Digital Commons Network^™

A Virtual Workplace Wellness Program For Remote Workers, Janelle Candaza

Occupational Therapy Student Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Tc-Ptp-Mediated Suppression Of Autophagy During Skin Carcinogenesis, Obed Asare

Theses and Dissertations

Ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation can distort cellular homeostasis and predispose the skin to carcinogenesis. Amongst the deteriorating effects of the sun’s UVB radiation on cellular homeostasis is the formation of DNA photoproducts such as cyclobutene pyrimidine dimers. These photoproducts can cause significant changes in the structure and conformation of the DNA, inducing gene mutations which may accumulate to trigger the formation of skin cancer. Photoproducts are typically repaired by nucleotide excision repair. Notwithstanding, when the repair mechanism fails, apoptosis ensues to prevent the accumulation of mutations and to restore cellular homeostasis. We have identified T-cell protein tyrosine phosphatase (TC-PTP) as …

Using Deep Learning For Encrypted Traffic Analysis Of Amazon Echo, Surendra Pathak

Theses and Dissertations

The adoption of the Amazon Echo family of devices in modern homes has become very widespread at the current time, with hundreds of millions of devices sold. Moreover, the global smart speaker market size is growing vigorously and is projected to continue to bigger. Smart speakers allow users hands-free interaction by allowing voice control, promoting human-computer interaction to greater avenues. Though smart speaker can be useful assistant, it has some serious security concerns that need to be studied. In this study, an analysis of the security and privacy concerns of smart speakers is presented along with a passive attack, namely …

Initial Investigation Of Using The Waste Rubber Tires As A New Sustainable Material For Electric Conductive Rigid Pavement, Islam Radwan

Theses and Dissertations

The accumulation of snow on roadway surfaces has the potential to result in deadly accidents and financial damage. Traditional de-icing procedures, which include the use of chemicals or salt and the use of heavy machinery, may have a negative effect on the environment and the structural integrity of highway infrastructure systems, and they are not sustainable at all. In addition, these methods are considered labor-intensive and dangerous, especially in crowded areas. The use of heated pavement systems (HPS), which can be in the form of hydronic (HHPS) or electrically conductive concrete (ECON), has gained popularity in recent years as a …

The First Peoples Of The Lower Rio Grande Valley Of Texas And Northern Mexico: An Interdisciplinary Approach To Defining The Paleoindian Period, Starr Elena Hein

Theses and Dissertations

The archaeological record of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and northern Mexico is poorly understood. There are few excavated sites at which Paleoindian cultural materials have been found, and in these cases the context is uncertain. In order to better understand the Paleoindian period, projectile points that reside in private collections are documented, and the time period they are assigned to, based on absolute dating from surrounding regions, is used to cross-date local materials. This is limited by the lack of named typology for Upper Paleolithic materials in the Americas. Clovis is well represented in the Lower Rio …

A Data-Driven Method For Damage Detection In An Open Deck Steel Truss Railroad Bridge Under The Moving Train Load, Mahesh Pokhrel

Theses and Dissertations

Open-Deck (OD) steel truss railroad bridges are one of the most common types of railroad bridges in the United States. They are, however, significantly vulnerable to the dynamic effects of moving train load. In the long run, these dynamic effects cause fatigue damage to the structural members. The damage in most of the railroad bridges are monitored by visual inspections which are sometimes unreliable and inconsistent due to human error. This study explores the identification and classification of damage to an open deck railroad bridge from both time-domain (statistical features) and time-frequency domain features (Hilbert-Huang Transform) extracted through acceleration response …

Exploring The Localization Of Light In Discrete Systems With Conducted Symmetries, Aria Hajikhani

Theses and Dissertations

Controlling the localization of light has been studied through many approaches and has become a subject matter of interest due to potential applications in various fields. In this thesis, we will explore discrete systems with conducted symmetries, in both quantum and classical aspects, to establish a deeper understanding of light localization. First, we investigate atom-light interactions through exploring the Jaynes-Cummings model. We then introduce coupled cavity arrays (CCAs) where photons can hop between neighboring cavities and each cavity in the array may interact with one or more atoms. Specifically, we focus on systems in which one two-level atom is connected …

Image Segmentation With Human-In-The-Loop In Automated De-Caking Process For Powder Bed Additive Manufacturing, Vincent Opare Addo Asare-Manu

Theses and Dissertations

Additive manufacturing (AM) becomes a critical technology that increases the speed and flexibility of production and reduces the lead time for high-mix, low-volume manufacturing. One of the major bottlenecks in further increasing its productivity lies around its post-processing procedures. This work focuses on tackling a critical and inevitable step in powder-bed additive manufacturing processes, i.e., powder cleaning or de-caking. Pressing concerns can be raised with human involvement when performing this task manually. Therefore, a robot-driven automatic powder cleaning system could be an alternative to reducing time consumption and increasing safety for AM operators. However, since the color and surface texture …

Creep Resistance And Microstructure In Binary Aluminum Cerium Alloy Produced By Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Jillian Ann Stinehart

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Currently, the only commercially available aluminum alloy for additive manufacturing (AM) is AlSi10Mg, which is not suitable for high temperature applications. Al-Ce based alloys have been shown to be highly printable, cost-efficient alloys. Compared to cast Al-Ce alloys, the eutectic features are refined (<1μm), which give AM Al-10Ce favorable strength and ductility at room temperature. The low diffusivity and solubility of cerium in aluminum improve the retention of mechanical properties at high temperatures. In order to quantify the effect of cerium on the thermal stability of AM aluminum and show its suitability for high-temperature applications, Al-10Ce was creep tested between 60-77% of its absolute melting temperature. The creep performance of AM Al-10Ce was favorable compared to that of cast binary Al-Ce and AM AlSi10Mg and was comparable to that of cast ternary Al-Ce alloys. The stress exponent, n, was approximately 1 in the low stress regime and 5-7 in the high stress regime. The activation energy was 231kJ/mol. In comparison, both cast binary Al-Ce and AM AlSi10Mg have higher stress exponents and lower activation energies, showing AM Al-10Ce to be more creep resistant. After creep testing, slight grain coarsening was observed, while grain orientation remained unchanged. The melt pool boundaries (MPBs) faded in appearance after creep testing, and the number of columnar grains decreased.

Reducing Porosity In Lpbf Ti-6al-4v By Parameter Optimization And Low Temperature Hot Isostatic Pressing Cycle, Penn Rawn

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Powder bed based additive manufacturing has advantages in its ability to make specialized parts with complex geometries. Unfortunately, components made through such processes of suffer from manufacturing defects including porosity. To study pore formation and removal, specimens of Ti-6Al-4V were built at varied levels of laser power, travel speed, hatch spacing, and layer thickness to obtain a variety of initial defect populations. The specimens were then subjected to a hot isostatic pressure (HIP) at 850 °C and 200 MPa to evaluate the low temperature high pressure (LTHP) cycle’s ability to remove pores. Image analysis was used to estimate the relative …

Compartive Study Between Iv Acetaminophen (Paracetamol) And Iv Morphine In Preventing Postoperative Pain During Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy, Ismael Waadullah Ismael, Hussam Kareem Mughames

Al-Nisour Journal for Medical Sciences

Pain is "an uncomfortable sensory and emotional experience related to existing or potential tissue damage, or defined in terms of such damage," according to the International Association for the Study of Pain. Following a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, the patient experiences painful shoulder and abdominal pain. Peritoneal stretching and diaphragmatic irritation by increased intra-abdominal pressure brought on by pneumoperitoneum are two possible reasons of this pain. Presence of this pain may cause uses of analgesic drugs, to provide a better level of analgesia for patient undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy and reduce the consumption and the side effects of opioids Sixty adults males and …

A Teleoperation Framework For Robots Utilizing Control Barrier Functions In Virtual Reality, Aref Hebri, Sneh Acharya, Fillia Makedon

Association of Computing Machinery Open Access Agreement Publications-Archive

This paper describes a novel shared control teleoperation framework for mobile robots that utilizes Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) as filtering mechanism to prevent a human operator from making dangerous actions. The proposed framework demonstrates the potential to create a CBF controller that enables users with no prior knowledge of robotics to safely tele-navigate mobile robots with limited situational awareness. As formal methods, we utilize a hand-crafted CBF, which acts as a repulsive field to describe unsafe regions withing the robot’s vicinity. The implementation of the application was deemed possible by creating a Virtual Reality (VR) simulation in the Unity Engine …

Fsmlock: Sequential Logic Locking Through Encryption, Matthew Krebs

Theses

As the technology node size for integrated circuit (IC) designs decreases, the cost of building and maintaining an IC foundry rapidly increases. Companies unable to afford local manufacturing have become reliant on outsourcing the physical manufacturing process. This introduces confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity security vulnerabilities into the IC design lifecycle. Even companies that manufacture in-house and use field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chips may require third-party system integrators to assemble the final product. When said product is sent to a third-party foundry or system integrator, the embodied IC/FPGA circuitry is susceptible to IP theft, Trojan insertion, and reverse engineering (RE) attacks. …

Inter-Procedural Program Synthesis For Automatic Architectural Tactic Implementation, Ali Shokri

Theses

Software architectural tactics are design decisions made by software architects to address important quality attributes of software systems such as security, availability, and reliability. Software developers incorporate API of software frameworks, as building blocks, for implementing architectural tactics in a software system to achieve the mentioned quality attributes. The correct implementation of such tactics is a challenging and error-prone task, especially for novice programmers. Component-based program synthesis aims to help such programmers by automatically constructing a code snippet from a given set of components, e.g., APIs, as well as the specification of the desired code. However, despite the advances in …

Data-Driven Porosity Prediction For Directed Energy Deposition, Georgia E. Kaufman

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Stochastic flaw formation leading to poor print quality is a major obstacle to the utility of directed energy deposition (DED), a laser and metal powder-based additive manufacturing technology for construction and repair of custom metal parts. While melt pool temperature variability is known to be a major factor in flaw formation, control schemes to decrease flaw formation are limited by a lack of physics-based models that fully and accurately describe DED. In this work, a stochastic reachability analysis with a data-driven model based on thermal images of the melt pool was conducted to determine the likelihood of violating melt pool …

A Theory Of Interests In The Context Of Hybrid Warfare: It's Complex, Cynthia Alkon, Sanda Kaufman

Faculty Scholarship

We will begin with a discussion about how the hybrid warfare context is different from other conflict contexts. We will describe some complexity aspects that make hybrid warfare challenging to negotiators. We will then discuss whether classical negotiation theory prescriptions apply to a hybrid warfare context, especially regarding interests. We will argue that these prescriptions related to classical negotiations are unlikely to work in this context. We will focus our analysis on a subset of hybrid warfare attacks, consisting of short-term, time-sensitive, high-risk crises, where negotiations are possible and necessary, such as ransom demands, rather than on hybrid warfare situations …

Progression Of Surface Flashover In Vacuum With Polymer Insulators, Kimberly M. Faris

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

In pulsed power devices, an insulator is needed to isolate the transmission line from vacuum chambers. Vacuum is used as the insulator because it contains no atoms. Since it is being used as an insulator in these pulsed power insulation systems, surface flashover in vacuum is one of the most extensively studied areas since it being the greatest constraint in providing power due to dielectrics that are not able to sustain the voltage the system is operating under. These dielectrics are used in between high voltage electrodes in various pulsed power applications as electrical insulators to limit the electric current …

A Case For An Independent Cyber Force, Ian C. Heffron, Mark Reith, James W. Dean

Faculty Publications

Although cyberspace is considered the newest warfighting domain, military analysts and scholars have opined the United States remains woefully behind its peers in cyberspace and have called for the creation of a separate cyber service component. Yet a cohesive and robust discussion on this topic has yet to emerge. This article proposes a general framework that builds on the Joint doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, facilities, and policy (DOTMLPF-P) analysis to address questions of sufficiency and necessity. Such analysis reveals DoD cyber operations do not maximize the United States’ ability to fight a cyber war, especially when …

Effects Of Atlantic Butterfish (Peprilus Triacanthus) In Diets Of Common Terns (Sterna Hirundo): A Case Study Of Climate Change Effects In The Gulf Of Maine, Olivia A. Smith, Elizabeth C. Craig

Faculty Publications

Climate change and associated shifts in marine prey communities can alter food availability for foraging seabirds. This issue is illustrated in the Gulf of Maine by the northward shift of Atlantic butterfish (Peprilus triacanthus; hereafter butterfish) and their subsequent increase in seabird diets. Here, we examine effects of butterfish in diets of the Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), a threatened species in this region. Our objectives were to evaluate butterfish suitability for tern chick diet through observing handling time and feeding success, to examine effects of butterfish on tern chick growth, and to explore signs of adaptive foraging in adults. The …

Measurements Of Ear-Canal Geometry From High-Resolution Ct Scans Of Human Adult Ears, Auden P. Balouch, Karen Bekhazi, Hannah E. Durkee, Rebecca M. Farrar, Mealaktey Sok, Douglas H. Keefe, Aaron K. Remenschneider, Nicholas J. Horton, Susan E. Voss

Engineering: Faculty Publications

Description of the ear canal’s geometry is essential for describing peripheral sound flow, yet physical measurements of the canal’s geometry are lacking and recent measurements suggest that older-adult-canal areas are systematically larger than previously assumed. Methods to measure ear-canal geometry from multi-planar reconstructions of high-resolution CT images were developed and applied to 66 ears from 47 subjects, ages 18–90 years. The canal’s termination, central axis, entrance, and first bend were identified based on objective definitions, and the canal’s cross-sectional area was measured along its canal’s central axis in 1-2 mm increments. In general, left and right ears from a given …

A Comparative Effectiveness Study On Opioid Use Disorder Prediction Using Artificial Intelligence And Existing Risk Models, Sajjad Fouladvand, Jeffery Talbert, Linda Phyliss Dwoskin, Heather M. Bush, Amy L. Meadows, Lars E. Peterson, Yash R. Mishra, Steven K. Roggenkamp, Fei Wang, Ramakanth Kavuluru, Jin Chen

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a leading cause of death in the United States placing a tremendous burden on patients, their families, and health care systems. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be harnessed with available healthcare data to produce automated OUD prediction tools. In this retrospective study, we developed AI based models for OUD prediction and showed that AI can predict OUD more effectively than existing clinical tools including the unweighted opioid risk tool (ORT). Data include 474,208 patients’ data over 10 years; 269,748 were females with an average age of 56.78 years. Cases are prescription opioid users with at least …

Emt Activates Exocytotic Rabs To Coordinate Invasion And Immunosuppression In Lung Cancer, Guan-Yu Xiao, Xiaochao Tan, Bertha L. Rodriguez, Don L. Gibbons, Shike Wang, Chao Wu, Xin Liu, Jiang Yu, Mayra E. Vasquez, Hai T. Tran, Jun Xu, William K. Russell, Cara Haymaker, Younghee Lee, Jianjun Zhang, Luisa Solis, Ignacio I. Wistuba, Jonathan M. Kurie

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Epithelial-to- mesenchymal transition (EMT) underlies immunosuppression, drug resistance, and metastasis in epithelial malignancies. However, the way in which EMT orchestrates disparate biological processes remains unclear. Here, we identify an EMT- activated vesicular trafficking network that coordinates promigratory focal adhesion dynamics with an immunosuppressive secretory program in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). The EMT-activating transcription factor ZEB1 drives exocytotic vesicular trafficking by relieving Rab6A, Rab8A, and guanine nucleotide exchange factors from miR-148a-dependent silencing, thereby facilitating MMP14-dependent focal adhesion turnover in LUAD cells and autotaxin-mediated CD8+ T cell exhaustion, indicating that cell- intrinsic and extrinsic processes are linked through a microRNA that coordinates vesicular …

Lecture Notes On Cloud Computing (Ver. Summer 2023), Jun Li

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Using Data Palm Waste Fibers In Plain Concrete Mixture By Comparing Three Pre‐Treatment Techniques, Dina Rushdy M. Moawad, Rania Rushdy Moussa

Architectural Engineering

The high rates of industrial and agricultural wastes and byproduct production produced several environmental concerns in addition to increasing the risks of contaminating natural resources. The amount of organic waste has been rising over the past few decades, but it has been poorly managed, especially in smaller countries where it is either burned, improperly disposed, or thrown in landfills. Moreover, the production of concrete generates a large amount of waste that has a negative impact on our planet even though it is an extremely significant building material. The potential of developing another plain concrete mixture sample with date palm mesh …

The Evolution Of Contextualized, Discourse-Based Professional Development To Support Elementary Teachers In The Implementation Of Conceptual Mathematical Teaching Practices, Jennifer Aren Kueter

Theses and Dissertations

This holistic, mixed-methods action research case study aimed to determine the influence of professional development on participants' mathematical teaching practices and how the changes influenced students’ opportunities for discourse. In this two-year study, participants engaged in two professional development phases and implemented new conceptual teaching practices. Quantitative data were collected through surveys and observations. Qualitative data were collected through observations and interviews. Phase-one findings showed that while teachers changed their practices, they were not proficient in conceptual and discourse-based teaching practices. A second phase of professional development occurred using a Community of Practice model. Phase-two findings showed conceptual teaching practices …

Supporting Black Students In Sixth-Grade Science Through A Social Constructivist Approach: A Mixed-Methods Action Research Study, Kirk Anthony Heath

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-method action research study was to improve Black students’ performance in my sixth-grade science class by improving their ability to use the claim, evidence, and reasoning (CER) framework. Using criterion-based convenient sampling, I enlisted 17 Black participants, all of whom were underperforming in my science class at a suburban, middle-class, predominantly White public middle school serving Grades 6–8. As a teacher researcher, I implemented and assessed an intervention designed to improve their ability to use the CER framework. Using a mixed-method action research design, I simultaneously collected and triangulated quantitative and qualitative data.

This study may …

Educating Paramedics On The Importance Of Postpartum Maternal Health And Related Emergencies, Jeffery Morgan

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The rate of maternal mortality has been increasing in the United States for the past 20 years, and we are currently ranked the worst among high-income countries in the world. Several issues facing the high maternal mortality rate are preventable and should not lead to maternal death. Providing research-based education to paramedics will help to create an awareness of the issues around maternal mortality, and they can help identify people who may be experiencing a medical emergency related to postpartum. The planning for this project used Understanding by Design (Tigh to help reverse engineer the education outcomes and create a …

Metaphor Matters: Teaching Metaphoric Competence, Linda Pope

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research shows that metaphoric competence is necessary for communicative competence and this paper suggests Cognitive Metaphor Theory (CMT) may be useful in teaching metaphoric competence at all levels of English. Even though causality is difficult to establish, research underscores the link between metaphoric competence and overall language proficiency. This, and the pervasiveness of metaphor in everyday and specialized English, strongly suggests a pedagogical shift towards recognizing and engaging deeply with metaphoric language. This means making room for metaphoric competence training in the ESL and legal English classroom. The project models the analyses of two diverse texts: an intermediate-level newspaper article …

Effects Of Teaching Collaborative Learning Strategies To Teachers On Student Transferable Skills And Adaptability Development In The High School Stem Classroom, Isaiah Ripley

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Every student’s understanding of the world is formed from the interactions they experience and observe of which the relationships they build with their peers affect both. The guide created in this project serves as an answer to the question: What are the effects of teaching collaborative learning strategies to teachers in the high school STEM classroom on student adaptability and transferable skills development? The guide itself is oriented towards STEM teachers but includes activities and advice that can be transferred across disciplines. Furthermore, the guide is written informally which allows for the information and activities presented to feel more relatable …

Project-Based Learning And Student Engagement In The Interdisciplinary Secondary Classroom, James Carlson

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Research shows that Project-Based Learning has an impact on student engagement in a variety of ways. This capstone project is a unit plan designed to utilize Project-Based Learning as the foundation for a College and Career Readiness course. The main Project-Based Learning system utilized is the GOLD Standard PBL by the Buck Institute which attempts to maintain student engagement through complex tasks on a topic of the student’s choice. The focal point for students centers around STEAM careers in particular, but can be adjusted for use in other classes. The overall goal of this project is to allow secondary students …