Digital Commons Network^™

Designing A Virtual Reality Experience To Reduce Anxiety Of Children With Chd During The Perioperative Period, Yang Zhang

Theses - ALL

Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) often need to bear great anxiety related to various invasive surgeries and medical procedures. In a study of virtual reality technology in the medical industry, I found that it has great development potential in reducing children's anxiety. Therefore, the goals of this thesis project were to use virtual reality technology to reduce anxiety for children with CHD. Using previous research of anxiety in children with CHD and the solutions to children's anxiety in various hospitals, this thesis summarizes the design directions. Then, through interviews with pediatric cardiologists, child development experts, and children with coronary …

Running With The Land: Racial Capitalism, Restrictive Covenants, And The Pre-Redlining Roots Of The Private Real Estate Market In Syracuse, New York, Michael Thomas Kelly

Theses - ALL

This thesis locates the roots of the private U.S. real estate market, and racially segregated housing geographies, within a broader, multi-century project of establishing, racializing, and spatializing private property in land. Using archival methods, I examine and directly connect late 18th century land speculation and settlement, early 20th century real estate capitalist class formation, and the construction of all-white suburban sub-divisions based on racially restricted covenants. I investigate the city of Syracuse – a small, post-industrial city in Upstate New York on unceded Onondaga Nation land and one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. I argue …

Computational Investigation Of Biological Membranes, Allyson Karmazyn

Theses - ALL

Lipids are the building blocks of biological membranes, and the types of lipids that compose these cellular envelopes influence the physicochemical properties of the chemicals that can enter or exit the cell across the membrane. This work focuses on the lipid membrane compositions of eukaryotic (red blood cells) and prokaryotic (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) membranes. By analyzing the lipid-lipid and lipid-protein interactions results of the computational simulations, insights into lipid aggregation, bilayer leaflet behavior, membrane asymmetry, and small molecule transport through protein channels were obtained. The differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell membranes are qualitative known; however, this work provides these concepts …

Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Of Skaneateles Lake Tributaries, Mengyi Zhang

Theses - ALL

Skaneateles Lake is the drinking water source for the City of Syracuse and surrounding areas. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have been occurring in Skaneateles Lake every year since 2017 and posing a great threat to water quality and drinking water safety. Although the exact cause of the HABs is still unclear, sunlight, quiescent conditions, warm temperature, and elevated concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus seem to favor the development of such blooms. In this study, a custom-built, low-cost, multi-parameter sensor unit was designed, built, and deployed on a third-order tributary. The unit collected high-frequency data for stage, temperature, pH, and dissolved …

A Dosimetric Evaluation Of Increasing Scalp Sparing Between Varied Energy Photon Beams And Mlc Blocking Techniques Among Whole-Brain Irradiation Patients, Addah Riebschleger

Masters Projects

Introduction

Whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) is one of the most effective ways to treat brain metastases. Whole brain radiation therapy is typically planned 3D conformal with a right lateral and left lateral beam arrangement using a 6 mega voltage (MV) beam energy. Lower energy photon beams distribute a greater dose at surface level compared to higher energy photon beams. Using a higher energy photon beam (15 MV) to treat WBRT patients may reduce dose to the scalp and improve the patient’s overall quality of life (QOL).

Methods

The study is a retrospective dosimetric analysis of 10 randomly selected whole …

Evaluating Irrigation Performance And Water Productivity Using Eeflux Et And Ndvi, Usha Poudel, Haroon Stephen, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Southern California’s Imperial Valley (IV) faces serious water management concerns due to its semi-arid environment, water-intensive crops and limited water supply. Accurate and reliable irrigation system performance and water productivity information is required in order to assess and improve the current water management strategies. This study evaluates the spatially distributed irrigation equity, adequacy and crop water productivity (CWP) for two water-intensive crops, alfalfa and sugar beet, using remotely sensed data and a geographical information system for the 2018/2019 crop growing season. The actual crop evapotranspiration (ETa) was mapped in Google Earth Engine Evapotranspiration Flux, using the linear interpolation method in …

Evaluation Of Nurse Staffing, Engagement And Satisfaction In A South Carolina Rehabilitation Facility: Impact On Patient Outcomes, Eileen Klang

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Manuscripts

An acute care rehabilitation facility in Horry County, South Carolina was the setting for this program evaluation of nurse staffing, engagement and satisfaction and if those factors had any effect on patient outcomes in the facility. Nursing department staffing, engagement and patient outcome data was evaluated for trends and themes. Through stakeholder meetings, data was collected, a qualitative and quantitative satisfaction survey was administered to nursing staff. Evaluation of the data occurred and revealed multiple factors that led to nursing department turnover between 2018 and 2020. During the increase in turnover, it was noted that patient falls, and catheter associated …

Thermal And Mechanical Analysis Of Bombyx Mori Silk Nanofibers, Justin Busnot

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis presents a study on the thermomechanical properties of Bombyx Mori silk nanofibers. These nanofibers were obtained from silkworm cocoons which were degummed to separate the fibroin and the sericin, the two proteins that make up silk. The fibroin was then centrifuged to remove insoluble particles and stored and 4°C before the electrospinning process. A parametric study of the electrospinning process was carried out in order to identify the factors allowing to obtain optimal mechanical properties. The current as well as the flow rate applied, the diameter of the syringe, the distance separating the syringe from collector or even …

Lipoprotein-Induced Increases In Cholesterol And 7-Ketocholesterol Result In Opposite Molecular-Scale Biophysical Effects On Membrane Structure, Manuela A.A. Ayee, Irena Levitan

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Under hypercholesterolemic conditions, exposure of cells to lipoproteins results in a subtle membrane increase in the levels of cholesterol and 7-ketocholesterol, as compared to normal conditions. The effect of these physiologically relevant concentration increases on multicomponent bilayer membranes was investigated using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. Significant changes in the structural and dynamic properties of the bilayer membranes resulted from these subtle increases in sterol levels, with both sterol species inducing decreases in the lateral area and inhibiting lateral diffusion to varying extents. Cholesterol and 7-ketocholesterol, however, exhibited opposite effects on lipid packing and orientation. The results from this study indicate …

The Biodiversity Of Freshwater Crustaceans Revealed By Taxonomy And Mitochondrial Dna Barcodes, Adrian Amelio Vasquez, Brittany L. Bonnici, Donna R. Kashian, Jorge Trejo-Martinez, Carol J. Miller, Jeffrey L. Ram

Physiology Faculty Research Publications

Cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) barcode sequences in this file were obtained from specimens collected by plankton net in western Lake Erie in 2012 & 2013, along with later specimens collected at various locations and times, including some collected in Belize in 2015. Methods and other details about these sequences are described in a paper by the same authors in a submitted publication (2021: URL to be given here when published). The right columns below contain additional notes on lengths of sequences, GenBank accession ID (when obtained), and annotation as to whether the sequence represents a new barcode for its …

A Multi-Stage Seir(D) Model Of The Covid-19 Epidemic In Korea, Hee-Young Shin

Economics Faculty Publications

Background: This paper uses a SEIR(D) model to analyse the time-varying transmission dynamics of the COVID-19 epidemic in Korea throughout its multiple stages of development. This multi-stage estimation of the model parameters offers a better model fit compared to the whole period analysis and shows how the COVID-19's infection patterns change over time, primarily depending on the effectiveness of the public health authority's non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Methods: This paper uses the SEIR(D) compartment model to simulate and estimate the parameters for three distinctive stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in Korea, using a manually compiled COVID-19 epidemic dataset for the period …

Optical Printing Of Multiscale Hydrogel Structures, Zheng Xiong

Dissertations - ALL

Hydrogel has been a promising candidate to recapitulate the chemical, physical and mechanical properties of natural extracellular matrix (ECM), and they have been widely used for tissue engineering, lab on a chip and biophotonics applications. A range of optical fabrication technologies such as photolithography, digital projection stereolithography and laser direct writing have been used to shape hydrogels into structurally complex functional devices and constructs. However, it is still greatly challenging for researchers to design and fabricate multiscale hydrogel structures using a single fabrication technology.

To address this challenge, the goal of this work is the design and develop novel multimode …

Understanding The Time Course Of Bias In Simple Memorial Decisions, Ryan Andrew Curl

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract

Decisions that are generally considered to be determined by memory (memorial decisions) are influenced by factors beyond just our memory. Our perceptions, desires, preconceived notions and our actual memory all influence how we utilize our memories in order make decisions and our general ability to navigate our world. For example, consider trying to identify former high school classmates at your high school reunion vs. at a random location outside your hometown. Your memory for the former high school classmates is the same between these two scenarios, but your expectations are not. Thus, it is intuitive to assume that your …

Comparing Effectiveness And Perceived Characteristics Of Active Learning Methods In Undergraduate Biology Education, Linda R. Pesciotta

Dissertations - ALL

Although many undergraduates begin college as STEM majors, attrition rates from the field are high and numerous reports suggest that evidence-based teaching methods are critical for retention. Despite educators' research and near consensus that active learning is more effective than lecture, there are many types of active learning and the literature indicates their effects are not equivalent. The purpose of the current study was to directly compare different kinds of active learning by assessing their correlation with student performance (including learning gains) and understanding students' perceptions of them (including whether they contained Merrill's five principles of instruction and/or met three …

Mathematical Optimization Algorithms For Model Compression And Adversarial Learning In Deep Neural Networks, Tianyun Zhang

Dissertations - ALL

Large-scale deep neural networks (DNNs) have made breakthroughs in a variety of tasks, such as image recognition, speech recognition and self-driving cars. However, their large model size and computational requirements add a significant burden to state-of-the-art computing systems. Weight pruning is an effective approach to reduce the model size and computational requirements of DNNs. However, prior works in this area are mainly heuristic methods. As a result, the performance of a DNN cannot maintain for a high weight pruning ratio. To mitigate this limitation, we propose a systematic weight pruning framework for DNNs based on mathematical optimization. We first formulate …

Occasional Groups In Crowdsourcing Platforms, Mahboobeh Harandi

Dissertations - ALL

Contributors to online crowdsourcing systems generally work independently on pieces of the product but in some cases, task interdependencies may require collaboration to develop a final product. These collaborations though take a distinctive form because of the nature of crowdsourced work. Collaboration may be implicit instead of explicit. Individuals engaged in a group conversation may not stay with the group for long, i.e., the group is an ``occasional group.'' Occasional group interactions are often not well supported by systems, as they are not designed for team work. This dissertation examines the characteristics and work of occasional groups in the Gravity …

Sharing Hearts: Buddhist Charity And Urbanization In Vietnam, Sara Ann Swenson

Dissertations - ALL

My dissertation analyzes how and why volunteers joined or established grassroots Buddhist charities in Ho Chi Minh City. I spoke with approximately 400 members of 25 charities, focusing on seven main groups that shared an overlapping network of volunteers. My research includes perspectives from demographic groups often excluded from positions of authority in institutionalized Buddhism and, in turn, Buddhist studies scholarship, such as low-income day laborers, elderly women, Buddhist nuns at peri-urban temples, and a lay community of queer "same-gender-loving" [đồng tính] men. Despite their marginalization from formal leadership in Vietnam's state-managed National Buddhist Sangha, volunteers claimed social and moral …

Treadmill Assisted Circumvention Of Wearable Sensors-Based Gait Authentication, Rajesh Kumar

Dissertations - ALL

Wearable sensor-based gait patterns are considered a promising means for future authentication systems. This dissertation examines whether circumvention of such systems can be accomplished by imitating sensor readings and providing external mechanical support. The specific machine that we used in the experiment was a digital treadmill, which provides a suitable platform for the human imitators to control, adjust and adapt several factors, such as speed, step-length, step-width, and thigh-lift that affect sensor readings. Moreover, it was easy for imitators to remember the gait factors' specific levels and repeat the learned pattern on-demand over a treadmill.

Two novel imitation-based attacks are …

Cultivating A New Transnational Elite: Parenting, Schooling, And Belonging In The Age Of Global It, Adrienne Lee Atterberry

Dissertations - ALL

Why do highly educated, affluent, and seemingly well-settled immigrants leave their country of migration and return to their country of origin? How do return migrants prepare their children to become the next generation of transnationally mobile professionals? As a result of their upbringing in two countries, how do transnationally mobile children and youth understand their ethnic identity and national belonging? I address these questions, and more, by analyzing 95 conversations with Indian and first-generation Indian American return migrants, their children, and Indian American alumni of local high schools who live in Bangalore, a city in South India known as 'Silicon …

Terrorism Hazard And Infrastructure Projects: The Moderating Role Of Home Experience And Institutions, Alfredo Jiménez, Nathaniel C. Lupton

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This paper analyzes the impact of terrorism hazard on the performance of private participation infrastructure projects. Applying transaction cost theory, we hypothesize that terrorism hazard has a negative relationship with infrastructure project completion, and that host government accountability and investor experience with terrorism hazard have opposing impacts on this relationship. Host government accountability, we argue, produces higher indirect costs of managing terrorism hazard, which reduces investor confidence, and reinforces the negative relationship between terrorism hazard and the probability of satisfactory project completion. Conversely, investor’s experience with terrorism hazard increases investor confidence and hence partially mitigates the negative consequences of terrorism …

Performance Analysis And Learning Algorithms In Advanced Wireless Networks, Xueyuan Wang

Dissertations - ALL

Over the past decade, wireless data traffic has experienced an exponential growth, especially with multimedia traffic becoming the dominant traffic, and such growth is expected to continue in the near future. This unprecedented growth has led to an increasing demand for high-rate wireless communications.Key solutions for addressing such demand include extreme network densification with more small-cells, the utilization of high frequency bands, such as the millimeter wave (mmWave) bands and terahertz (THz) bands, where more bandwidth is available, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled cellular networks. With this motivation, different types of advanced wireless networks are considered in this thesis. In …

Coordination Geometries In Metallobundles Enforcing Oxidative And Hydrolytic Catalysis And Designing Biomaterials For Use As Antimicrobials, Jennifer Yoon

Dissertations - ALL

De novo protein design permits discovery of intricate folds and functions emulating natural enzymes in simpler, yet robust model constructs. Helical bundles serve as premier scaffolds to incorporate diverse reactivities from oxidative, reductive, to hydrolytic transformations observed in much grander O2-utilizing metalloproteins such as radical-generating ribonucleotide reductases and catalases. One notable family of de novo proteins is the Due Ferri or DF series of four-helix bundles providing a dinuclear site for metal incorporation and are amenable for tailoring active site reactivity. As reactive oxygen species and radical-based intermediates are prevalent and necessary for steering life-essential processes through reactive radicals stabilized …

Field Trials And Long-Term Monitoring Of Microbially-Induced Desaturation For The Treatment Of Liquefiable Silty Soils, Kayla Rae Sorenson

Dissertations and Theses

Earthquake liquefaction hazards in silty soils are a critical problem in Portland, Oregon, and other areas around the world. This is a particular problem for existing facilities founded on liquefiable soils, for which there exists no cost-effective liquefaction mitigation solution at the present time. It is essential from both a seismic safety and a seismic resilience perspective to be able to mitigate potentially liquefiable soils underneath existing structures, and to do so in a cost-effective manner. Recent studies suggest that liquefaction mitigation using microbially-induced desaturation (MID) may provide this capability.

The objective of MID is to reduce earthquake-induced excess pore …

Modeling Cyanotoxin Production, Fate And Transport In Surface Waterbodies, Bernadel Rose Hintz Garstecki

Dissertations and Theses

Cyanobacteria exist throughout the world and are frequently associated with forming toxic blooms. The toxins produced by cyanobacteria, cyanotoxins, are harmful to both humans and animals. Rising temperatures due to global climate change, increased nutrient loading, and other anthropogenic impacts on waterbodies are expected to increase the prevalence of cyanobacteria. It is vital that we protect our drinking water supplies and natural water resources. Modeling the production and movement of these toxins is an important step in limiting exposure to them and evaluating management strategies to mitigate their impact. Cyanotoxins are diverse and the conditions under which they are formed …

Using Quantitative Stereology On High Resolution Sem Images To Estimate Diatom Percentages, Ariadna Covarrubias Ornelas

Dissertations and Theses

Diatoms are single-celled organisms of various shapes and sizes typically found in aquatic environments. When diatoms die, the organic material decomposes, and the outer skeletons (i.e., frustules) settle and accumulate as sedimentary deposits. These soils, called diatomaceous soils, exhibit nontraditional behavior since the diatom particles are typically hollow skeletons composed of amorphous silica with intricately patterned and abrasive surfaces. Recent studies have shown that diatomaceous soils are challenging geomaterials since even a small percentage of diatom particles will notably affect engineering behavior. Furthermore, laboratory studies on diatomaceous soil mixtures have demonstrated that many engineering soil properties depend on the percentage …

Alteration Of The Canine Metabolome After A 3-Week Supplementation Of Cannabidiol (Cbd) Containing Treats: An Exploratory Study Of Healthy Animals, Elizabeth M. Morris, Susanna E. Kitts-Morgan, Dawn M. Spangler, Ibukun M. Ogunade, Kyle R. Mcleod, David L. Harmon

Animal and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

Despite the increased interest and widespread use of cannabidiol (CBD) in humans and companion animals, much remains to be learned about its effects on health and physiology. Metabolomics is a useful tool to evaluate changes in the health status of animals and to analyze metabolic alterations caused by diet, disease, or other factors. Thus, the purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the impact of CBD supplementation on the canine plasma metabolome. Sixteen dogs (18.2 ± 3.4 kg BW) were utilized in a completely randomized design with treatments consisting of control and 4.5 mg CBD/kg BW/d. After 21 d of …

Tailoring Exceptional Points In A Hybrid Pt-Symmetric And Anti-Pt-Symmetric Scattering System, Zhicheng Xiao, Andrea Alù

Advanced Science Research Center

Fano resonances feature an asymmetric lineshape with controllable linewidth, stemming from the interplay between bright and dark resonances. They provide efficient opportunities to shape the scattering lineshape, but they usually lack flexibility and tunability and are hindered by loss in passive systems. Here, we explore a hybrid parity-time (PT) and anti-parity-time (APT) symmetric system supporting unitary scattering features with highly tunable Fano resonances. The PT-APT-symmetric system can be envisioned in nanophotonic and microwave circuit implementations, allowing for real-time control of the scattering lineshape and its underlying singularities. Our study shows the opportunities enabled by non-Hermitian platforms to control scattering lineshapes …

On Communication For Distributed Babai Point Computation, Maiara F. Bollauf, Vinay A. Vaishampayan, Sueli I.R. Costa

Publications and Research

We present a communication-efficient distributed protocol for computing the Babai point, an approximate nearest point for a random vector X∈Rn in a given lattice. We show that the protocol is optimal in the sense that it minimizes the sum rate when the components of X are mutually independent. We then investigate the error probability, i.e. the probability that the Babai point does not coincide with the nearest lattice point, motivated by the fact that for some cases, a distributed algorithm for finding the Babai point is sufficient for finding the nearest lattice point itself. Two different probability models for X …

Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation Solitons On Quantum Droplets, A. Ludu, A.S. Carstea

Publications

Irrotational flow of a spherical thin liquid layer surrounding a rigid core is described using the defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Accordingly, azimuthal moving nonlinear waves are modeled by periodic dark solitons expressed by elliptic functions. In the quantum regime the algebraic Bethe ansatz is used in order to capture the energy levels of such motions, which we expect to be relevant for the dynamics of the nuclear clusters in deformed heavy nuclei surface modeled by quantum liquid drops. In order to validate the model we match our theoretical energy spectra with experimental results on energy, angular momentum, and parity for …

Hydrus-1d Modeling To Represent Hydrologic Performance Of The Oncenter Green Roof, Courtney Gammon

Theses - ALL

Green infrastructure has the potential to alleviate stormwater runoff and reduce combined sewer overflows. Green roofs have stormwater mitigation potential in urban areas but further analysis to predict performance is needed. This research aims to understand how rainfall parameters affect green roof retention and reduction during storm events and whether a one-dimensional hydrologic model can be used to accurately predict performance. An extensive network of sensors on the OnCenter green roof in downtown Syracuse, New York, was utilized for analysis and modeling. This roof is larger than nearly all other green roofs that have been previously studied, and the layer …