Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparative Analysis Of Selected Works By Chen Qigang: Wu Xing, L’Éloignement, And Luan Tan, Isaac Ormaza Vera

Theses and Dissertations

Born in 1951 to a family of artists in China, sent off to re-education garrisons during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, admitted to the famous composition class of 1977 of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, migrated to France, and became the last student of Olivier Messiaen, Qigang Chen is a prominent composer of symphonic literature, vocal repertoire, solo concertos, chamber works, instrumental and electro acoustics, film soundtracks, popular songs, and a ballet. His compositional style melds elements and features of Chinese traditional and contemporary music and western contemporary academic music. This creates a distinctive multicultural expression of art which …

A Project-Based Learning Approach To Community-Based Learning: Action Research To Explore Transformative Change In 1st Year Occupational Therapy Students’ Awareness About Contextual Barriers, Occupational Justice, And Advocating For Community Health And Wellness, Patricia Ann Wisniewski

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing reflexive photography as a means for a transformative community-based learning (CBL) experience. CBL is an experiential teaching pedagogy that helps prepare college students for a rapidly changing and diverse society that fosters social, health, and cultural awareness about individuals and populations. Students engage collaboratively within the local community to help solve societal problems.

This study focused on three research questions, each exploring how a reflexive photography project (RPP): (a) changes how students view occupational justice, (b) influences students awareness about contextual barriers that may impact community residents …

A Novel Model To Study Adipose-Derived Stem Cell Differentiation, Austin N. Worden

Theses and Dissertations

The use of three-dimensional (3D) culture systems (hydrogels) and adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) in regenerative medicine to advance early-stage investigation and modeling of the mechanisms of diseases, treatments, targets, etc. has recently increased. ADSCs, specifically, are utilized due to their innate programming during embryogenesis and in adult tissues in addition to their ability to differentiate into mesodermal, endodermal, and ectodermal cell-specific lineages. Of importance is that these advancements do not involve a model specimen (i.e. mice or rats) and simulate the numerous conflicting signals a migrating cell is exposed to in vivo such as chemokines, extracellular matrix (ECM), growth factors, …

Preparation, Characterization And Evaluation Of Rationally Designed Catalysts By Electroless Deposition, Wen Xiong

Theses and Dissertations

In heterogeneous catalysis, it is a proven factor that the surface-specific activity and the catalyst selectivity strongly depends on the active sites which are determined by the composition, size, and shape of the particle. For structure-sensitive reactions favored by specific surface sites, such as corners, steps, or edges, TOF and selectivity can be greatly changed by the size of catalyst particles since the active site distribution will change with the size of the catalysts. Usually, metal particles are synthesized by two methods in industry, namely precipitation and impregnation, which often exhibit a broad size distribution. The grand challenge of colloidal …

Multi-Fidelity Surrogate And Reduced-Order Model-Based Microfluidic Concentration Gradient Generator Design, Haizhou Yang

Theses and Dissertations

The microfluidic concentration gradient generator (μCGG) is an important device to generate and maintain concentration gradients (CGs) of biomolecules for understanding and controlling biological processes. However, determining the optimal operating parameters of μCGG is still a significant challenge, especially for complex CGs in cascaded networks. To tackle such a challenge, this study presents multi-fidelity surrogate and reduced-order model-based optimization methodologies for accurate and computationally efficient design of μCGGs.

The surrogate-based optimization (SBO) method is first proposed for the design optimization of μCGGs based on an efficient physics-based component model (PBCM). Various combinations of regression and correlation functions in Kriging and …

Application Of Digital Transformation In The Water Desalination Industry To Develop Smart Desalination Plants, Ibrahim Yousif

Theses and Dissertations

Fresh water shortage threatens the development and prosperity of many countries including several areas in the United States. Sea and ground water reverse osmosis desalination is rapidly becoming a dominant technology for overcoming water shortage threats by providing cost-effective freshwater production. Digital transformation can be used to help facilitate and advance water treatment technologies by reducing costs and minimizing downtime. Digital transformation is a process that encapsulates digital tools and technologies such as cloud computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and virtual/augmented reality. It is a process where objects in the physical world are given virtual replicas …

Quantifying And Elucidating The Effect Of Co2 On Aemfcs, Yiwei Zheng

Theses and Dissertations

Anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) have recently received significant attention as a future high efficiency, environmentally friendly energy conversion device. This attention is due to the potential advantages that AEMFCs can offer compared the much more common, and commercialized, proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) – most notably lower cost. However, there are several remaining roadblocks for the AEMFC technology to be widely adopted, such as: i) the stability of the anion exchange membranes (AEMs) and anion exchange ionomer (AEIs); ii) the development of highly active catalysts with either low platinum group metal (PGM) loading or catalysts that are …

Towards More Trustworthy Deep Learning: Accurate, Resilient, And Explainable Countermeasures Against Adversarial Examples, Fei Zuo

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the great achievements made by neural networks on tasks such as image classification, they are brittle and vulnerable to adversarial example (AE) attacks, which are crafted by adding human-imperceptible perturbations to inputs in order that a neural-network-based classifier incorrectly labels them. Along with the prevalence of deep learning techniques, the threat of AEs attracts increasingly attentions since it may lead to serious consequences in some vital applications such as disease diagnosis.

To defeat attacks based on AEs, both detection and defensive techniques attract the research community’s attention. Given an input image, the detection system outputs whether it is an …

English Department Alumni News- Fall 2021, Department Staff

English Department Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Examining Media Dependency And Parasocial Relationship On Protective Action Behaviors During Covid-19, Amy Hyman

Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated the significant role that mass media plays in disseminating messages to the public during disasters and public health crises. Information disseminated during a disaster influences individuals’ decision-making process regarding protective actions, or mitigation behaviors. This study examined the relationship between media dependency theory, parasocial relationship, and media effects (cognitive, affective and behavioral) during the COVID-19 pandemic. A quantitative approach was used with a convenience sample. The sample focused on residents in the state of Arkansas and specific generational cohorts. The results found that the generational cohorts had different media preferences during the height of …

Determinants Of Residents’ Shadow Evacuation Intention During A Hurricane In The Rio Grande Valley, Texas, Manpreet Jaiswal

Dissertations

Studies on hurricane evacuation behaviour focus primarily on why individuals do not evacuate when they are instructed to, while few examine the reasons why individuals choose to evacuate under conditions that would not require them to, termed shadow evacuation. Such behaviour might delay the timely evacuation of more at-risk coastal residents. To better understand the reasons for shadow evacuation, this study analyzes data from a household evacuation behavioural survey administered between 2012-2013 to 479 households in Cameron, Hidalgo, and Willacy Counties, Texas, known as the Rio Grande Valley. This area features a number of Colonia neighborhoods with high rates …

The Prc’S Changing Strategic Priorities In Latin America: From Soft Power To Sharp Power Competition, Douglas Farah, Marianne Richardson

INSS Strategic Perspectives

For the past 15 years, the willingness of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to give billions of dollars in loans across Latin America created the perception that the PRC is spending unlimited resources to woo allies in a region where the United States historically carries significant influence. Currently, the PRC is heightening this perception by delivering millions of COVID-19 vaccines to Latin America, buttressed by a robust media operation to shape the information environment.

Optimizing Thermal Block Length During Infrared Neural Inhibition To Minimize Temperature Thresholds, Junqi Zhuo, Matthew T. Mcpheeters, Micael W. Jenkins, Hillel J. Chiel, Michael W. Jenkins

Faculty Scholarship

Objective. Infrared neural inhibition (INI) is a method of blocking the generation or propagation of neural action potentials through laser heating with wavelengths strongly absorbed by water. Recent work has identified that the distance heated along axons, the block length (BL), modulates the temperature needed for inhibition; however, this relationship has not been characterized. This study explores how BL during INI can be optimized towards minimizing its temperature threshold. Approach. To understand the relationship between BL and the temperature required for INI, excised nerves from Aplysia californica were laser-heated over different lengths of axon during electrical stimulation of compound action …

Columns Fall 2021, Southern Adventist University

Alumni Newsletter

Features the article "Employee Expressions of Creativity." Southern staff show their different ways of creativity for students and other faculty members to observe that go beyond their main profession. Additional articles expand on information about Southern Adventist University's newly inaugurated president, Ken Shaw, and how he interacts with the school.

Inverse Machine Learning Framework For Optimizing Lightweight Metamaterials, Adithya Challapalli, Dhrumil Patel, Gouqiang Li

Faculty Publications

Structure scouting and design optimization for superior mechanical performance through inverse machine learning is an emerging area of interest. Inverse machine learning can be a substantial approach in structural design to explore complex and massive numbers of geometrical patterns within short periods of time. Here, an inverse design framework using generative adversarial networks (GANs) is proposed to explore and optimize structural designs such as lightweight lattice unit cells. Lightweight lattice structures are widely accepted to have excellent mechanical properties and have found applications in various engineering structures. Using the proposed framework, different lattice unit cells that are 40–120% better in …

Accounting For Uncertainty In Complex Alluvial Aquifer Modeling By Bayesian Multi-Model Approach, Jina Yin, Frank T.-C. Tsai, Shih Chieh Kao

Faculty Publications

Alluvial aquifers by nature are complex caused by varied depositional environments. Developing a reliable groundwater model to represent an alluvial aquifer is non-trivial. Also, relying on a single best calibrated model may not be sufficient because of an inadequate choice of model parameter values. To better understand groundwater dynamics and improve model prediction reliability, this study presents a Bayesian multi-model uncertainty quantification (BMMUQ) framework to account for model parameter uncertainty in complex alluvial groundwater modeling. The methodology was applied to the agriculturally intensive Mississippi River alluvial aquifer (MRAA), Northeast Louisiana. An aquifer architecture was first constructed using 7,259 well logs …

Robotic Communications For 5g And Beyond: Challenges And Research Opportunities, Yuanwei Liu, Xiao Liu, Xinyu Gao, Xidong Mu, Xiangwei Zhou, Octavia A. Dobre, H. Vincent Poor

Faculty Publications

The ongoing surge in applications of robotics brings both opportunities and challenges for the fifth-generation (5G) and beyond (B5G) of communication networks. This article focuses on 5G/B5G-enabled terrestrial robotic communications with an emphasis on distinct characteristics of such communications. First, signal and spatial modeling for robotic communications are presented. To elaborate further, both the benefits and challenges derived from robots' mobility are discussed. As a further advance, a novel simultaneous localization and radio mapping (SLARM) framework is proposed for integrating localization and communications into robotic networks. Furthermore, dynamic trajectory design and resource allocation for both indoor and outdoor robots are …

A 12-Bit 1gs/S Sar-Assisted Pipeline Adc With Harmonic Injecting Residue Amplifier, Liang Fang

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Advanced wireless applications require a medium resolution Radio Frequency (RF) sampling Analog to Digital Converter (ADC). By performing sampling of ADC at RF frequency, the mixer and Intermediate Frequency (IF) amplifier can be implemented in the digital domain, which helps the receiver eliminate troublesome mixing spurs and potentially improves the software-defined ratio of the entire system. By combing the merits of the energy-efficient Successive Approximation Register (SAR) ADC and the high-speed pipeline ADC, the SAR-assisted pipeline ADC achieves superior performance in high-speed medium-resolution ADC. However, with the advance of the process, due to the pure analog implementation, the residue amplifier …

Characterization Of Uav-Based Wireless Channels With Diverse Antenna Configurations, Mahmoud Badi

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

In the next wave of swarm-based applications, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) need to communicate with peer drones in any direction of a three-dimensional (3D) space. On a given drone and across drones, various antenna positions and orientations are possible. We know that, in free space, high levels of signal loss are expected if the transmitting and receiving antennas are cross polarized. However, increasing the reflective and scattering objects in the channel between a transmitter and receiver can cause the received polarization to become completely independent from the transmitted polarization, making the cross-polarization of antennas insignificant. Usually, these effects are studied …

Standards-Based Grading At The Secondary Level: A Review Of Literature, Jacie White

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Grading systems have become a topic of interest at the secondary level. Even though the shift to standards-based grading is a daunting task for districts, post-secondary educational institutions are taking on grading reform at even higher educational levels. It is challenging for secondary teachers to narrow down the key elements of grading and prepare for the shift in mindset needed for a standards-based system. Research shows beneficial elements for learning after implementing a full standards-based system, but transforming a district’s grading system is a major undertaking. While there are benefits for all stakeholders involved when reforming beliefs about grading practices, …

A Methodology For Reliability-Based Selection Of System Of Systems, Justin Brown

Operations Research and Engineering Management Theses and Dissertations

Currently, Department of Defense (DoD) systems underperform and have inadequate reliability compared to acquisition expectations. Additionally, System of Systems (SoS) complexity and non-quantifiable approaches to selecting systems to perform a mission cause challenges for the decision-maker. Beyond DoD, mission-critical scenarios exist where responses are not data-driven, such as hurricane response, wildfire response, and littoral search and research missions. Optimization of these missions within a short amount of time can not only increase the probability of success and reduce the cost of performing the mission but allow systems to be used for additional missions.

This dissertation presents solution methodologies to address …

Utrgv Commencement – Fall 2021, The University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley

UTRGV Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

English And Cultural Studies, Fall 2021, English And Cultural Studies Department

Bryant University Communications and Press

No abstract provided.

Urban Mayors Press-Fall 2021, John S. Watson Institute For Urban Policy & Research At Kean University

Urban Mayors Policy Center

The Urban Mayors Press is a digital newsletter created to highlight the impactful work of New Jersey Urban Mayors Association (NJUMA) members and to provide resourceful information to municipalities throughout New Jersey from federal, state and local agencies.

Fall 2021 Census Campus Enrollment Indicators, Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Enrollment Reports

No abstract provided.

Fall 2021 Campus Enrollment Indicators Report Census Extract Tables 1-3, Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Enrollment Reports

No abstract provided.

Fall 2021 Campus Enrollment Indicators Report Dw Summary Table, Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Enrollment Reports

No abstract provided.

Mckee Minute October 2021, Southern Adventist University

McKee Minute – McKee Library This Month

The October 2021 McKee Minute features information on the library's topical research guides. Recommendations are included for financial literacy books and streaming films on chemistry. Academic Video Online is reviewed.

‘Atamai-Loto, Moe Faka‘Ofo‘Ofa-‘Aonga: Tongan Tā-Vā Time-Space Philosophy Of Mind–Heart And Beauty–Utility, Pā‘Utu-‘O-Vava‘U-Lahi, Adriana M. Lear, Kolokesa U. Māhina-Tuai, Sione L. Vaka, Maui-Tāvā-He-Akó, Tēvita O. KaʻIli

Pacific Studies

This collection of critical essays seeks to explore as a text some key aspects of Tongan concepts and practices of the sino body, ‘atamai mind, and loto heart, on the one hand, and faiva performance, tufunga material, and nimamea‘a fine arts, on the other hand, in the broader context of Indigenous Tongan Tā-Vā Time-Space Philosophy of Reality. These physical–bodily, psychological–emotional, and social–cultural, and artistic and literary aspects will be reflected upon at the fakafelavai intersection, or fakahoko connection and fakamāvae separation, of ontology (i.e., ways of being) and epistemology (i.e., ways of knowing) and of beauty/quality (i.e., what is of …

Tongan Hoa: Inseparable Yet Indispensable Pairs/ Binaries, Pā‘Utu-‘O-Vava‘U-Lahi, Adriana M. Lear, Kolokesa U. Māhina-Tuai, Sione L. Vaka, Maui-Tāvā-He-Akó, Tēvita O. KaʻIli, Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu, ‘Ōkusitino Māhina

Pacific Studies

We dissect hoaism as a fundamental in Tongan philosophical thinking and feeling that is based in the concept and practice of hoa as inseparable yet indispensable pairs/binaries, with examples taken from across nature, mind, and society. From a tāvāist philosophical perspective, everywhere in reality, as in nature, mind, and society, is intersection, and there is nothing above and beyond connection and separation. This is derived from the general tāvāist fact that all things in reality stand in eternal relations of exchange, giving rise to order and conflict, both having the same logical status, when equal and opposite identities, entities, or …