One goal of this study was to evaluate the emergence of mands and intraverbals following tact acquisition for individuals with aphasia due to acquired brain injury. A second goal was to evaluate the transfer of shortened latencies as a function of tact training across untrained operants. In Study 1, the dependent measure was accuracy of responding and in Study 2, the dependent measures were rate and latency of responding. Participants for Study 1 were two uninjured adults (pilot) and two adults with brain injury (ABI). Both sets of participants were directly taught to tact up to 6 stimuli. Once tacts were acquired, the response forms were assessed under mand and intraverbal conditions. All pilot participants and one ABI participant showed mand transfer for all stimuli. Tact to intraverbal transfer varied across participants. One adult with brain injury served as a participant for Study 2. Fluency training was used to teach tacts for 15 stimuli. Response latencies were gathered for all operants before and after training. The participant met the designated aim (rate of responding) and showed a decrease in latencies for tacts and untrained intraverbals. Changes in mand latencies varied. Fluency gains showed partial retention. Results from Study 1 provide further evidence for interdependence across operants during rehabilitative training. Results from Study 2 provide preliminary support for the utility of fluency training for verbal behavior after brain injury. Future research should explore the components of fluency training and their effects on the verbal behavior of individuals with ABI.
Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) composed Dialogue de l'ombre double for clarinet and live electronics in 1985. This same year, Alain Damiens of Ensemble InterContemporain premiered and recorded the work with the help of Andrew Gerzso of Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). The piece alternates between pre-recorded and live sections that are performed with varied levels of amplification and reverberation creating a dialogue between the parts. Boulez also includes detailed instructions for the spatialization of the pre-recorded tracks that play through six equidistant speakers that surround the audience. Furthering the complexity of this work, it is available in two published versions: version aux chiffres arabes (Arabic numeral version) and version aux chiffres romains (Roman numeral version). Each version includes much of the same musical material, but arranged in a different order. Performance of Dialogue de l'ombre double requires extraordinary technical facility and musical understanding from the clarinetist, the dedicated involvement of a highly qualified sound technician, and the use of a spacious, technologically equipped performance venue. This performance guide aims to facilitate greater accessibility and understanding of this challenging work, in order to encourage widespread performance of this extraordinary piece.
This thesis explores the use of English loanwords in French discourse found on seven France-based corporate websites and the website of one government ministry in France. The following overarching question guided this research project: To what extent are English loanwords used in French for marketing purposes or other reasons? As expected, the results varied greatly from website to website, but it is clear from my analysis of this relatively small corpus that the use of English is widespread in French discourse. In this thesis, I allowed myself to engage in some speculation based on my own background and experiences. I acknowledge that further research is needed in order to provide a more comprehensive analysis of English loanwords in French since this is a very complicated topic that can be approached from many different angles.
The purpose of our research is to empirically test how system attributes of blockchain build trust through system and information components in blockchain food traceability systems. Findings showed that system attributes of blockchain are strong predictors of trust leading to intention to purchase. A sample of 358 responses were collected from college students through online survey. SmartPLS 3.0 is adopted for data analysis. We made contributions by building a new research model to guide future studies on trust formation in blockchain based systems as well as informing practice to adopt proven features of blockchain to create and capture values for customers.
This study examined students' perception between short research experiences (SRE) courses and full-semester course research experiences (CRE) using the Persistence in the Sciences (PITS) survey and the interview questionnaire. The study also aimed to correlate the influence of student's demographic as a predictive indicator for Project Ownership Scores (POS) and Quantitative Literacy (QL) score means. The three courses studied at the University of North Texas were Biology for Science Majors Laboratory (BIOL 1760 SRE), Microbiology with Tiny Earth (BIOL 2042 Tiny Earth SRE), and Introductory Biology Research Laboratory I (BIOL 1750 SEA-PHAGES CRE). The mean scores for the PITS categories leaned favorably towards the research component of each laboratory course assessed in this study. The interview questionnaire showed 66% of the students in the SRE courses and 90% of the students in the CRE course preferred the research component of the lab. Paired survey demographic analysis for BIOL 1760 SRE showed significance for the Science Community Values with associate/bachelor's degree. BIOL 1750 SEA-PHAGES CRE showed significance in three of the six categories when comparing means for Project Ownership Emotion, Self-Efficacy, and Science Identity with Gender. Binary logistics was used to build a regression model to predict demographics with approximately 65% to 75% accuracy for each course. When analyzing students' QL score, the demographic category "Ethnicity" showed significance for BIOL 2042 Tiny Earth SRE. Categorizing the correct response into two categories for the QL test scores, the SRE and CRE courses, and analyzing the PITS scores for paired data sets showed that there was significance in the Networking category for the question "I have discussed my research in this course with professors other than my course instructor." The validated PITS, POS, and interview questionnaire could be a tool for use to analyze laboratories at UNT that offer a SRE or CRE …
Occupational burnout is a concern to the health and longevity of clergy and musician careers. However, no known study has assessed occupational burnout among pastoral musicians. A literature review revealed pastoral musicians anecdotally experienced multi-tasking, workplace politics, inequality of workload, competing liturgical styles, lack of job security, lack of financial security, and lack of rest, among other indicators of burnout. Therefore, the aims of this paper were to: (1) describe pastoral musicians as a population; (2) identify the prevalence rate of burnout among pastoral musicians; (3) investigate the relationship between pastoral musicians' burnout and religious coping; and (4) investigate the relationships between pastoral musicians' burnout and depression, anxiety, and stress. In 2021, an online questionnaire was designed to assess burnout among pastoral musicians. Dissemination techniques included emails to members of the Hymn Society of North America and via social media to collect data from pastoral music directors in the United States of America. The survey yielded n = 1,050 respondents: 83.8% experienced one or more symptoms of burnout (41.3% with low efficacy; 12.4% with high emotional exhaustion; 21.3% with high cynicism; 8.8% with burnout). Ineffectiveness was positively correlated with negative religious coping. Emotional exhaustion and cynicism were positively correlated with negative religious coping. COVID-19 affected 91.3% (n = 936) of pastoral musicians. This study contributed quantitative and qualitative analysis to pastoral musician research. Findings demonstrate burnout is prevalent among American pastoral musicians.
We proved that the topological conjugacy relation on $T_1$, a subclass of Toeplitz subshifts, is hyperfinite, extending Kaya's result that the topological conjugate relation of Toeplitz subshifts with growing blocks is hyperfinite. A close concept about the topological conjugacy is the flip conjugacy, which has been broadly studied in terms of the topological full groups. Particularly, we provided an equivalent characterization on Toeplitz subshifts with single hole structure to be flip invariant.
This study focuses on the discourse that orders and creates a logic of the extraterrestrial during postmodernity, what I term "Fringe." Using Foucault's notion of discourse, I define and theorize Fringe and its formation during postmodernity, looking at the particular features of the historical moment post-1960 that contributed to the creation and regulation of a particular extraterrestrial. I then investigate historical conceptions of the extraterrestrial from Aquinas to Kant. This genealogy of the extraterrestrial reveals a rich history of the extraterrestrial and compares this history with Fringe. After this I discuss two precursors of Fringe discourse: the Society for Psychical Research and the writings of anomalous researcher Charles Fort. This investigation of pre-Fringe notions of the psychical in discourse shows how the SPR and Fort's work both created new ways of looking at and speaking about phenomena falling outside the purview of "normal science" and contributed to the formation of Fringe while also being distinguishable from it. Finally, I analyze two popular iterations of Fringe discourse—the ancient aliens hypothesis and the abduction narrative—as popularized in the works of Erich von Däniken and Whitley Strieber.
Considered privileged by social standards, with two loving parents and a spot in an elite, all-girls private school in New Jersey, Charlie should be happy. But at Oak Crest College Preparatory, if you're not a straight-A student, you're dumb. If you're not a star athlete, you're invisible. And if you don't compete to be the best? Well, you might as well flunk out. Charlie is already failing math, and it's only October. Why not throw school—and maybe her whole life—away? Then, one day, Charlie finds a suicide note in the bathroom at school, and her world is turned upside down. As she goes through the process of trying to find out who wrote it, the note writer herself remains hidden to herself and everyone else. A perfectionist all her life, she strives to be everything her parents and teachers expect, but does not know what truly makes her happy. The pressure to fulfill expectation is starting to weigh on her, but no one, except Charlie, can know she is thinking of suicide.
Antibiotics have transformed modern medicine in manifold ways. However, the misuse and over-consumption of antibiotics or antimicrobials have led to the rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Unfortunately, robust tools or techniques for the detection of potential loci responsible for AMR before it happens are lacking. The emergence of resistance even when a strain lacks known AMR genes has puzzled researchers for a long time. Clearly, there is a critical need for the development of novel approaches for uncovering yet unknown resistance elements in pathogens and advancing our understanding of emerging resistance mechanisms. To aid in the development of new tools for deciphering AMR, here we propose a machine learning (ML) based framework that provides ML models trained and tested on (1) genotypic AMR and phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) data, which can predict novel resistance factors in bacterial strains that lack already implicated resistance genes; and (2) complete gene set and AST phenotypic data, which can predict the most important genetic loci involved in resistance to specific antibiotics in bacterial strains. The validation of resistance loci prioritized by our ML pipeline was performed using homology modeling and in silico molecular docking.
Student loan debt continues to be an issue in the U.S., with potential long-term effects on loan repayment and potential wealth accumulation. In particular, minorities face barriers in the educational system and accruing wealth. Hispanics occupy a middling position in the U.S. racial hierarchy. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 geocode data, in this study I examined how Hispanic-White differences in student debt change over time and how student debt influences wealth. In addition, I accounted for immigration status via parents' nativity status to investigate debt burdens and subsequent wealth for these respondents. I used hierarchical linear growth models to examine debt growth over time and linear decomposition to examine Hispanic-White differences in wealth accumulation and the impact of student debt on these differences. While findings were largely statistically insignificant, I found that Hispanics tended to start with less debt than their White counterparts and that student debt initially grew for both groups. However, White respondents pay off their debt more quickly than Hispanics. In addition, I found that the wealth gap between White and Hispanic respondents grew significantly between the ages of 20 and 35. While Hispanics tended to start with less debt, my findings suggest that student debt still plays a role in Hispanics' financial well-being, including Hispanic wealth development and the perpetuation of the Hispanic-White wealth gap.
This dissertation examines how the state-building process relates to civil-military relations and how political influence of the military affects state's conflict behavior. By doing so, this study aims to introduce a nuanced consideration of the well-known civil-military problematique, which might be summarized as the threat the military can constitute to the polity that it is created to protect. I treat this paradox by addressing the following research questions: Why do some militaries have a qualitatively higher level of influence in politics than others? Second, how does the military's influence in politics affect a state's domestic conflict behavior? And third, how does it affect state's international conflict behavior? I develop a theory that when the military is heavily involved in the state-building process, it gains an unusual place within politics, gets itself imprinted in the DNA of the state, and gains undue political power. I name such militaries as state-builder militaries and argue that such states experience qualitatively different civil-military relations, in which the military acts as an extremely Praetorian institution. I argue that state-builder militaries would be able to insulate their political power from the democratization process that the country might experience and behave as persistent interveners in politics. I also argue that state-builder militaries would not want to retreat to their barracks as easily as predicted by the mainstream literature on military regimes. These arguments also contribute to the state-building scholarship. I present this theory by process-tracing the Turkish Military's longstanding political influence over the last 150 years. For my second and third research questions, I look at the price states pay when their militaries have undue influence on political decision-making. I argue that secessionist movements will be deterred from the military's political power and would refrain from engaging in violent secessionist strategies. I also contend that politically powerful …
Access Points explores the different relationships that humans have to land, focusing on the various ways that the area known as the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is used, appreciated, and preserved by disparate groups. The natural beauty of this Wildlife Refuge and its striking appearance amidst encircling plains makes it a popular destination for many groups of people, including the local rock-climbing community and generations of indigenous peoples whose connection with this land is as deep as it is longstanding. While climbing organizations have long had to negotiate access and rules regarding climbing within the park, members of the Kiowa community negotiate a much different relationship to a natural area that is now managed by the United States government. These disparate voices, identities, and ways of thinking about land all impact the modern-day Wildlife Refuge in terms of its appearance, individuals' access to the land, and the conservation efforts happening there.
This study examines the background and qualifications of plaintiff and defense experts using the H-Index score as quantification of expert background and qualifications. The goal is to better understand the similarities and differences among the professionals offering paid expert witness testimony in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) civil litigation. In this quantitative study, descriptive statistics include the mean and standard deviation scores for the data to support examining measures of central tendency and variance, respectively. The study includes the use of logistic regression and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and their statistical assumptions were tested to determine whether they would be used or if it was more appropriate to use a non-parametric test. The study included two research questions: How do the qualifications of plaintiff and defense expert witnesses in mild traumatic brain injury civil litigation compare? and to what extent does a higher h-index correlate with a favorable litigation outcome in a mild traumatic brain injury case? The findings for the hypothesis tests associated with the research questions led to the acceptance of the null hypothesis in each test. There was a lack of asymptotic significance in Hypothesis 1 and a lack of significance in Hypothesis 2. The findings from these tests shall support the discussion of the implications of this research and the direction of future research.
Emotion dysregulation and rumination are involved in the development, maintenance, and treatment of both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and sleep disturbances. We examined if and how these factors influenced the nature of the relationship between PTSD symptom severity and subjective sleep disturbances among trauma-exposed individuals. Using data gathered from a community sample of 199 trauma-exposed individuals (Mean age = 35.48; 59.80% female), we examined whether there were stronger significant associations between greater PTSD symptom severity and poorer sleep quality/lower sleep quantity at higher (vs. lower) levels of (1) negative emotion dysregulation and positive emotion dysregulation (both included in the same model) and (2) rumination. Participants recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk completed the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, Brief Version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale – Positive, Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire, and sleep quality/quantity items from the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Results of simple and additive multiple moderation analyses showed that neither negative/positive emotion dysregulation nor rumination moderated the relationships between PTSD symptom severity and sleep quality/quantity. Exploratory analyses showed that negative emotion dysregulation (when examined independently) moderated the relationship between PTSD symptom severity and sleep quality. There were also significant associations between poorer sleep quality/lower sleep quantity and greater PTSD symptom severity at low to average levels of negative emotion dysregulation coupled with any level of positive emotion dysregulation. Findings inform theoretical perspectives on the PTSD-sleep relationship and clinical applications of targeting emotion dysregulation and rumination in the treatment of PTSD symptoms and sleep disturbances for trauma-exposed individuals.
Guided by the framework of bicultural identity integration (BII), a conceptual model depicting the direct and indirect effects of BII, cognitive flexibility, affect regulation, and coping on psychological wellbeing indicators (i.e., life satisfaction, depression) of adult children of immigrants (ACI) in the U.S. was developed. It was hypothesized that greater BII would contribute to greater cognitive flexibility and affect regulation, which would be associated with more utilization of adaptive coping strategies and greater psychological wellbeing. A total of 240 young ACI from across the U.S. completed the online research questionnaire that measured all variables of interest. Results from structural equation modeling analyses showed adequate model fit with the data. Findings provided support to the indirect effects of BII factors on wellbeing through affect regulation, however, the indirect effect paths are more complicated than what were hypothesized originally. Specifically, higher levels of identity harmony and identity blendedness contributed to more difficulties in emotion regulation, and subsequently, poorer wellbeing. Additionally, both cultural identity harmony and identity blendedness contributed to greater levels of cultural and relational maintenance strategies (i.e., avoidance, forbearance) in the context of intergenerational conflict through affect regulation, but not through cognitive flexibility. Notably, the latent variable of cultural coping strategies retained in the final model was not correlated with wellbeing. Findings are discussed from the BII framework and the sociological context of ACI in the U.S. Limitations, future directions, and implications for counseling, diversity, and advocacy issues are outlined.
To design high pressure fuel system components that resist wear and scuffing failure when operated in low viscosity fuels, a comprehensive study on the tribological performance of various existing coating materials is necessary. This thesis aims to provide the relative performance of a variety of coating materials across different fuel environments by testing them in conditions that model those experienced in fuel pumps. The relative performance of these coatings are then indexed across a variety of material properties, including hardness, elastic modulus, wettability, and the interaction between the surface and the various types of fuel molecules.
Ultrafast charge and electron transfer, primary events in artificial photosynthesis, are key in solar energy harvesting. This dissertation provides insight into photo-induced charge and electron transfer in the donor and acceptor constructs built using a range of donor and acceptor entities, including transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), and tungsten disulfide (WS2)), N-doped graphene, diketopyrrolopyrrol (DPP), boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY), benzothiadiazole (BTD), free base and metal porphyrins, zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc), phenothiazine (PTZ), triphenylamine (TPA), ferrocene (Fc), fullerene (C60), tetracyanobutadiene (TCBD), and dicyanoquinodimethane (DCNQ). The carefully built geometries and configurations of the donor and (D), acceptor (A), with a spacer in these constructs promote intramolecular charge transfer, and intervalence charge transfer to enhance charge and electron transfer efficiencies. Steady-state UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence and phosphorescence spectroscopies, electrochemistry (cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV)), spectroelectrochemistry (absorption spectroscopy under controlled potential electrolysis), transient absorption spectroscopy, and quantum mechanical calculations (density functional theory, DFT) are used to probe ground and the excited state events as well as excited state charge separation resulting in cation and anion species. The current findings are useful for the increased reliance on renewable energy resources, especially solar energy.
Modern machine learning techniques focus on extremely deep and multi-pathed networks, resulting in large memory and computational requirements. This thesis explores techniques for designing efficient convolutional networks including pixel shuffling, depthwise convolutions, and various activation fucntions. These techniques are then applied to two image processing domains: single-image super-resolution and image compression. The super-resolution model, TinyPSSR, is one-third the size of the next smallest model in literature while performing similar to or better than other larger models on representative test sets. The efficient deep image compression model is significantly smaller than any other model in literature and performs similarly in both computational cost and reconstruction quality to the JPEG standard.
This study sought to better understand the experiences of individuals with a chronic health condition utilizing telemedicine during the first twelve months of the COVID-19 pandemic. To do this, an online survey was advertised in two private Facebook support groups for individuals with adrenal insufficiency; a chronic health condition that requires frequent communication with healthcare providers. The survey consisted primarily of closed-response questions which examined the demographic data of respondents, their access to healthcare providers, their comfort levels accessing healthcare providers, and the number of times individuals sought healthcare during the first twelve months of the COVID-19 pandemic to try and predict their preference for telemedicine and in-person healthcare visits going forward. Additionally, the survey included open-response questions which allowed for respondents to describe their experience utilizing telemedicine during the first twelve months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most respondents described their use of telemedicine as being positive but have indicated there are some health circumstances in which telemedicine may not be the best option for them. Additionally, findings indicate that individual's comfort level in visiting their healthcare providers in-person during that first year of the COVID-19 pandemic is a significant predictor of an individual's preference for telehealth. This gives future studies a starting point to investigate the driving social and health factors that shape an individual's perception of risk influencing their level of comfort and predicting their preference of telemedicine or in-person visits for their non-emergency healthcare needs.
The purpose of this research is to explore the synthesis of folk and Western traditions in Kazhgaliev's Piano Concerto No. 2 and also to examine the uncommon performance practices associated with the genre. The dissertation gives a brief historical background of Kazakhstan, its folk music, and the significance of the country's piano performance practice. It mainly discusses Kazhgaliev's concerto, which is influenced by folk music. I hope that the dissertation will assist in the promotion and comprehension of the Kazakh piano repertoire among international musicians, researchers, and performers.
The novelty of this dissertation is the optimization and acceleration of deep neural networks aimed at real-time predictions with minimal energy consumption. It consists of cross-layer optimization, output directed dynamic quantization, and opportunistic near-data computation for deep neural network acceleration. On two datasets (CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100), the proposed deep neural network optimization and acceleration frameworks are tested using a variety of Convolutional neural networks (e.g., LeNet-5, VGG-16, GoogLeNet, DenseNet, ResNet). Experimental results are promising when compared to other state-of-the-art deep neural network acceleration efforts in the literature.
Cultural landscape reports (CLR) are commonly utilized by the National Park Service to define the significance of cultural landscapes. This thesis explores the importance of documenting not only physical characteristics of cultural landscapes, but the cultural elements such as associated values, beliefs, ideas, and traditions. My applied research was conducted for Mammoth Cave National located in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky and focuses on the Crystal Cave District. Research explores data collected through archival research, a PPGIS exercise, and ethnographic interviews to examine the experiences and relationships between research participants and the Crystal Cave District. Research findings highlight the ways in which concepts such as place, history, identity, and tradition can act as significant factors in shaping environmental relationships today.
The purpose of this mixed methods study was to identify the types of technologies teachers use in mathematics classrooms and how those technologies were implemented. Furthermore, the purpose of this study was to explore teachers' perceptions of the impact technology has on student achievement. This study explores teachers' perceptions of the available support teachers have for integrating technology in mathematics classrooms. Last, this study explores teachers' perceptions of being prepared to integrate technology into mathematics classrooms. Surveys were conducted for a quantitative approach on teachers' perceptions of technology in teaching and learning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and data was analyzed through item-analysis and coding to identify emerging themes. For each topic of inquiry, themes emerged. The themes were discussed in detail, findings were discussed, and recommendations were provided for supporting teachers to integrate technology into mathematics classrooms.
A modified, single error-correcting, and double error detecting Hamming code, hereafter referred to as modified SEC-DED Hamming code, is proposed in this research. The code requires fewer logic gates to implement than the SEC-DED Hamming code. Also, unlike the popular Hsiao's code, the proposed code can determine the error in the received word from its syndrome location in the parity check matrix. A detailed analysis of the area and power utilization by the encoder and decoder circuits of the modified SEC-DED Hamming code is also discussed. Results demonstrate that this code is an excellent alternative to Hsiao's code as the area and power values are very similar. In addition, the ability to locate the error in the received word from its syndrome is also of particular interest. Primitive polynomials play a crucial role in the hardware realizations for error-correcting codes. This research describes an implementation of a scalable primitive polynomial circuit with coefficients in GF(2). The standard cell area and power values for various degrees of the circuit are analyzed. The physical design of a degree 6 primitive polynomial computation circuit is also provided. In addition to the codes, a background of the already existing SPX GCD computation algorithm is provided. Its implementation revealed that the combinational implementation of the SPX algorithm utilizes a significantly lesser area than Euclid's algorithm. The FSMD implementation of the SPX algorithm reduces both dynamic and leakage power consumption. The physical design of the GCD computation using the SPX algorithm is also provided.
Novel tissue mimicking materials have been developed for cancer treatment research. In the present research work, the tissue mimicking material is printed using 3D bioprinting technology. The nanoparticles are homogeneously mixed with tissue mimicking materials to enhance the heating capacity. The thermal conductivity of tissue mimicking materials is measured using a micropipette thermal sensor (MTS). Further, the optimal value is identified based on optimization technique and incorporated into a theoretical model to predict the surface temperature of microsphere. The heat conduction governing equation with Lambert law is numerically solved using COMSOL Multiphysics software. To validate the present simulation results, the experiments are conducted using a continuous laser system.
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) is widely recognized as a founding father of Russian classical music, but in fact, his music represents a bridge: it establishes a distinctive Slavic sound built on the Italian roots of Glinka's musical inspiration. As a young man, Glinka traveled abroad, which included three years spent in Italy, where he gained extensive exposure to and familiarity with what modern scholarship refers to as the Old Italian School of Singing. This influence makes his songs an ideal introduction to Russian lyric diction while reinforcing the tenets of sound vocalism. This study explores four Glinka melodies: "Doubt ," "To Molly," "The Lark," and "Cavatina." Previously published only in their original keys, the songs are presented here transposed into keys suitable for a young bass and a young baritone singer, with the melody line placed in the bass clef and corresponding IPA transcriptions beneath the original Cyrillic text. Following both an introduction that contextualizes Glinka as a composer enamored of 19th-century Italian opera and a discussion of technical and stylistic aspects regarding the production of sound in that same era, there is a brief examination of Russian lyric diction intended to inspire further study of this unique and rewarding singing language. The study concludes by offering commentary on the application of technical and stylistic aspects of the Old Italian School of Singing to the aforementioned melodies.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death internationally. Efforts to decrease CVD death has been explored through stem cell technology, specifically organoid formation. Current cardiac organoid models lack the vascular networks for nutrient supply and maturation. In this study, pillar perfusion technology is used to fabricate cardiac organoids and induce vascularization via dynamic culturing and the addition of vascular promoting growth factors (GFs). In addition to this study, a millifluidic chip is engineered for shear stress application via flow simulations and experimental flow analysis. We successfully optimized the millifluidic chip to achieve fluid shear stress of 20mPa and validated through particle tracking velocimetry using 0.1um diameter beads under flow. The results of cardiac organoids displayed contraction and growth of endothelial cells (ECs) under dynamic flow with GFs. In addition, smooth muscle cells (SMCs) displayed growth via GFs in both dynamic and static culturing. Although vascular networks were not present in all conditions of this experiment, this thesis can serve a basis for searching other methods of inducing vascularization.
In the late 19th century, Georg Schumann (1866-1952) composed an attractive sonata for the cello that remains largely unknown today. By presenting a performer's analysis, this dissertation aims to position Georg Schumann's Sonata for Cello and Piano in E minor, Op. 19 (1898) amongst other more commonly performed sonatas of the era. This paper provides a detailed analysis of each movement of the sonata, an overview of the history and development of the cello sonata and an overview of Georg Schumann's biography leading up to the composition of his cello sonata.
Modern flute pedagogy tends to focus on repertoire which utilizes or builds upon tonal and Romantic stylistic conventions, largely ignoring works that disregard or reject these conventions until later in student's education. This lack of stylistic diversity in commonly studied works from the first half of the twentieth century can be problematic when students are approaching avant-garde or modernist repertoire for the first time, as they are unfamiliar with the style and technical needs of the pieces. This dissertation provides a style guide and progressive curriculum for the avant-garde repertoire of the early- and mid-twentieth century to help students bridge the gap from commonly-studied early-twentieth century repertoire to Post-War Modernist works. The curriculum and style guide are accompanied by an overview of avant-garde musical styles prominent in Europe and American between the 1890s and 1970s, a discussion of the pedagogical challenges of avant-garde repertoire, and two performance guides for avant-garde pieces included in the curriculum, Diaphonic Suite No. 1 by Ruth Crawford and Variations for Solo Flute by Ursula Mamlok.
This study explores information seeking behavior of second-generation Muslim immigrants utilizing factors such as critical, cultural, and religious literacy skills. The study examined the second-generation immigrants' ability to balance their parents' and grandparents' native culture and traditions with the culture and traditions of their country. The interview questions were designed using the cognitive authority theory and the figured worlds theory that provides an explanation for the mentality of those who are in environments influenced by culture or religion. An interesting main finding of the study is that participants sought more religious-based rather than culturally-based information. Participants seek information from their parents, communities, and religious leaders, but are particular with who they consider credible and reliable; if the person providing the information follows a similar lifestyle to the participants, they are more likely to hold cognitive authority. Four different themes emerged from the study. The first is "religious focus" where many participants stated that religion is rather static whereas culture can evolve and change with time, location, and events. The second theme emerged is the reliance on family members for religious literacy given the close upbringing of Muslim extended family system. The third theme indicated that although information seeking behavior relied on Google and mobile devices to locate information, in verifying religious content they depended on parents and religious cognitive authorities. The fourth theme emerged is the loss of richness going forward and the concerns about the possible decline in religious information literacy for future generations.
The goal of this work is to improve the robustness and generalization of deep learning models, using a similar approach to the unsupervised "innate learning" strategy in visual development. A series of research studies are presented to demonstrate how an unsupervised machine learning efficient coding approach can create filters similar to the receptive fields of the primary visual cortex (V1) in the brain, and these filters are capable of pretraining convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to enable faster training times and higher accuracy with less dependency on the source data. Independent component analysis (ICA) is used for unsupervised feature extraction as it has shown success in both applied machine learning and modeling biological neural receptive fields. This pretraining applies equally well to various forms of visual input, including natural color images, black and white, binocular, and video to drive the V1-like Gabor filters in the brain. For efficient processing of typical visual scenes, the filters that ICA produces are developed by encoding natural images. These filters are then used to initialize the kernels in the first layer of a CNN to train on the CIFAR-10 dataset to perform image classification. Results show that the ICA initialization for a custom made CNN produces models with a test accuracy up to 12% better than the standard model in the first 10 epochs, which for specific accuracy thresholds reduces the number of training epochs by approximately 40% (to reach 60% accuracy) and 50% (to reach 70% accuracy). Additionally, this pre-training results in marginally higher accuracy even after extensive training over 50 epochs. This proposed method of unsupervised machine learning to pre-train weights in deep learning improves both training time and accuracy, which is why it is observed in biological networks and is finding increased application in applied deep learning.
This dissertation provides empirical and theoretical support for the antecedents and consequences of cyber resilience via three essays on cyber resilience. Essay 1 comprises 2 studies using a multi-method empirical research effort to determine whether emphasizing suppliers' implementation and use of business continuity management (S-BCM) is actually beneficial to buyers. In Study 1, data from 150 managers was collected via a survey-based questionnaire to determine whether buyers' adoption of monitoring supplier operational performance (MS-OP) and monitoring S-BCM (MS-BCM) enhances S-BCM implementation and use. Evidence from Study 1 suggests that MS-BCM is more effective than MS-OP. Moreover, the results suggest that while buyer power positively augments the effectiveness of MS-BCM, it actually has a diminishing effect on the effectiveness of MS-OP. Study 2 uses the data of 114 managers from a vignette-based experiment to determine whether S-BCM leads to improved buyer operational and financial performance. Study 2 offers evidence that confirms the positive link between S-BCM and buyer operational and financial performance. The results also suggest that the use of reward power further enhances the association between S-BCM and buyer performance. Using two studies, Essay 2 examines how supply chain power and learning can be related to cyber resilience capability. Study 1 indicated that powerful buyers and supply chain learning from new knowledge contribute to visibility to build cyber resilience while dominant suppliers are reluctant to share information. The results of Study-2 show that supply chain and operations managers believe that companies and their suppliers would have better operational performance if they invest in the accuracy of visibility. Moreover, supply chains properly can avoid, maintain, and recover from cyber disruption when real-time information is available. Essay 3 focuses on the role of downstream complexity along with enterprise resource planning (ERP) in building cyber resilience in supply chains. The results reveal that …
Location-based ads are defined as any ads that are sent by an identified source to consumers' mobile devices when they are around the advertised product/store. Although mobile ad spending is said to have accounted for 68% of all digital ad spending in 2020, knowledge of how businesses can use mobile and location-based technology to reach their customers effectively is limited. Thus, the purpose of this three-essay format dissertation is to review the literature on LBA and identify the gaps in the literature and attempt to address a few of these gaps in the remaining two essays. The second essay tests an integrated model by examining the effects of the various retailer and consumer-controlled factors on two retail performances. In the third essay, we explore how LBA affects different dimensions of consumer-brand engagement. The results and findings provide important implications for retailers and brands to increase their performances.
The Dido myth has evolved and been adapted by many cultures over the centuries. Each Dido was altered to fit the needs of its creator, their society and customs. Despite these variations, every Dido retelling is derived from the Virgilian Dido, historical Dido, or chaste Dido narrative, or a combination of these stories. The pasticcio opera, Ópera armónica al estilo italiano que se intitula Dido y Eneas draws on the general Virgilian plot but emphasizes the chaste Dido narrative. The changes in the plot of Dido y Eneas reflect societal gender norms, theatrical conventions, and historical figures, specifically Queen MarÃa Luisa Gabriela, from eighteenth-century Spain. The Dido of Dido y Eneas can be divided into two main personas: Dido the queen and Dido the lover. Her arias, which come from preexisting Italian operas, convey the dramatic text very well. However, no matter what persona Dido portrays, she never fully loses control nor lets her passions rule her actions. Even in the moments before her suicide, her aria, "Punta intrepida," lacks the overt emotionality found in the popular Dido lament made famous by Purcell. This thesis aims to situate Dido y Eneas within the history of the Dido narrative and gender conceptions in the early eighteenth century, and to analyze depictions of affect in Dido's da capo arias. This Dido is a product of her time, transforming the Dido myth to portray a regal queen who overcomes emotional desire and remains faithful to her deceased husband becoming a paragon of chastity.
In the vast field of signal processing, machine learning is rapidly expanding its domain into all realms. As a constituent of this expansion, this thesis presents contributive work on advancements in machine learning algorithms by building on the shoulder of giants. The first chapter of this thesis contains enhancements to a CNN (convolutional neural network) for better classification of heartbeat arrhythmia. The network goes through a two stage development, the first being augmentations to the network and the second being the implementation of dropout. Chapter 2 involves the combination of CNN and LSTM (long short term memory) networks for the task of short-term energy use data regression. Exploiting the benefits of two of the most powerful neural networks, a unique, novel neural network is created to effectually predict future energy use. The final section concludes this work with directions for future works.
Alfred Schnittke was a prolific and nuanced musical figure of the twentieth-century, contributing significantly to the fields of musical philosophy and composition. One of his most researched contributions, that bridges both disciplines, is his definition and implementation of the compositional technique, polystylism. His 1971 essay, "Polystylistic Tendencies in Modern Music," served as the first serious discussion of the term, providing a narrower definition, differentiating it from other techniques, and discussing its importance in the oeuvre of twentieth-century artists. Schnittke is also known for his fervent desire to overcome the gap between Ernstmusik (serious music) and Unterhaltung (music for entertainment). This lifelong pursuit, combined with polystylism, lead him to create an eclectic catalogue that championed the ideas it was pioneering. However, there is little research done on the 1947 literary work that served as a creative catalyst to all these ideas: Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus: The Life of German Composer Adrian Leverkühn as told by a Friend. In contrast to other telling's of the Faust legend, Mann's version features a composer-protagonist, Adrian Leverkühn, who sells his soul for twenty-four years of creative musical-genius. During this time, Leverkühn composes numerous successful works, even developing a new system of musical composition. Mann's telling regularly goes into lengthy detail when describing these musical works, compositional techniques, and extramusical associations. To ensure that these musical topics were technically and theoretically sound, Mann chose the philosopher and music critic, Theodore Adorno, to be the primary editor and consultant when writing Doctor Faustus. Exploring and unpacking these connections to Mann's Doctor Faustus exposes numerous hidden layers, even codes, within Schnittke's compositions. Through a close examination of Schnittke's first completed composition, Fuga (1953), many of these Mann influences and hidden layers can be observed and analyzed.
As one of the few piano works with Tibetan folk characteristics, the piano suite Tibetan Sketches composed by Bingyuan Cui presents a vivid depiction of the Tibetan people with colorful sound and considerable imagination. As a Tibetan, I have been greatly honored to research and perform this work and incorporate my understanding into this dissertation. The composer took into account Western composition techniques as well as Eastern music, combining religious and folk musical elements of Chinese ethnic minorities with Western piano techniques to create a wonderful work. This dissertation introduces the characteristics of Tibetan music and analyzes the work, then explores the use of Tibetan elements and the varied styles in the three movements of Tibetan Sketches. Cui uses a large number of Tibetan elements in this work, closely related to the local Tibetan music style in melodies, decorations, harmonies, tone color changes, and performance techniques. Based on the historical background and influence of Western music on the development of Chinese music and some other aspects, a brief description is given of the Eastern and Western music styles in the work. This dissertation introduces my own performance and learning experience when I studied this work, communications and an interview with the composer are also taken into account.
The purpose of this study was to increase knowledge about the experiences of adult amateur string players. Through narrative inquiry, this study presents the unique stories of two amateur string players who have sustained their active music-making throughout their adult lives. Leaders in music education have promised lifelong music-making and touted it as a benefit of supporting music in schools. This promise is part of vision statements, symposia, advocacy efforts, and guiding documents for the last century. Yet, the most common outcome for students who participate in school music programs is that they quit before they graduate high school, or soon afterward. The idea of school music segueing into lifetime music-making for large numbers of students remains an aspiration and not the outcome. I used narrative inquiry to explore and present the stories of these two players. Their experiences are unique, and it is not appropriate to generalize their narratives to others. However, I hope that by closely examining the experiences they considered impactful in their lives as music students and amateur musicians, music educators can better understand the ways their teaching practices might lead to students' enjoyment of music-making past their student years. Implications for practicing music teachers and future research are discussed.
Visceral Data is a short documentary formatted for 360-cinema (commonly referred to as virtual reality or VR) that explores the integration of art and science, and how aesthetically creative treatments of raw data are an engaging way to interpret complex information. With Roger Malina, executive editor of Leonardo, the world's foremost academic journal for the intersections of art, science, and technology, providing a narrative overview of the subject, six art-scientists/science-artists discuss specific pieces of their artistic output to provide examples. As Roger Malina asserts, civilization is "going through an epistemological revolution as deep as the Copernican Revolution," and as we progress further into the 21st century, we will need hybrid professionals working in the arts and sciences to help humanity navigate through the age of big data.
This thesis project investigates the configuration of an enclosed evaporation chamber with the intention of converting seawater into potable freshwater. The evaporation chamber's sole heat source is provided by a Fresnel lens, located above the chamber, which concentrates sunlight onto a 3-inch diameter focal plate built into the core of the chamber. The design of the evaporation chamber is modeled after a solar still and is coupled with a heat exchanger to boost efficiency of the system. The chamber was designed with the objectives of being portable, lightweight, low cost, corrosion resistant, interchangeable, and size convenient with the goal of producing 1 Liter of freshwater per hour of operation. The evaporation chamber consists of two primary components, a core and an attached arrangement of fins, all of which are heated via the Fresnel lens. A consistent intake of 2 grams/second of saltwater enters from the top of the chamber and is then gravity fed across the fins. Fin orientation has been designed to inhibit the flow rate of water within the chamber, maximizing the surface area of contact with the heated fins. The evaporation chamber was modeled through SOLIDWORKS and underwent a physical optimization study to reduce material usage while maximizing potential for heat transfer and minimizing fluid flow rate. A symmetric profile of one quarter of the chamber was then simulated in COMSOL Multiphysics. Concentrated solar heat flux through a Fresnel lens was applied to the receiver on the top of the core. The simulation was split into a preheating and an evaporation phase. A profile approximation for the fluid flow was modeled by the CFD module. Following computer simulations, the evaporation chamber was constructed and tested.
According to a recent United Nations report, China's population of 1.4 billion represents 19% of the world's entire population of 7.6 billion. As the distance between east and west contracts in business, so too do the arts. This dissertation focuses on six selected contemporary Chinese art songs composed by Nan-Chang Chien. By providing the references of musical facts, synopsis of the poems, word-for-word translation, IPA transcription, poetic translation, and interpretive and performance guides, singers and pianists will have an overall understanding and detailed directions for learning the Chinese language and Chinese art songs. This dissertation also provides the foundation and model for further exploration and research into Chinese art sing literature by scholars in the west.
NiTi-based shape memory alloys (SMAs) offer a good combination of high-strength, ductility, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility that has served them well and attracted the attention of many researchers and industries. The alloys unique thermo-mechanical ability to recover their initial shape after relatively large deformations by heating or upon unloading due to a characteristic reversible phase transformation makes them useful as damping devices, solid state actuators, couplings, etc. However, there is a need to increase the temperature of the characteristic phase transformation above 150 °C, especially in the aerospace industry where high temperatures are often seen. Prior researchers have shown that adding ternary elements (Pt, Pd, Au, Hf and Zr) to NiTi can increase transformation temperatures but most of these additions are extremely expensive, creating a need to produce cost-effective high temperature shape memory alloys (HTSMAs). Thus, the main objective of this research is to examine the relatively unstudied NiTiZr system for the ability to produce a cost effective and formable HTSMA. Transformation temperatures, precipitation paths, processability, and high-temperature oxidation are examined, specifically using high energy X-ray Diffraction (XRD) measurements, in NiTi-20 at.% Zr. This is followed by an in situ XRD study of the phase growth kinetics of the favorable H-phase nano precipitates, formed in NiTiHf and NiTiZr HTSMAs, based on prior thermo-mechanical processing in a commercial NiTi-15 at.% Hf HTSMA to examine the final processing methods and aging characteristics. Through this research, knowledge of the precipitation paths in NiTiZr and NiTiHf HTSMAs is extended and methods for characterization of phases and strains using high energy XRD are elucidated for future work in the field.
This qualitative case study examined the effect of PLCs on teacher self-efficacy, and whether the type of PLC structure on each campus affected efficacy. The overarching research question that guided the study was, to what extent does perceived teacher self-efficacy change as a result of the practice of PLCs? Participants were selected using purposive and convenience sampling. Ten teachers and two principals on two different campuses participated in teacher focus groups and one-on-one principal interviews, respectively. The available literature on the topics of professional development, professional learning, teacher collaboration, and teacher self-efficacy yielded the discovery that collaborative practices can be used to improve a school and/or district or used to enhance positive practices that already occur. This study adds to the body of research as it develops the area of teacher efficacy and influence of PLCs. Using the coding software, NVivo, focus group data were coded into themes and further comparisons were made with categories derived and saturated until conclusions were drawn. The data show teacher self-efficacy increases as a result of PLCs when teachers are able to experience positive feedback from teammates, shared leadership, trust and honesty, and a freedom to fail. For those teachers who are not on a campus where PLCs are present, the data suggest they created their own PLCs as the need arose. These teachers experienced all of the same benefits of those teachers on a campus where a formal PLC structure exited; however, their stress level was higher.
The purpose of this research was to explore how the personal and professional experiences of school leaders strengthened or hindered their ability to engage in social justice leadership to advance educational equity and encourage culturally proficient practices in their schools. I employed a descriptive multi-case study and the research was viewed through a conceptual framework that included social justice, equity, and the five elements of cultural proficiency. Five principals from three different school districts were selected as participants. They represented elementary, middle and high schools. Interviews consisted of semi-structured face to face interviews with each principal participant and one focus group interview with five participants. Each participant also provided a cultural autobiography. Findings revealed while principals may care deeply about providing equitable opportunities for students, the interest does not supplement knowledge, skills, experience, and support. The information gained from this study can inform the practice of school leaders, and the way in which districts and programs of educational leadership prepare school leaders to serve and address the needs of all students as public schools become more culturally diverse.
The aging experience of men and women in rural America is different than that of their urban counterparts. In this study, I identified key disparities in access to health care, mortality, and utilization of health care that result from geographic location. Foundational theories are discussed to illustrate that disparities can originate from historical societal behaviors. Secondary data and literary reviews create a combined qualitative and quantitative approach to explore the rural/urban divide, concluding that the potential for increased disparities as the aging population grows is very real and rural residents remain vulnerable to a poor(er) aging experience. Recommendations for policy and practice, as well as additional research, are made to address the conclusion.
John Ireland is one of the most important British composers of the twentieth century. Many scholars believe the works of his early period were deeply influenced by Brahms. After graduating from the Royal College of Music, Ireland went on to develop a much more individual musical language, with influence from contemporary French composers. However, the young composer found himself confronted with the challenge of finding a new and personal style without turning wholly to impressionism or to chromaticism. In Ireland's Piano Sonata, Ireland adopted several of Brahms' compositional techniques. This piano sonata is an excellent example of one of Ireland's mature works that still demonstrates Brahms' influence.
For decades, urban public schools have been plagued by systemic and structural challenges that continue today. Scholars, policymakers, and the general public have pointed to problems of learning in urban schools and to low expectations for urban students' learning, but little attention has been given to how urban students themselves conceptualize learning. This study sought to fill the void by asking a group of urban students about their views of learning. A phenomenographic approach was employed to examine the qualitatively different ways in which 20 urban elementary fifth-grade students expressed their conceptions of learning and of their learning approaches. Consistent with phenomenography, the study was intended to understand the collective expressions of individuals' conceptions regarding a phenomenon, and emphasis was on the mapping of variation across the conceptions. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions, conducted individually, elicited the students' conceptions of the meaning of learning and their learning approaches. In a "search for meaning" approach, analyses were based on students' transcribed responses forming a pool of quotations. These quotations were divided first into "what" and "how" categories—"what" is learning and "how" does learning occur—and then into subcategories. The results were a set of categories organized in a two-level hierarchy. The three "what" conceptions were as follows: learning as increasing knowledge, learning as growing as a person, and learning as applying knowledge. The three "how" conceptions were the following: learning by persevering, learning by using active learning strategies, and learning by participating in social interactions. These conceptions comprised an outcome space representing the six different ways that these urban school students expressed their conceptions of learning inside and outside of school contexts. Whereas much attention in the educational literature has been directed to teachers setting high expectations for urban students, students in this study seemed to be setting high expectations for themselves, …
The recent breakthroughs in the research of brain trauma as it relates to athletics has revealed never before seen damage linked with football participation. Known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), it is caused by activities inherent to the sport of football. School sponsored football has been granted immunity through case law and legislation in Texas. Recent research however indicates a different type of injury than those that school districts have been protected of liability from. This will provide a challenge to the immunity school districts have enjoyed regarding football. One route to abrogation of immunity is the state created danger provision established by the Supreme Court. The Fifth Circuit Court whose jurisdiction includes Texas has yet to officially adopt the state created danger theory. This research examined legal precedent to determine the challenge CTE may present the various layers of immunity surrounding school sponsored football in Texas.
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