Digital Commons Network^™

Using Appreciative Inquiry To Improve Instruction And Collaborative Partnerships, Amber C. Wessies, Julie A. Powell

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Kim's "Analog Church: Why We Need Real People, Places, And Things In The Digital Age" (Book Review), Joshua Strickler

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Warwick's "Humming Words: A Collection Of Poetry" (Book Review), Lauren Bedoy

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Neither Buddhist Nor Taoist, But Both (And Even More): Exploring The ‘Hall Of Infinite Principle’ (Guangli Fotang): A Chinese Temple In The Romanian Capital, Serban Toader

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This ethnography regards the sole Chinese temple in the Romanian capital Bucharest, its people and activity, as well as the thinking that supports this new religious movement (Maitreya Great Tao,Mile Dadao 彌勒大道). It is common knowledge that Taoism, Budhism, and Confucianism appear, at least in the official discourse, as a braided rope of unified Chinese tradition, each of the three at the same time preserving their particular features. Nevertheless, Mile Dadao not only seems to implicitly unite the three traditions in one (to which other foreign or popular traditions may be added as well), but also aims to act as …

Nursing Perceptions For Utilizing Essential Oil Application In Labor And The Effect Of Targeted Education, Joni R. Beckham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This Doctor of Nursing Practice project was implemented to determine how a nurse’s perception of aromatherapy influences their decision to provide aromatherapy for patients during labor and the effect of targeted education on a nurse’s perception. The purpose of this project was to determine how nurses view the use of aromatherapy resources at their disposal and the likelihood that they would offer the intervention to their patients. This project provided education to increase nurses’ confidence in providing optimal care to patients using a traditional and holistic avenue of aromatherapy while determining if education can positively influence nurses to support essential …

The Efficacy Of A Rapid Rehousing Program Serving Adults Experiencing Homelessness In West Central Texas, Unique Jackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses the dynamics of homelessness and examines one agency (Abilene Hope Haven) that aims to help homeless individuals receive permanent housing. This study explores the characteristics that influence the likelihood of placement in permanent housing within 12 months at Abilene Hope Haven. The different types of supportive housing programs and their roles in helping homeless individuals will be discussed. Secondary data gathered from the Homeless Management Information System were entered into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, and then a logistical regression analysis was created to explain the relationships between the different characteristics and permanency placement. A key …

The Invisible Language: Unintentional Patronage And Missions Practice In Contemporary Thailand, Samuel Burton Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Patronage-clientelism is a current and important topic of discussion among the anthropological and missiological community. The effects of unintended patronage by Western missionaries in the context of Thai culture, however, are underexplored in academic research. In this study, I analyzed the effects of unintentional patronage among Western missionaries in a Thai cross-cultural ministry context. To do this I utilized a multiple case study method in which I compared four cases and analyzed for examples of how unintentional patronage is generated. I discovered that unintentional patronage was likely a result of insufficient missionary education regarding patronage-clientelism, as well as a lack …

Approachable Error Bounded Lossy Compression, Robert Raymond Underwood

All Dissertations

Compression is commonly used in HPC applications to move and store data. Traditional lossless compression, however, does not provide adequate compression of floating point data often found in scientific codes. Recently, researchers and scientists have turned to lossy compression techniques that approximate the original data rather than reproduce it in order to achieve desired levels of compression. Typical lossy compressors do not bound the errors introduced into the data, leading to the development of error bounded lossy compressors (EBLC). These tools provide the desired levels of compression as mathematical guarantees on the errors introduced. However, the current state of EBLC …

An Investigation Of Engineering Majors: Graduates' Enrollment Timelines And First-Year Students' Perceptions And Exploration, Baker A. Martin

All Dissertations

The selection of a specific engineering major can substantially impact a student’s undergraduate experience and can also impact future career opportunities. This work is divided into complementary studies of Enrollment, Perception, and Exploration. Together, the three studies seek to answer six research questions related to (i) when and where students enroll in their graduation majors in different matriculation models, (ii) how students perceive both engineering in general and the engineering majors, and (iii) the impacts of a major exploration course on confidence in major choice, major changes, and fit and satisfaction in engineering in general and in the engineering majors. …

The Causal Effects Of Growing Up In A Two-Parent Household: Evidence From The Psid On Schooling, Earnings, And Labor Force Participation, Bob Shihao Wen

All Dissertations

The children who grew up in a two-parent household earn more than the other children reared in non-intact parental families. The causal effects of growing up in a two-parent household can be identified using two specification strategies. First, I include the parental household income and educational attainment in the model, along with the child’s demographic characteristics (age, gender, race, and state of residence), to disentangle the childhood family structure effect from the other parental influence. Second, I use the average state divorce rate over the child’s first 16 years of childhood and the childhood years of exposure to the no-fault …

Numerical And Experimental Study Of Machining Process Of High Strength Lightweight Materials, Chao Zhang

All Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Coupled Thermal Mechanical Analysis Methodology For Thermal Performance Evaluation And Failure Mode Identification Of Thermal Barrier Coatings For Heavy Duty Diesel Engines, Sean Moser

All Dissertations

Consumer demand and government regulation, as well as the Department of Energy’s SuperTruck program has motivated extraordinary effort to maximize the heavy-duty diesel engine’s thermal efficiency. Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) provide an avenue for increasing the thermal efficiency of the mixing controlled combustion (MCC) process through the reduction of heat transfer losses. The myriad of previous studies presents conflicting conclusions, both in the merit of TBCs for cycle improvement, and also for coating durability and potential adverse effects from coating failure. While the most recent studies with thin thermal barrier coatings (~100-250 µm) have shown a majority of positive cycle …

Seismic Performance Assessment Of Building Contents: Monetary Losses And Injuries, Sereen Majdalaweyh

All Dissertations

Building contents include all the components that are not attached to the building which the owners place after the construction phase, such as furniture, electrical equipment, glassware, and other personal items. Loss and damage assessment of building contents proved to be challenging in performance-based earthquake engineering frameworks because of the data sparsity. Damages to building contents during an earthquake not only cause monetary losses; tumbling and over-toppling of heavy building contents could result in injuries and even deaths of occupants. While major advancements have been made in performance-based earthquake engineering; however, the focus is mainly on damages and collapse risk …

Influencing The Inflammatory Response Through Multi-Scale Geometry, Antibiotic Release, And Fluid Management In A Textile-Based Biomaterial Wound Dressing, Elizabeth Gianino

All Dissertations

The total population of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes mellitus in the United states is expected to rise by 54% between the years of 2015 and 2030 contributing to $200 billion in health care expense. The exponential rise in common diabetic wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers, puts a large population at risk for complications such as infection, amputation, and even death. Peripheral neuropathy leading to late diagnoses, patient non-compliance, and lack of holistic treatment options all contribute to complications with the incidence of new ulcer formation after treatment reaching 50%. This work explores the design, development, and in vitro evaluation …

Reinforcement Learning Based Design Methodology For Building Performance: A Case Of Building Facades With Kinetic Elements, Sida Dai

All Dissertations

With the increasing complexity of design problems in building performance, traditional design methods are difficult to meet the growing demand of designers. For example, in building facades with kinetic elements, traditional design methods are facing many constraints due to the complex design variables and requirements. This study applied reinforcement learning(RL) to building performance optimization and proposed a novel design methodology. This design methodology consists of two parts: (1) a reinforcement learning-based design system; (2) an improved design process based on reinforcement learning.

The construction of the design methodology started from the analysis of design algorithms. Next, the design system was …

Arbitrage Among Stablecoins, Peiyun Jin

All Dissertations

We examine the trades data and order book from 13 exchanges to study the arbitrage opportunities in stablecoins. Using snapshots of the order book data, we find that occasional prices far from the arbitrage-free prices (flash crashes) are real. Flash crashes invariably are associated with unusually large aggregate trading volume. We also examine arbitrage profitability and fee structure for stablecoin-USD and stablecoin- stablecoin. Our results show that after subtracting fees, there are still positive arbitrage profits. We also compare the efficiency of Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs) and Centralized Exchanges (CEXs). Our results are consistent with DEXs and CEXs being equally efficient.

Essays On The Housing Market In China And Some Evidence On Inflation Targeting, Yanchao Li

All Dissertations

The housing market in China enjoys great prosperity after a continuously rapid development for more than a decade. However, there are growing concerns about possible bubbles as the price continues to rise while ordinary workers cannot afford a house. The government of China has implemented different kinds of regulations to slow rapid price increases and stabilize the market since 2007. The first paper looks at the characteristics and determinants of housing prices in different tiers of cities in China over the period 2002–2017, and then the second paper examines the impact of different types of regulations on the real estate …

An Algorithm For Biobjective Mixed Integer Quadratic Programs, Pubudu Jayasekara Merenchige

All Dissertations

Multiobjective quadratic programs (MOQPs) are appealing since convex quadratic programs have elegant mathematical properties and model important applications. Adding mixed-integer variables extends their applicability while the resulting programs become global optimization problems. Thus, in this work, we develop a branch and bound (BB) algorithm for solving biobjective mixed-integer quadratic programs (BOMIQPs). An algorithm of this type does not exist in the literature.

The algorithm relies on five fundamental components of the BB scheme: calculating an initial set of efficient solutions with associated Pareto points, solving node problems, fathoming, branching, and set dominance. Considering the properties of the Pareto set of …

Capillary Driven Transport In Soft Solids, Saiful Islam Tamim

All Dissertations

Soft solids, such as polymeric gels, are elastic materials that can be significantly deformed by capillary forces which act at the interface. The coupling between elasticity and capillarity is known as elastocapillarity and is useful to wide ranging applications, from drop pinchoff of bioinks for 3-D printing tissue scaffolds, to generating droplet patterns on microfluidic devices. In this dissertation, we develop mathematical models of elastocapillary driven motions in soft solids. The focus is on understanding the relevant physics in such complex phenomena, while also recovering the limiting cases of classical fluid mechanics and solid mechanics theories.

This dissertation investigates two …

Identification Of Biomarker Systems Of Autism Spectrum Disorder And Uterine Cancer, Allison Hickman

All Dissertations

Complex diseases and disorders pose a challenge to scientists due to their variable and often inconsistent genetic and environmental underpinnings across affected individuals. Because of this variability, large condition-specific datasets and corresponding analytical tools and approaches are being curated as resources to investigate potential genetic trends in complex diseases and disorders. In this Dissertation, I used DNA- and RNA-based resources to discover polygenic biosignatures associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or uterine cancer. To explore the intersection of small-effect common DNA variants and regulation in ASD, I discovered and analyzed trends in allelic associations at eQTLs within ASD-affected individuals. Association …

Understanding And Modulating Amyloid Aggregation, Yanting Xing

All Dissertations

Amyloids are the products of protein misfolding into fibril-like structures, which take place in human tissues and organs, including the human brain, heart, liver, and pancreas. As the deposition of amyloid fibrils usually leads to the dysfunction or death of cells, the formation of amyloid is associated with more than 20 human diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and type 2 diabetes. Understanding how soluble peptides to form amyloid fibrils and how to modulate those amyloid aggregation are central to the design of rational therapeutic strategies against those diseases. Increasing experiments suggest that amyloid peptides can undergo liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) …

Exploring The Role Of Ampk In Nutrient Sensing And Signaling In The Human Parasite Trypanosoma Brucei, Jessica Jones

All Dissertations

African trypanosomes are protozoan parasites that cause the diseases African sleeping sickness and nagana, in humans and cattle respectively. These parasites have complex life cycles with infection of a mammalian host, ~5mM glucose, following transmission by an insect vector, essentially zero glucose. With these pathogens being exposed to rapidly changing glucose abundance in a host-dependent manner, the ability to sense and rapidly respond to changes in the availability of the hexose are critical. First, I provide a review of glucose metabolism in Trypanosoma brucei. Then, we explore the role of the catalytic α subunit of AMPK, a eukaryotic master …

Cultivation 2.0: The Mediated Environment As Message In The 21st Century, Chelsea Slack

All Dissertations

It is hard to deny social media and its omnipresence is affecting users. What’s more, the online mediated environment is becoming increasingly diverse, with more social media platforms being created and used each year. What is social media doing to us? How do different platforms affect views of users? To answer these questions, this study applied cultivation theory to the mediated environment, which included the social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok. With 413 respondents, the results of this study indicated that Facebook consumption is related to first order cultivation effects, and non-Facebook platforms contribute to …

Deep Learning Based Speech Enhancement And Its Application To Speech Recognition, Ju Lin

All Dissertations

Speech enhancement is the task that aims to improve the quality and the intelligibility of a speech signal that is degraded by ambient noise and room reverberation. Speech enhancement algorithms are used extensively in many audio- and communication systems, including mobile handsets, speech recognition, speaker verification systems and hearing aids. Recently, deep learning has achieved great success in many applications, such as computer vision, nature language processing and speech recognition. Speech enhancement methods have been introduced that use deep-learning techniques, as these techniques are capable of learning complex hierarchical functions using large-scale training data. This dissertation investigates the deep learning …

Development Of Tissue Engineered Scaffolds For Cardiovascular Repair And Replacement In Pediatric Patients, Dipasha Sinha

All Dissertations

Congenital Heart Diseases (CHD) are abnormalities present in the heart and great vessels at birth. It is one of the most frequently diagnosed congenital disorders, affecting approximately 40,000 live birth each year in the United States. The incidence of new CHD patients and the relative distribution of defects have not changed over time and remain a birth rate function. Out of the new patients found to have CHD each year, an estimated 2,500 patients have a defect that requires a substitute, non-native valve, or conduit artery to replace structures that are congenitally absent or hypoplastic. Materials in current use for …

Development Of Solution Blow Spun Nanofibers As Electrical And Whole Cell Biosensing Interfaces, Craig Levar Miller

All Dissertations

Infectious pathogens place a huge burden on the US economy with more than $120 billion spent annually for direct and indirect costs for the treatment of infectious diseases. Rapid detection schemes continue to evolve in order to meet the demand of early diagnosis. In chronic wound infections, bacterial load is capable of impeding the healing process. Additionally, bacterial virulence production works coherently with bacterial load to produce toxins and molecules that prolongs the healing cycle. This work examines the use of nonwoven polymeric conductive and non-conductive nanofiber mats as synthetic biosensor scaffolds, drug delivery and biosensor interface constructs. A custom-made …

Novel Peptide Biomaterials For Enhanced Delivery Of Sirna Cargo For Treatment Of Ovarian Cancer, Timothy Samec

All Dissertations

Ovarian cancer is the 7^th leading cause of cancer related death and the 5^th most commonly diagnosed cancer among women. Primarily diagnosed in stage III or stage IV, aggressive treatment is necessary and involves surgical debulking and administration of systemic chemotherapeutics. Unfortunately, these strategies fall short in effectively treating ovarian cancer and many patients experience local disease recurrence, development of multidrug resistant tumors, regional or distant metastatic events, or a combination of the three. As such, there is a significant need for additional treatment options and methods of delivery to improve therapeutic efficacy and disease survivability.

RNA interference …

Stimuli-Responsive And Electrically Conductive Metal-Organic Frameworks, Amina Khatun

All Dissertations

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of porous materials made of organic ligands linked by metal ions or cluster nodes, are well known for their highly ordered crystalline structure and chemical and structural tunability. Due to their porous nature, MOFs can encapsulate guest molecules inside the cavities. The tunable structures, compositions, porosity, and surface area make MOFs useful for various applications, such as gas storage and separation, chemical sensing, catalysis, optoelectronics, and drug delivery.

In chapter 2, I present a new luminescent metal-organic framework (LMOF) featuring energy transfer and stimuli (Hg²⁺) responsive capabilities. The two fluorophoric ligands incorporated in …

Where To Start? A Tool For Thinking About The Sdgs And Community Foundation Work, Katie Leone, Tessa Lesage

The Foundation Review

The merits of advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are widely agreed upon by the global community, but designing and applying strategies to do so at the local level can be challenging. This article aims to support community foundations in moving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development forward in practical ways by exploring the use of a point-of-entry wheel to create a shared language that can help community foundations align their local efforts with the global goals.

Since 2012, Collaboratory has been exploring the potential for integrating sustainability — encompassing economic, social, and environmental pillars — as a strategic …

De La Promesa De Los Objetivos De Desarrollo Sostenible A La Acción: El Caso De Las Fundaciones Comunitarias En Canadá, Marta Rey-Garcia, Rosane Dal Magro

The Foundation Review

La Agenda 2030 de las Naciones Unidas crea una oportunidad para que las fundacionesfilantrópicas sean más colaborativas ytransformadoras en su trabajo hacia los objetivosglobales. Así, desde 2016, el grado en que lasfundaciones adoptan el marco de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible en su funcionamiento se ha convertido en un tema de interés. Aunque lasinvestigaciones basadas en encuestas y casosmuestran un aumento de las tasas de adopción por parte de las fundaciones y existen variasherramientas para ayudarlas a actuar en pro delos objetivos, faltan pruebas sistemáticas sobrelos propósitos y los procesos de adopción de losODS entre las fundaciones.

Este vacío es …