements where informal authority and formal state institutions coexist, overlap, and contest for power. In Nigeria's Niger Delta, this phenomenon is clearly evident. In this context, the exercise of governmental authority extends beyond the Weberian State. Local and non-state actors such as ethnic-based organizations, former combatants, and traditional authorities routinely perform government-like functions within their spheres of influence.

This study analyzes how extractive corporations, informal authorities, and the Nigerian state co-produce governance and shape patterns of conflict and cooperation in the Niger Delta. Its central …

Temwayaj: An Exploration Of Intergenerational Trauma And Resilience Through The Wisdom Of Haitian Elders, Niara J. Carrenard

Graduate Masters Theses

Haitian people have a unique history of trauma shaped by colonial violence, the brutal legacy of slavery, and political instability all of which intersect to create a complex and multifaceted experience of trauma across generations. This study explores how intergenerational and historical trauma are understood, carried and expressed across generations in the Haitian community. Drawing from grounded theory, this research examines the layered effects of colonial violence and chronic instability on Haitian people. While trauma is typically described as an individual phenomenon, this project is examining trauma as a relational process that manifests amongst different generations. Through in-depth qualitative interviews, …

Towards Interpretable Transfer Learning With Limited Data, Youxiang Zhu

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Modern foundation models are typically trained with large-scale data to ensure good performance. However, certain tasks cannot scale with large amounts of data due to cost and practical constraints, resulting in limited performance. To address this, in this dissertation, I introduce model-task alignment, a general methodology for making a foundation model work well with tasks with limited data. The methodology comprises two parts: aligning downstream tasks with foundation models and aligning foundation models with downstream tasks. To study and validate this methodology, I first focus on speech-based dementia detection, a representative task with limited data, and then extend to general …

The Cultivation Of Public Perception: Cultivated Meat Narratives And Misinformation On Tiktok, Anna M. Balkus

Graduate Masters Theses

Cultivated meat is an emerging tissue engineering technology that has the potential to address major issues threatening food systems, including climate change, rapid population growth, and the spread of disease. Among technical challenges, public perception remains a significant barrier for the widespread adoption of cultivated meat. While social media has transformed communication globally, it has simultaneously contributed to corrupt online environments infected with misinformation—unintentional inaccuracies that differ from disinformation, which is spread with the intent to mislead. The way the public receives and digests information regarding new food technologies, like cultivated meat, will be shaped by their social media environment. …

Identity And Distress: The Role Of Misracialization And Membership Esteem In Multiracial Mental Health, Jordan Cherry

Graduate Masters Theses

The population of Multiracial individuals in the US is growing (Jones et al., 2021). Multiracial people face a higher likelihood of adverse consequences, including reconciling the significance of holding multiple racial identities in a society that predominantly categorizes race in single categorical terms (Gabriel et al., 2023). The inaccurate perception of Multiracial individuals by others, or misracialization, is a result of this dynamic. Research indicates that inaccurate racial representation relates to worse mental health outcomes for Multiracial individuals (Campbell & Troyer, 2007; Does et al., 2023; Franco, Toomey, et al., 2021; Lusk et al., 2010). Further, one’s racialized experiences have …

Role Of Technical Assistance In Pollution Prevention In Massachusetts Craft Breweries, Shubhechchhya Regmi

Graduate Masters Theses

This study aims to examine pollution from Massachusetts craft breweries, and if it can be lessened through a pollution prevention program. This study analyzed data from two assessments with the aim of analyzing the role of technical assistance in pollution prevention across eight impact categories. The first assessment was conducted on 29 MA breweries between 2022 and 2024, and 23 were assessed a second time (in summer 2024 and summer 2025). Craft breweries face several constraints in adopting pollution prevention practices the pollution prevention program known as BetterBev helps to bridge this gap by providing technical assistance, identifying inefficiency practices …

Voices Of The Young: Exploring Child Agency In Heritage Language Socialization In Chinese American Families, Yiyang Guan

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how young children in Chinese‑heritage families participate in heritage language development and maintenance (HLDM) in everyday family life. It asks four questions: what agentic behaviors young children display in heritage language socialization (HLS) and family language policy (FLP) co-construction; how they conceptualize language ideologies; what attitudes they hold toward HLDM; and whether differences in agency, ideologies, and attitudes relate to socioeconomic background.

Using a qualitative multiple‑case design, the dissertation focuses on seven families in the San Francisco Bay Area. Data includes parent and child interviews, child language portraits, child audio diaries, parent‑recorded natural conversations, and family background …

Jihad As Discourse: The Houthi Movement's Official Rhetoric On The 2023–2024 Red Sea Attacks, Moh. Iqbal Bulgini, Imam Khomaeni Hayatullah

Journal of Terrorism Studies

This study examines how Ansar Allah (the Houthi movement) constructs and legitimises a jihad discourse through official speeches and formal statements issued by military spokesperson Yahya Sarea and the movement's official platforms during the 2023–2024 Red Sea attacks. Employing Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework—integrating textual analysis, discursive practice, and sociocultural context—the study analyses a purposive corpus of 45 verified institutional texts. Three dominant and mutually reinforcing discursive formations are identified: (1) the Humanitarian-Juridical Discourse, which reconstitutes armed attacks as legally and morally obligatory acts of protection; (2) the Anti-Hegemonic Resistance Discourse, which constructs the movement as a …

Indonesia And The Global Maritime Fulcrum: Structural Crisis Of The Four Pillars Of Maritime Power, Frisca Ayu Suciandika

Journal of Terrorism Studies

This article critically examines Indonesia’s position in realizing its vision as a Global Maritime Fulcrum through an analysis of four main pillars of maritime power: maritime science, financial strength, maritime industry, and naval defense. The study is motivated by the paradox between Indonesia’s vast geographical and historical potential as an archipelagic state and its limited structural capacity to build modern maritime power. This research employs a qualitative descriptive approach using library research and critical analysis of academic literature, international data, and Indonesian maritime policy documents. The findings show that Indonesia still faces an epistemic deficit in maritime science due to …

Critical Geopolitics And The Reconstruction Of Meaning: A Discourse Analysis Of The 'Terrorism' Label Applied To Hamas By Western Hegemony, Cahaya Mulyani Sakti, M.Hamdan Basyar

Journal of Terrorism Studies

The emergence of Hamas in 1987 cannot be separated from the configuration of modern colonialism and the continuity of occupation that shaped the political reality. Hamas’s early phase was rooted in socio-religious activities through education and community empowerment programs, before evolving into armed resistance against the occupation. The labeling of Hamas as a “terrorist” organization began in the mid-1990s in U.S. legal documents, which subsequently generated debate and gave rise to counter-narratives. This study employs the frameworks of critical geopolitics (Ó Tuathail & Agnew) and the Discourse-Historical Approach (Wodak) to analyze the labeling of Hamas as “terrorist” by Western hegemony. …

Digital Communication And The Evolution Of Ideological Narratives In Indonesia: Insights From Social Media Platforms, Tia Mariatul Kibtiah, Muhammad Fikri Fawazi

Journal of Terrorism Studies

This study examines how pro-caliphate and anti-democratic narratives are articulated and normalised within YouTube comment spaces in Indonesia. As the world’s largest Muslim-majority country with high levels of digital engagement, Indonesia provides an important context for analysing how political-religious discourses circulate through everyday digital interaction. The research analyses 1,354 YouTube comments related to the caliphate, governance, and democracy. Data were collected using Google Apps Script, manually filtered for relevance, and examined through qualitative content analysis informed by Social Network Theory (SNT) and the Radicalisation Factor Model (RFM). The findings show that 34.49% of comments endorsed ideological pro-caliphate narratives, while 35.97% …

Governance Structures And Conflict Mitigation Strategies In Food Supply Chains: Evidence From Niger State, Nigeria, Araoye Olarinkoye Ajiboye, Aminu Kandi Suleiman, Habila Daniel Diko, Tayo Moses Adebayo

Journal of Terrorism Studies

Food supply chains in fragile and semi-institutionalised economies continue to experience persistent instability driven by weak governance structures and recurring conflicts among market actors. However, despite extensive studies on food system challenges in Nigeria, there remains limited empirical understanding of how governance structures interact with conflict mitigation mechanisms to shape system stability at the local market level. Available literature tends to treat governance and conflict management as separate processes, thus overlooking their interdependent dynamics within everyday market operations. This study addresses this gap by examining governance structures and conflict mitigation strategies in food supply chains in Niger State, Nigeria. Anchored …

The Effect Of Incompatibility Types On The Escalation Of Global Armed Conflicts, Michael Haratua Rajagukguk, Ruben Cornelius Siagian Rcs

Journal of Terrorism Studies

Global armed conflicts show variations in intensity influenced by the type of issue incompatibility. This study aims to analyze the influence of territorial, ideological, and combined incompatibilities on the probability of high-intensity conflict escalation, as well as its implications for conflict mitigation strategies. Global conflict dyadic data were analyzed using a multilevel logistic regression model with controls for time, region, and conflict type. The results show that ideology-based conflicts have a lower probability of reaching high intensity than territorial conflicts (OR ≈ 0.51, p < 0.05), while conflicts with a combination of ideology and territory tend to be at greater risk of high escalation (AM effect ≈ +26.6 points), although the effect is not yet statistically significant. Temporal analysis shows a downward trend in conflict intensity over time, especially in the post-Cold War period, while regional effects and conflict types show significant variation. These findings fill a gap in the literature on the dual interaction of ideological and territorial claims, showing that the highest escalation of violence occurs when symbolic and material dimensions are intertwined. In conclusion, conflict escalation is more influenced by a combination of issues and structural characteristics of conflict than by ideology alone. The novelty of this research lies in the identification of the strengthening effect of dual incompatibility and the downward trend in conflict intensity after the Cold War, which emphasizes the importance of a relational and temporal context-based mitigation approach in global conflict management.

Hybrid Threats In The Lake Chad Basin: The Nexus Between Terrorism, Illicit Wealth, And Transborder Crime, Cletus C. N. Nwadiogbu

Journal of Terrorism Studies

Threats to security in the Lake Chad Basin have changed over the years and hybrid elements have become interweaved. Sustained Boko Haram and ISWAP activities have increased the insecurity in the region, enabling the mixing of armed insurgency and organized criminals, including narcotics dealers, extortion rackets, arms trafficking, drugs production and smuggling, kidnapping and fuel smuggling among Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon states. Nexus elements of illicit wealth, illicit transborder crime and terrorism were thus analysed as interdependent and contributing elements to Hybrid threats in the Basin. The study used a hybrid design (qualitative-quantitative) documenting data from the following institutions: …

Ai-Augmented Financial Advisors: Comparing Ai And Human Analyst Investment Recommendations In Agreement, Performance, And Firm Size Effects, Crystal Chen

Honors College Theses

This study examines the level of agreement and performance between artificial intelligence (AI) generated investment recommendations and human analyst recommendations across U.S. publicly traded firms. Using a sample of twelve companies categorized by firm size (large, mid, and small), the study collects buy, hold, or sell recommendations from generative AI systems and human analysts. Agreement between AI-to-AI and AI-to-human recommendations is measured using Cohen’s Kappa agreement. Portfolio performance is evaluated by constructing equal-weighted portfolios for each recommendation source and size category. Risk-adjusted returns are measured using the Sharpe ratio over 1-, 2-, and 3-month periods. Furthermore, the study tests whether …

The Impact Of Road Quality On Nearby House Prices, Michael Cary, Brad Humphreys

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

This paper estimates the impact of road quality on house prices in Hamilton County, Ohio, USA which includes the city of Cincinnati. We use a hedonic regression framework using road segment level international roughness index (IRI) data as a measure of road quality. We find that rougher roads decrease house prices, with a one standard deviation increase in road roughness from the sample mean decreasing house prices by 3.5%. This equates to a $6,700 decrease in the value of an average priced home in our sample, demonstrating the importance of road quality and maintenance for local economic development.

Applying A Neurodiversity-Informed Approach To Understanding Resolution In Families Raising A Child With Autism, Emma Manole

Honors College Theses

The first known documentation of the syndrome we today refer to as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was published by Austrian psychiatrist Leo Kanner (1943), who identified a cluster of disordered symptoms among 11 young children, which he termed “early infantile autism”. Consequently, the psychiatric world became aware of autism as its own disorder separate from schizophrenia or “childhood psychosis” (Wing, 1997). Since then, the ways in which autism is studied, diagnosed, referred to, defined, and treated have seen drastic changes (Blacher & Christensen, 2011) over the course of almost a century. It is only natural that the perceptions held by …

The Effect Of State Abortion Restrictions On Female Labor Force Participation And School Enrollment, Elena T. Albano

Graduate Masters Theses

This paper examines the causal effect of state-level abortion restrictions on young women’s labor force participation and school enrollment following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Using a difference-in-differences design that exploits the cross-state variation in post-Dobbs abortion policies, I estimate that abortion bans led to a decline in combined school and labor force participation among young women by at least 1 percentage point. This effect is qualitatively robust to a triple difference specification that uses men as a within-state control group, confirming that the results do not reflect broader economic shocks specific to …

Supporting Three-Sector Relationships For Enhancing Agility And Market (Stream): A Comparative Study Of Small And Medium Enterprises (Smes) In China And Indonesia, Marizal Fanani, Muhammad Akmal Daffari, Ikhtiar Anugrah Hidayat, Adinda Qornelica

BISNIS & BIROKRASI: Jurnal Ilmu Administrasi dan Organisasi

In a rapidly evolving borderless economy, the success of Chinese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in penetrating global markets demonstrates the critical role of structured collaboration among government, industry, and academia. This study examines how intersectoral collaboration, analyzed through the Triple Helix Framework, impacts the innovation agility and market readiness of SMEs in China and Indonesia. This research adopts a qualitative comparative policy analysis, drawing on relevant journals, policy documents, and SME reports to explore how interactions between these sectors influence SME growth and innovation. The findings show that China’s SME is supported by: (1) strong institutional coordination, (2) well-developed …