Digital Commons Network^™

A Staged Approach Using Machine Learning And Uncertainty Quantification To Predict The Risk Of Hip Fracture, Anjum Shaik, Kristoffer A. Larsen, Nancy E. Lane, Chen Zhao, Kuan Jui Su, Joyce H. Keyak, Qing Tian, Qiuying Sha, Hui Shen, Hong Wen Deng, Weihua Zhou

Michigan Tech Publications

Hip fractures present a significant healthcare challenge, especially within aging populations, where they are often caused by falls. These fractures lead to substantial morbidity and mortality, emphasizing the need for timely surgical intervention. Despite advancements in medical care, hip fractures impose a significant burden on individuals and healthcare systems. This paper focuses on the prediction of hip fracture risk in older and middle-aged adults, where falls and compromised bone quality are predominant factors. The study cohort included 547 patients, with 94 experiencing hip fracture. To assess the risk of hip fracture, clinical variables and clinical variables combined with hip DXA …

Limit Theorems For L-Functions In Analytic Number Theory, Asher Roberts

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We use the method of Radziwill and Soundararajan to prove Selberg’s central limit theorem for the real part of the logarithm of the Riemann zeta function on the critical line in the multivariate case. This gives an alternate proof of a result of Bourgade. An upshot of the method is to determine a rate of convergence in the sense of the Dudley distance. This is the same rate Selberg claims using the Kolmogorov distance. We also achieve the same rate of convergence in the case of Dirichlet L-functions. Assuming the Riemann hypothesis, we improve the rate of convergence by using …

Love In The Time Of Dating Apps: Exploring Latino Young Adults’ Experiences Constructing Online Identity, Partner Preferences, And Plans For Happily Ever After, Dakota Z. Ross-Cabrera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines how Latino young adults navigate dating apps; construct their dating app profiles, select partners and develop preferences, and conceptualize their futures. While earlier dating app research explores these themes with quantitative data or with non-Latino samples, the qualitative experiences of Latino young adults have been broadly excluded. Latinos are a large portion of the dating app market, and their relationships, outcomes, and future family formation are integral to understand. Drawing on 60 qualitative interviews with Latino young adult dating app users, I find that app users encounter five stages of dating app usage including constructing and often …

“As Blind Men Learn The Sun”: Towards A Poetics Of Queer Mysticism In American Literature, 1860-1960, Bradley M. Nelson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation seeks to play with the similarity between the queer and the mystical, and in the process, defines something I call “queer mysticism.” I include four cardinal figures of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American poetry: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and Robert Duncan. Beginning with Walt Whitman, I show how each of these poets bear witness to an experience of the divine that is both immanent and immanently queer. Through historical and biographical research, I uncover their poetic inspiration in popular modes of expression and in the esoteric and arcane. By establishing a connection with a few Catholic mystics …

Guardians Of The Bacterial Genome: Mechanistic Insights Of The Ner Atpase Uvra With Damaged Dnas; Molecular Interactions Between The V.Cholerae Initiator Rctb With Cognate Oricii Dna, Devon Semoy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is one of the fundamental DNA repair pathways in all organisms. A unique facet of NER is the large set of DNA lesions the pathway is capable of repairing (Truglio, Croteau, et al. 2006). The NER proteins may thus be responding to global features of native DNA such as changes in thermodynamic stability, geometry and kinetic properties (Maillard et al. 2007). In this study we set out to investigate the first and primary responder to NER in bacteria, UvrA (Kraithong et al. 2021). UvrA is a homo-dimeric ABC ATPase; proteins that are known to transduce the …

Imaging Markers Of Future Neurodegeneration Following Moderate-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury, Daniel Brennan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The overall goal of this dissertation was to identify patterns of cerebral atrophy following traumatic brain injury and relate relevant imaging measures to that atrophy. In Chapter 2, we outline a spatiotemporal profile of atrophy in the first year following moderate-severe TBI: prior to 3-months post injury, the frontal and temporal cortices were observed to be thinner than controls, and thalamic volumes were reduced. From 3-12 months post-injury, significant atrophy was observed in white matter, subcortical gray matter structures (including thalamus), and cortical thinning was observed in the parietal and occipital cortices.

In Chapter 3, we identified widespread white matter …

Essays On Macroeconomics And Banking, Christopher Naubert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters.

Chapter 1 - The Heterogeneous Effects of Interest Rate Liftoff in an Estimated New Keynesian Model In recent years, the question of how central banks should proceed with lifting interest rates from the zero lower bound has moved into focus. I study how alternative plans for interest rate liftoff affect households across the income and wealth distribution in an estimated New Keynesian model with fixed heterogeneity and aggregate shocks. I solve the model globally and develop a new methodology for estimating globally solved, non-linear models. In the estimated model, I find that all agents …

Harnessing Neural Activity To Prevent Non-Apoptotic Spinal Neurons From Microglial Phagocytosis After Motor System Injury, Jasmine L. Pathan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Producing skilled, voluntary movements in humans and many animals requires the corticospinal tract, the direct motor pathway connecting the cerebral cortex with spinal cord interneurons and motor neurons in humans and many non-human primates. Spinal cord injury (SCI) typically results in corticospinal tract damage, leading to transneuronal degeneration of its interneuron targets. Complement protein C1q triggers this degenerative process and induces microglia, the innate immune cells of the central nervous system, to phagocytose non-apoptotic interneurons. We examined two classes of premotor interneurons, cholinergic (ChAT) and glutamatergic (Chx10), essential to the spinal motor circuit as they receive direct corticospinal tract inputs …

Defining Resilience In Young People With Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Theory Informed Approach, Barbara Storch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a chronic gastrointestinal illness for which there is no existing cure. There is significant literature documenting the increased likelihood of adverse biopsychosocial outcomes in young people with IBD (e.g., Greenley et al., 2010); however, many individuals with IBD respond by either maintaining or increasing outcomes categorized as positive. These trajectories can be thought of as characterized by a resilient response. The study of resilience in young people with IBD is nascent. Given the unique disease-specific and developmental contexts young people with IBD experience, the first step in understanding the process of resilience in young people …

Investigating The Impact Of Affect In Suicide-Specific Attentional Biases, Beverlin Rosario-Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: Biased processing of suicide-related information has been implicated in risk of future suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Although previous studies have classified this biased processing, the tasks used to examine these biases cannot definitely specify which attentional processes are related to risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Therefore, via two independent studies, this dissertation sought to distinguish suicide-specific attentional engagement and disengagement biases from other forms of cognitive processing, such as accessibility of suicide-related stimuli and threat bias toward and away from socially threatening stimuli. Additionally, this dissertation investigated under which affective conditions suicide-specific engagement and disengagement biases emerged. …

Féminas Speaking Up: Three Papers On Feminine Transgender Identities, Gender Identity Activism, And Language Reform In Lima, Peru, Ernesto Cuba

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this three-paper dissertation, I explore the linguistic and discursive practices of Féminas, a leading transgender rights activist organization based in Lima, Peru. Building on scholarship on language ideologies (Irvine & Gal, 2000), queer linguistics (Motschenbacher, 2011), and socio-onomastics (Ainiala & Östman, 2017), I analyze the role that language beliefs and language-in-use plays in performing local (trans)gender identities and shaping grassroots politics within this specific community of practice (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992). Based on an extensive corpus of semi-structured interviews and ethnographic material gathered during my long-term investigation with Féminas, I present three studies exploring distinct –though related– ideologically-driven sociolinguistic …

Regulation Of P21 Function By A Sense Long Non-Coding Rna Generated By Alternative Polyadenylation, Anthony Ramadei

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As cells are continually undergoing damage to the genome, a coordinated change in gene expression across thousands of genes is required for the progression of the DNA damage response (DDR). After initial sensing of DNA damage, the transcription factor p53 induces expression of target genes to halt the cell-cycle to allow DNA repair and induce either senescence or apoptosis. One of the p53 target genes is CDKN1A which encodes the cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor p21. p21 halts cell-cycle progression in response to DNA damage and can also induce senescence. However, p21 expression in cancer cells undergoing chemotherapy allows survival by …

Complicity, Eliana Luxemburg-Peck

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What does it mean to be complicit in diffuse collective wrongs like structural racism, gender-based oppression, or environmental damage, and what responsibilities are entailed by complicity? Moral philosophers have often understood complicity to consist in some degree of inherited culpability, arising from knowing or intentional contributions to the bad acts of a primary wrongdoer. But these theories fail to explain complicity in the foregoing contexts, and cannot justify needed efforts to hold individuals accountable for unwitting contributions to systemic wrongs and injustices. In response to this gap, my dissertation defends a novel reconceptualization of complicity as participation in collectively perpetrated …

Careful Compositions And Careless Constructions, Timothy Dalton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation uses digital methods to analyze a digitized archive of life writing by disabled Civil War veterans through lenses of care ethics and rhetorical genre theory. Autobiographical letters by more than 370 disabled men respond to a contest prompt open to Union veterans injured in their right arms who had to relearn penmanship. This dissertation introduces the hybrid genre of “specimens of left-hand penmanship” through several critical lenses. It critiques the rhetoric of vocational rehabilitation and examines this archive as a site for early examples of concepts from contemporary disability studies. Finally, it turns explicitly to care ethics, and …

Education Crowdfunding Success: Studies On Information Asymmetry And Information Overload In Online Platforms, Mingyan Xu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Online education crowdfunding attracts public school teachers with its enormous outsourcing opportunities, but its success is constantly challenged by information asymmetry and information overload. To assist the teachers in successfully collecting teaching funds in crowdfunding, three studies are conducted to address the two challenges.

Information asymmetry exists between the fundraising teachers and the potential donors and challenges the education crowdfunding success. Virtual communication setting of online context further exacerbates this issue. Following signaling theory, it is critical for the informed teachers to create and send quality signals to the less-informed donors to enhance communication and establish mutual understanding. To understand …

Autophagy And Meiotic Fidelity In C. Elegans, Kaitlin E. Kosinski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved multi-step recycling process in which cellular material is enclosed in the double membrane-bound autophagosome, which fuses with the lysosome to degrade its contents. Autophagy is essential for development and cellular adaptation to environmental or intracellular stress and is an important regulator of germline stem cell homeostasis in the model nematode C. elegans. We sought to determine if autophagy is important for genome stability during meiosis and found that the core adult C. elegans autophagy genes bec-1, atg-7, unc-51, and atg-18 were all required for proper meiotic development of oocytes. Loss of these …

Claiming The Right To Belong: Diversity And The Politics Of Inclusion In Queens, New York, Susan J. Tanenbaum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines social integration in a diverse civic and political mainstream. The social science research on intergroup contact in U.S. cities undergoing significant demographic change tends to focus on encounters between members of majority “in-groups” and minority “out-groups” in the context of workplaces, neighborhoods, and families. I contend that civic politics is another compelling strategic site for observing intergroup contact between emerging and established players. My study presents three cases of claims-making activity during the post-9/11 period in New York City’s borough of Queens, where close to 50% of the population is foreign-born and no single racial group predominates. …

Intuitionism, Justification Logic, And Doxastic Reasoning, Vincent A. Peluce

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this Dissertation, we examine a handful of related themes in the philosophy of logic and mathematics. We take as a starting point the deeply philosophical, and—as we argue, deeply Kantian—views of L.E.J. Brouwer, the founder of intuitionism. We examine his famous first act of intuitionism. Therein, he put forth both a critical and a constructive idea. This critical idea involved digging a philosophical rift between what he thought of himself as doing and what he thought of his contemporaries, specifically Hilbert, as doing. He sought to completely separate mathematics from mathematical language, and thereby logic. In chapter 3, we …

The Blackgirl Project: Examining The Impact And Manifestation Of Colorism Among Black Adolescent Girls In The United States: A Critical Participatory Action Research Approach, Gina (Diagou) R. Sissoko

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Colorism is a skin tone stratification system that privileges lighter-skinned people over their darker-skinned counterparts. Although colorism remains surprisingly understudied, it has been linked to a variety of negative mental health and social outcomes. Colorism particularly impacts Black girls—particularly in adolescence. This dissertation utilized microaggressions theory and a critical participatory action research framework to describe (1) the manifestation of colorism in the lives of darker-skinned Black girls, (2) the impact of colorism on Black girls’ mental health, (3) the ways in which Black girls cope with and resist colorist experiences, and (4) create a taxonomy of colorist microaggressions. Ten Black …

Helpful Intentions? Impact Of Intentionality On Children's Memory For Forensically-Relevant Information, Ella P. Merriwether

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Rationale: When a child is a witness or victim of a crime, they are often asked a barrage of questions regarding when the crime took place, how many times it occurred, and how the abuse unfolded (Cross & Whitcomb, 2017; Sullivan et al., 2022). These questions can be problematic because they rely on concepts for which children may lack memory or linguistic ability to answer (Fenson et al., 2000; Friedman, 1993). One fundamental element missing from the copious research (e.g., Brubacher et al., 2012; Stolzenberg et al., 2017a; Wylie et al., 2021) on children’s ability to recount forensically-relevant information is …

Mechanism Of Host Recognition By The Bacteriophage Cystoviridae, Charles F. Robinson Iv

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Cystoviridae is a unique family of double stranded RNA bacteriophage that fuses its outer viral membrane with the lipopolysaccharide membrane of its Gram-negative host. In a series of studies, we determined the specifics of Cystoviridae host binding and the requirements of host fusion. The outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) secreted by the host inhibit Cystoviridae infection. We studied the interaction between OMVs and Cystoviridae to observe the host requirements for binding Cystoviridae. We determined that Cystoviridae strains Phi 8 and Phi 12 recognize the core polysaccharide and lipid A of the host lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for binding. The P6 protein …

Exploring The Correlation Between Google Trends And Crime Statistics: A Focus On Motor Vehicle Theft In The United States, Yu-Hsuan Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the linear relationships between motor vehicle theft (MVT) estimates from Google Trends--a form of digital trace data--and official crime statistics, including the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and 911 calls for service (CFS 911). It offers a comprehensive analysis of the limitations inherent in current crime statistics, discusses measurement errors, and explores statistical models to mitigate the impact of measurement error, applying these methods to validate Google Trends MVT data and other official MVT statistics. Furthermore, this study incorporates social disorganization theory and …

Building Networks, Producing Spaces For Play: Local Geographies And National Organizing In The History Of Adventure Playgrounds In The United States, 1949-1999, Reilly B. Wilson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation provides an historical analysis of repurposed material adventure playgrounds in the United States between 1949 and 1999. Three microhistories of adventure playgrounds (The Yard, in Minneapolis, M.N., and several playgrounds in New York City, N.Y., and Houston, T.X.) are framed against the wider socio-economic changes that shaped more than thirty-five adventure playgrounds in the United States over the period of study. By focusing on the relationships mobilized by adventure playground advocates at different scales and across different points of view, and how these networks shaped the local production of spaces for play, this dissertation's method underlines the importance …

Association Of Autistic Traits And Psychiatric Symptoms In Children With A Fragile X Premutation Allele: The Neurodevelopmental Profile, Ariel Zucker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Throughout the lifespan, approximately 14% of males and 5% of females with a fragile X premutation (PM) (defined as 55-200 CGG repeats on the X-linked FMR1 gene) are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). For individuals that do not meet diagnostic criteria for ASD, autistic traits (ATs) are often present in this population and have been shown to have a subtle and sub-clinical presentation of social communication and interaction deficits. While less is known about the phenotype of children with a PM, studies have found increased rates of ASD and ATs in adults with a PM allele compared to controls. …

Late-Life Depression: The Interplay Between Cerebrovascular Risk, Cortical And Subcortical Atrophy, And Treatment Response, Dakota Egglefield

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Late-life depression (LLD) is associated with poor response to antidepressant medication treatment, cognitive impairment, cerebrovascular disease, and brain changes both in white and gray matter. Of particular interest is the vascular subtype of LLD, vascular depression (VD). Although LLD and VD have received considerable research attention, there are still areas that must be further clarified to adequately characterize aspects of LLD and VD that provide valuable information for possible interventions. Such areas include a stronger understanding of the moderating role of brain atrophy and changes in cognition in treatment response in LLD. This dissertation consists of three separate studies aimed …

Perceptual Expectation, Rebecca Keller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

You are currently seeing many things, and, hopefully, you are currently about to see many other things. Many of the things that you are about to see will not be surprising, because you expect to see them. Sometimes, though, when you expect to see one thing and are faced with another, that thing will look like the thing you expected it to be, and not like the thing it actually is. This dissertation is an attempt to get a handle on what is happening in the visual system in these instances. In particular, I am trying to figure out what …

Unpacking Normative Change: The United Nations At Its 60th Anniversary, Giovanna Marques Kuele

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the UN at its 60th anniversary at a critical juncture, with seven nested observations, to answer why normative change happens at the UN, when it is triggered, and which proposed changes are ultimately adopted. It argues that normative change at the UN is a result of multilevel political consensus at critical junctures. At the macro level, these junctures are triggered by global crises and international summits that provide a moment of normative reflection among the three UNs—member states, secretariat, and non-state actors—thereby increasing the likelihood of achieving multilevel political consensus. At the micro level, the formation of …

Challenging Beliefs: Examining The Efficacy Of Corrections For Conspiratorial And Partisan Misinformation, Ava Zwolinski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The threat of misinformation is widely acknowledged among researchers and laypeople (NORC, 2021). When misinformation coalesces with conspiracy theories, the repercussions can be especially dangerous, sometimes even fatal. Events such as the January 6th insurrection and the Buffalo Tops Supermarket shooting were both, in part, inspired by misleading information and conspiracy theories (Burke, 2022; Dawsey, 2023). While misinformation involving conspiracy theories is recognized as possibly posing a greater threat to correction efforts (Lewandowsky, 2021a), no study has yet experimentally manipulated the presence or absence of conspiratorial elements within misinformation. This dissertation explores whether conspiratorial misinformation is more difficult to correct …

Design, Fabrication, And Spectroscopy Of Photocatalytic Materials In Visible Spectrum, Yamuna Paudel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Heterogeneous photocatalysis has attracted research interest in sustainable energy technologies. However, achieving high photocatalytic efficiency from visible light-absorbing semiconductors is challenging due to their weak absorption, transport losses, and low activity. While multilayer approaches have been developed to enhance the surface reactivity and stability independent of electronic factors, a comprehensive framework for optimizing light-matter interactions has not yet been established. Here, we introduce a photonic strategy using semiconductor metasurfaces, which is highly effective in enhancing the photocatalytic activity of GaAs, a high-performance semiconductor with a near-infrared bandgap. Our engineered pillar arrays with heights of ~150 nm exhibit Mie resonances near …

Preschoolers’ Generation Of Quantity Implicatures, André Eliatamby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation uses the developing child as a window into the mechanisms and representations that allow us to understand the meaning of utterances in their contexts. I present three studies investigating 4- and 5-year-olds’ ability to generate two types of “quantity implicatures,” classic scalar implicatures with some that imply not all, and free choice inferences that arise with sentences like “Larry is allowed to have cake or ice-cream.” Together, the studies suggest a close relationship between pragmatic development and word learning, something not appreciated in existing literature. In the first study investigating some, I show that preschoolers interpret …