Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Is The Reliability Of Objective Originality Scores Confounded By Elaboration?, Shannon Marie Maio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increased use of text-mining models as a scoring mechanism for divergent thinking (DT) tasks has sparked concerns about the ways in which automated Originality scores may be influenced by other dimensions of DT, especially Elaboration. The debate centers around the question of whether too much variance in automated Originality scores is accounted for by the number of words a participant uses in a response (i.e., Elaboration), and, thus, how the influence of Elaboration can affect the reliability of Originality scores. Here, a partial correlation analysis, in conjunction with text-mining and psychometric modeling, is conducted to test the degree to …

Measuring The Connective Action Of Black Lives Matter Activists: A Psychometric Investigation Into Twitter Data, Paige Alfonzo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many protest movements from the last twenty-first century have become increasingly networked and personalized. Several scholars have tapped into this change coining terms such as participatory action, digitally mediated action, computer-mediated communication, issue-based organization, and what I focus on in this project, connective action. Building on the ideas percolating across the literary landscape at the time, Bennett and Segerberg (2012) introduced the logic of connective action based on emergent characteristics they observed in post-2010 large-scale social movements. Both the logic of connective action and related work have become deeply ingrained in today's social movement scholarship. As such, I felt it …

Real-Time Detection Of Demand Manipulation Attacks On A Power Grid, Srinidhi Madabhushi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An increased usage in IoT devices across the globe has posed a threat to the power grid. When an attacker has access to multiple IoT devices within the same geographical location, they can possibly disrupt the power grid by regulating a botnet of high-wattage IoT devices. Based on the time and situation of the attack, an adversary needs access to a fixed number of IoT devices to synchronously switch on/off all of them, resulting in an imbalance between the supply and demand. When the frequency of the power generators drops below a threshold value, it can lead to the generators …

Comprehensive Research Synthesis: An Approach To Mixed Methods Research Syntheses, Lilian Linialy Chimuma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mixed methods research synthesis (MMRS) is an emerging application of both mixed-methods research (MMR) and review research. MMRS promises to comprehensively address intricate contemporary research and evaluation questions given diverse evidence sources (across quantitative, qualitative, and MMR primary studies). The significance of concurrently addressing methodological issues for new research developments is widely noted in the literature. Current efforts attempt to streamline methodological practices along with application of the MMRS approach. Researchers have proposed conceptual frameworks to guide the application and practice of MMRS studies. Despite these efforts, complications and disagreements persist. In response to these concerns, this study developed a …

The Experiences Of Ncaa Student-Athletes With An Eating Disorder Or Disordered Eating, Rachel E. Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of student-athletes who had an eating disorder or disordered eating (ED/DE) while competing for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Integrating criticism and connoisseurship and critical evocative portraiture, four post-collegiate women who participated in cross country and track, who were either clinically diagnosed with an ED/DE or who self-diagnosed, participated in two interviews to describe their experiences with and the impact of ED/DE on their athletic pursuits, academic pursuits, as well as their relationships with coaches, teammates, and family. The analysis of these interviews showed the complexity of this topic. …

Deep Siamese Neural Networks For Facial Expression Recognition In The Wild, Wassan Hayale

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The variation of facial images in the wild conditions due to head pose, face illumination, and occlusion can significantly affect the Facial Expression Recognition (FER) performance. Moreover, between subject variation introduced by age, gender, ethnic backgrounds, and identity can also influence the FER performance. This Ph.D. dissertation presents a novel algorithm for end-to-end facial expression recognition, valence and arousal estimation, and visual object matching based on deep Siamese Neural Networks to handle the extreme variation that exists in a facial dataset. In our main Siamese Neural Networks for facial expression recognition, the first network represents the classification framework, where we …

Certification-Driven Testing Of Safety-Critical Systems, Aiman S. Gannous

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Safety-critical systems are those systems that when they fail they could cause loss of life or significant physical damages. Since software now is an essential component of these types of systems, failures caused by software faults could come from flaws in the software development life-cycle. As a result, challenges unfold in two directions. First, in verifying that the software will not put the system in an unsafe state, and identifying external failures and mitigate them properly. Second, in providing sufficient evidence for an efficient safety certification process. In this study, we propose an approach for testing safety-critical systems called Model-Combinatorial …

Facial Action Unit Detection With Deep Convolutional Neural Networks, Siddhesh Padwal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The facial features are the most important tool to understand an individual's state of mind. Automated recognition of facial expressions and particularly Facial Action Units defined by Facial Action Coding System (FACS) is challenging research problem in the field of computer vision and machine learning. Researchers are working on deep learning algorithms to improve state of the art in the area. Automated recognition of facial action units has man applications ranging from developmental psychology to human robot interface design where companies are using this technology to improve their consumer devices (like unlocking phone) and for entertainment like FaceApp. Recent studies …

A Spectropolarimetric Study Of Southern Wr + O Binaries, Andrew G. Fullard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The classical Wolf-Rayet (WR) state is the evolved stage of a massive star, post main-sequence. They are characterized by their strong emission line spectra and stellar winds that are often more than 10 times denser than that of their progenitor O-type stars, which have mass loss rates of 10^-6 M_Θyr^-1. The evolution of WR stars and their connection to specific types of supernovae (SNe) is an open question. Current theory suggests that rapidly rotating massive stars may be the progenitors of SNe that produce long-duration gamma-ray bursts. The interaction between WR stars and their companion …

Assessing Robustness Of The Rasch Mixture Model To Detect Differential Item Functioning - A Monte Carlo Simulation Study, Jinjin Huang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Measurement invariance is crucial for an effective and valid measure of a construct. Invariance holds when the latent trait varies consistently across subgroups; in other words, the mean differences among subgroups are only due to true latent ability differences. Differential item functioning (DIF) occurs when measurement invariance is violated. There are two kinds of traditional tools for DIF detection: non-parametric methods and parametric methods. Mantel Haenszel (MH), SIBTEST, and standardization are examples of non-parametric DIF detection methods. The majority of parametric DIF detection methods are item response theory (IRT) based. Both non-parametric methods and parametric methods compare differences among subgroups …

Renewable Energy Integration In Distribution System With Artificial Intelligence, Yi Gu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the increasing attention of renewable energy development in distribution power system, artificial intelligence (AI) can play an indispensiable role. In this thesis, a series of artificial intelligence based methods are studied and implemented to further enhance the performance of power system operation and control.

Due to the large volume of heterogeneous data provided by both the customer and the grid side, a big data visualization platform is built to feature out the hidden useful knowledge for smart grid (SG) operation, control and situation awareness. An open source cluster calculation framework with Apache Spark is used to discover big data …

Discrepancy Inequalities In Graphs And Their Applications, Adam Purcilly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Spectral graph theory, which is the use of eigenvalues of matrices associated with graphs, is a modern technique that has expanded our understanding of graphs and their structure. A particularly useful tool in spectral graph theory is the Expander Mixing Lemma, also known as the discrepancy inequality, which bounds the edge distribution between two sets based on the spectral gap. More specifically, it states that a small spectral gap of a graph implies that the edge distribution is close to random. This dissertation uses this tool to study two problems in extremal graph theory, then produces similar discrepancy inequalities based …

Sensitivity Of Radical Sam Enzyme Mftc To Molecular Oxygen, Vishnu Govindarajan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

MftC is a radical S-adenosyl L-methionine (SAM) enzyme that catalyzes the first step in the production of mycofactocin. It is a ribosomally synthesized post-translationally modified (RiPP) redox cofactor shown to be essential for the survival of bacteria in the Mycobacterium genus in the presence of cholesterol as a carbon source and for the sequestration of ethanol. MftC catalyzes the C – terminal decarboxylation of tyrosine and the subsequent cross-linking of tyrosine to the penultimate valine on the precursor peptide MftA. The product formed out of the reaction is processed into mycofactocin in downstream processes. The bacteria in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis …

Climate Change And Seed Security Among Smallholder Farmers In Northern Ghana, Michael Biwalib Madin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Smallholder agriculture is highly susceptible to climate variability and change. According to recent projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this sensitivity would likely increase in the coming decades, with more erratic rainfall, prolonged dry periods, shorter growing seasons, and seed germination failures. In the African context, the mechanisms through which these ecological stressors would affect seed security are poorly understood. Drawing upon a case study of semi-arid Ghana, this study examines climate change impacts on seed security among smallholder farmers. It adopts a mixed-methods approach with intensive fieldwork in two farming communities. Conceptually, the study uses a political …

Quantification Of Dynamic Epithelial Sheet Architecture In Botryllus Schlosseri Using 2-D & 3-D Image Analysis, Roopa Madhu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Epithelial tubules form critical structures in various body tissues; how- ever, since they are difficult to access experimentally, their architecture and dynamics are not well understood. Here we examine the dynamic remodeling of epithelial tubes in vivo using a novel and uniquely accessible model system: the extracorporeal vasculature of Botryllus schlosseri (sea squirt). In Botryllus, massive retraction of blood vessels can be triggered without loss of barrier function, through (i) disrupting collagen crosslinking in the basement membrane using β-aminopropionitrile (BAPN); or (ii) disrupting the integrin pathway through inhibition of focal adhesion kinase (FAK). We performed stereographic projections of 3-dimensional …

Rock Glacier Development In The San Juan Mountains, Brandon K. Bailey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rock glaciers are common landform features found in deglaciated alpine areas. They are commonly used in the study of climatic changes throughout the Holocene and the reconstruction of neoglacial chronologies. For this research, Schmidt hammer rebound values, weathering rind thicknesses, and the length of lichen thalli diameters found on rock glacier surfaces are used to investigate their effectiveness as field-based relative age determination techniques. Additionally, the ability to identify periods of neoglacial activity using these methods is assessed in two neighboring cirque basins in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. 41 field sites across three rock glaciers are established with …

Automated Recognition Of Facial Affect Using Deep Neural Networks, Behzad Hasani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Automated Facial Expression Recognition (FER) has been a topic of study in the field of computer vision and machine learning for decades. In spite of efforts made to improve the accuracy of FER systems, existing methods still are not generalizable and accurate enough for use in real-world applications. Many of the traditional methods use hand-crafted (a.k.a. engineered) features for representation of facial images. However, these methods often require rigorous hyper-parameter tuning to achieve favorable results.

Recently, Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have shown to outperform traditional methods in visual object recognition. DNNs require huge data as well as powerful computing units …

How 6-12th Grade Staff Support Students With Depression: A Pilot Study To Develop Measures Of Implicit Associations, Explicit Attitudes And Helping Behavior, Paul M. Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students with emotional disabilities are disproportionately suspended and expelled in K-12 schools. Attribution theory suggests individuals are less likely to provide assistance to others if they believe the individuals are responsible for their own difficulties. To test attribution theory, this study created new measures of explicit attitudes and implicit associations of licensed 6-12th grade staff regarding students with depression as well as a helping behavior measure of staff toward students with depression. The survey was distributed within a single school district in the western United States. A majority of the sample (N = 52) held a mental health license (60%), …

Volcanic Impact On Stratospheric Chlorine Chemistry And Perchlorate Formation: Evidence From Ice Cores, Joshua Andrew Kennedy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Perchlorate, suspected to be chemically formed in both the troposphere and stratosphere, has been recently measured in Arctic snow and ice cores. These comprise both discontinuous snow and ice cores from the Canadian Arctic and a continuous record of perchlorate was compiled from an analysis of Greenland ice cores. While the background perchlorate concentration typically is very low, a few spikes in concentration coinciding with deposition of volcanic sulfate were observed in the Greenland record, suggesting that perchlorate levels in the atmosphere may be impacted by volcanic eruptions. As of yet, no work has been done to investigate the connection …

Understanding How Agricultural Intensification Impacts Ring-Necked Pheasant Distribution And Survival In Eastern South Dakota, Hilary R. Kauth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Historically, pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) have thrived in South Dakota in conjunction with successful land retirement programs or early farming practices through the 1950s, which created interspersions of agriculture and native landscapes that were ideal for pheasants. Recently, the Prairie Pothole ecosystem has undergone rapid agroeconomic expansion, effectively reducing ideal interspersions of native prairie and cropland into agriculturally homogeneous landscapes. Indices of pheasant abundance have suggested persistent population declines since 2008, raising concerns regarding landscape suitability. Our goal was to understand how agriculture intensification impacts pheasant ecology. The objectives were to: 1) estimate overwinter hen probability of survival, resource …

Distribution, Density, Movement, And Support For Management Of Mountain Sucker, Pantosteus Jordani, In The Black Hills Of South Dakota, Seth J. Fopma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mountain Sucker, Pantosteus jordani, is a cold-water species native to the Intermountain West. Fringe populations of Mountain Sucker have experienced declines in recent decades. The population of Mountain Sucker found in the Black Hills of South Dakota represents the eastern fringe of the species’ native range. Recognized as both an indicator of biologic health and as a species of greatest conservation need in South Dakota, recent studies have suggested significant declines in both distribution and abundance. Despite the recent study of Mountain Sucker in the region, increased understanding of Mountain Sucker ecology is needed to effectively manage for the conservation …

Understanding South Dakota Farmers’ Intentions To And Adoption Of Conservation Practices: An Examination Of The Theory Of Planned Behavior, Edem Avemegah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conservation agriculture practice is a sustainable farming method based on three principle: crop diversification, minimal soil disturbance or movement and permanent or semi-permanent of soil cover. Government and stakeholders within the agricultural sector in the United States are promoting conservation farming practices but limited voluntary adoption still exists among producers at the farm level. This research study investigated the factors that influence the adoption of conservation practices among producers in the eastern and central parts of South Dakota (SD). A modified theory of planned behavior (TPB) is used as a framework alongside socioeconomic and demographic indicators to understand farmers’ current …

Influence Of Mink Predation On Brown Trout Survival And Size-Structure In Rapid Creek, South Dakota, Austin Galinat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I compared movement, home range, habitat selection, and mortality among radio-tagged Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) at an American Mink (Neovison vison)-removal site, improved habitat site, and an undisturbed stream site in Rapid Creek, South Dakota. I observed high, post-surgery (> 26 days) survival rate (90%) of radio tagged Brown Trout. Average gross movement of Brown Trout was greater at the improved habitat site (127 m) compared to the mink removal (31 m) site, while average home range size (i.e., stream distance) among all three sites was not significantly different indicating strong site fidelity (125 to 200 m). Brown Trout movements …

Crop Rotations, Tillage And Cover Crops Influences On Soil Health, Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Farm Profitability, Jasdeep Singh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study assessed the effects of three levels of crop rotation: [2-yr; corn (Zea mays L.)- soybean (Glycine max L.), 3-yr; corn-soybean-oat (Avena sativa L.) or 4-yr; cornsoybean- oat-winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)], two tillage [conventional-till (CT) and no-till (NT)], and two winter cover cropping systems [cover crop (CC) or fallow control (NC)] on soil biochemical and physical properties, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), microbial community composition, crop yield and farm profitability under silty clay loam soil of south eastern South Dakota. Experimental design was a randomized complete block design in a split-split plot treatment arrangement with four replications. Rotations, tillage …

Management Implications Of A Rye Cover Crop On Nutrient Cycling And Soybean Production In Southeast South Dakota: Focus On Rye Seeding Rates And Termination Timing, Benjamin Brockmueller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Winter rye (Secale cereale L.) has become an important cover crop in South Dakota; yet, concerns over negative impacts on cash crop yields is one important limitation to the widespread adoption of winter rye in cropping systems. Two field studies were implemented at the Southeast Research Farm near Beresford, SD investigating the impacts of five seeding rates (0-90 kg ha^-1) and termination timings (April 19th- May31st) with the objectives of examining the roles of winter rye management practices on soybean production and yield from nutrient cycling of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) in the agroecosystem. Plant, residue, …

Pig Pose Estimation Based On Extracted Data Of Mask R-Cnn With Vgg Neural Network For Classifications, Sang Kwan Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper proposes a pig pose estimation operating with Region Proposal Network (RPN) of Mask Region based Convolutional Neural Network (Mask R-CNN) and Visual Geometry Group (VGG) Neural Network (NN). Object pose estimations generates from the associations of different key points. Key points could be explained as specific location of an object such as different joints of a human body or joints of different object. Hourglass network is one of a NN delivering key points of an object. Associating the different key points with the hourglass network results could be represented as instance-level detection [3]. However, the instance-level detection shows …

Examining Biodiversity Metrics And The Utility Of Dna Barcoding In The Northern Great Plains, Sarah Herzog

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to heavy threats to remaining global floral and faunal diversity, it is imperative we can identify species and quantify ecosystem health to find best practices for land management and conservation. The tallgrass prairies of the Northern Great Plains are one example of a heavily imperiled ecosystem. The tallgrass prairies have been reduced to less one percent of their historical extent and are facing continued loss. Genetic approaches and evolutionary theory offer insights for identifying species and assessing how biodiversity metrics may correlate with ecosystem processes. My two projects aim to address two facets imperative to conservation in the tallgrass …

The Impact Of Subsurface Physical Characteristics On The Effectiveness Of Subsurface Drainage In The Northern Great Plains, Mehmet Emin Budak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

World-wide, salinity and sodicity problems are increasing in coastal, irrigated and dryland agricultural systems. Traditional reclamation techniques for saline sodic soils include improving soil drainage by installing subsurface drainage, leaching with high quality water, and applying a source of calcium. However, due to differences in the soil parent material these traditional approach treatments were ineffective in removing sodium and other salts out of the soil profile of South Dakota. Understanding how the surface and subsurface soil characteristics and management interact to affect the sustainability of these systems is the first step in remediation. Each region and soil have a slightly …

Investigating Links Between Soil Microbial Structure And Function In Three Major Plant Communities Across Temporal Scales Of Arctic Alaska, Kaj Lynoe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Arctic microbial systems continue to get attention today as our understanding regarding their structure and function in a changing system is paramount to C feedbacks with warming and changes in precipitation. Plant communities and microbial community processes across the Arctic landscape are central to understanding tundra ecosystem processes because environmental conditions and plant community structure drive microbial cycling of soil organic matter. Here, we want to understand how soil microbial respiration, mineralization, biomass, and community composition are linked to three Alaskan tundra plant communities, namely Shrub, Tussock, and Sedge tundra and the seasonal variability in this system. A total of …

Technology-Based Culturally Relevant Chemistry Education (Crce), Mercy Adoma Fosu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The relevance of chemistry concepts and principles remains a challenge for most students enrolled in college chemistry courses. Part of this problem is the disconnect with what students experience in their every-day lives, and how the material, specifically chemistry content is presented via textbooks, lectures, and laboratory teaching. Moreover, the teaching of general chemistry has traditionally focused on traditional, instructor-centric expository delivery of course materials, that treats students as empty vessels devoid of prior knowledge. Students prior knowledge and experiences are crucial in shaping their understanding of scientific concepts and principles. Even students with relatively low expectations for success in …