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An Empirical Study of Software Debugging Games with Introductory Students
Bug Fixer is a web-based application that complements lectures with hands-on exercises that encourage students to think about the logic in programs. Bug Fixer presents students with code that has several bugs that they must fix. The process of fixing the bugs forces students to conceptually think about the code and reinforces their understanding of the logic behind algorithms. In this work, we conducted a study using Bug Fixer with undergraduate students in the CSCE1040 course at University of North Texas to evaluate whether the system increases their conceptual understanding of the algorithms and improves their Software Testing skills. Students participated in weekly activities to fix bugs in code. Most students enjoyed Bug Fixer and recommend the system for future use. Students typically reported a better understanding of the algorithms used in class. We observed a slight increase of passing grades for students who participated in our study compared to students in other sections of the course with the same instructor who did not participate in our study. The students who did not report a positive experience provide comments for future improvements that we plan to address in future work.
Community Gardening: a Novel Intervention for Bhutanese Refugees Living in the USA
Since 2008, the United States (USA) has resettled thousands of Bhutanese refugees, providing brief financial support and pathways to citizenship. Despite the efforts of governing bodies and voluntary agencies which facilitate resettlement, many refugees struggle with adapting to the vastly different lifestyle, economy, language and social structures. In particular, effectively addressing psychological needs of this population is a challenge for service providers operating within an expensive health care system based on Western constructs of mental health. In response to this challenge, refugee resettlement agencies throughout the country use community gardens to promote psychological healing, self-sufficiency, community engagement, and a return of human dignity. Though success of these programs is being shared in the media, there has yet to be empirical data examining their impact. The current study tested whether Bhutanese refugee engagement in a community garden impacts symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD and somatic complaints. The study also investigated whether community gardening is associated with perceptions of social support and adjustment to life in the United States. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected from 50 adult Bhutanese refugees in Fort Worth, Texas. Gardening was significantly related to increased social support overall, a key factor in overall functionality within communal cultures; and specifically perceived tangible support was increased. A significant effect of gardening was also found for adjustment. Although a significant effect was not found for psychological and somatic symptoms, there is still evidence of effects on somatic complaints. Varying results from quantitative and qualitative data warrant further investigation into the nuanced work of clinical research and advocacy with refugee populations.
Effects of a Computer-based Self-instructional Training Package on Novice Instructors’ Implementation of Discrete Trial Instruction and a Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention
Discrete trial instruction (DTI) and naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs) are often incorporated into early intensive behavioral interventions for young children with autism. Recent advances in staff training methods have demonstrated that self-instructional manuals, video models, and computer-based training are effective and efficient ways to improve staff implementation of these teaching strategies however research in this area is limited. The current evaluation assessed the effects of a computer-based training package including self-instructional manuals with embedded video models on direct-care staff’s implementation of DTI and an NDBI. All participants’ DTI teaching fidelity increased during role-plays with an adult and with a child with autism and all participants increased teaching fidelity across untrained instructional programs. In addition, moderate improvement was demonstrated following NDBI training on the use of correct prompts, environmental arrangements, and response interaction. Together, these results indicate that therapists are able to acquire a large number of skills using two teaching techniques, DTI and NDBI, following brief computer-based training.
Synthesis of Gold Complexes From Diphosphine Ligands and Screening Reactions of Heterocyclic Acetylacetonato (ACAC) Ligands with Transitional Metal Complexes
Syntheses of diphosphine gold (I) complexes from gold THT and two ligands, 4, 5-bis (diphenylphosphino)-4-cyclopenten-1, 3-dione (BPCD) and 2,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)-N-phenylmaleimide (BPPM), were done separately. The reactions happened under ice conditions followed by room temperature conditions and produced two diphosphine gold (I) complexes in moderated yield. Spectroscopic results including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and X-ray crystallography were used to study and determine the structures of the products formed. Moreover, X-rays of all newly synthesized diphosphine gold (I) complexes were compared with the known X-ray structures of other phosphine and diphosphine gold (I) complexes. There were direct resemblances in terms of bond length and angle between these new diphosphine gold (I) complex structures and those already published. For instance, the bond lengths and angles from the newly prepared diphosphine gold (I) complexes were similar to those already published. Where there were some deviations in bond angles and length between the newly synthesized structures and those already published, appropriate explanation was given to explain the deviation. Heterocyclic ligands bearing acetylacetonate (ACAC) side arm(s) were prepared from ethyl malonyl chloride and the heterocyclic compounds 8-hydroxylquinoline, Syn-2-peridoxyaldoxime, quinoxalinol and 2, 6-dipyridinylmethanol. The products (heterocyclic ACAC ligands) from these reactions were screened with transition metal carbonyl compounds in thermolytic reactions. The complexes formed were studied and investigated using NMR and X-ray crystallography. Furthermore, the X-ray structures of the heterocyclic ACAC ligand or ligand A and that of rhenium complex 1 were compared with similar published X-ray structures. The comparison showed there were some similarities in terms of bond length and bond angles.
Effects of Macrophyte Functional Diversity on Taxonomic and Functional Diversity and Stability of Tropical Floodplain Fish Assemblages
Multiple dimensions of biodiversity within and across producer and consumer guilds in the food web affect an ecosystem’s functionality and stability. Tropical and subtropical aquatic ecosystems, which are extremely diverse, have received much less attention than terrestrial ecosystems in regards to the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning. We conducted a field experiment that tested for effects of macrophyte functional diversity on diversity and stability of associated fish assemblages in floodplain lakes of the Upper Paraná River floodplain, Brazil. Three levels of macrophyte functional diversity were maintained through time in five floodplain lakes and response variables included various components of fish taxonomic and functional diversity and stability. Components of functional diversity of fish assemblages were quantified using a suite of ecomorphological traits that relate to foraging and habitat use. Response variables primarily distinguished macrophyte treatments from the control. Macrophyte treatments had, on average, double the number of species and total abundance than the control treatment, but only limited effects on stability. The high diversity treatment was essentially nested within the low diversity for assemblage structure and had similar or even slightly lower levels of species richness and abundance in most cases. Gymnotiformes and young-of-year were diverse and relatively abundant in macrophyte treatments contributing to the large differences in diversity between macrophyte and control treatments. Higher fish diversity in structured habitats compared to more homogenous habitats is likely associated with increased ecomorphological diversity to exploit heterogeneous microhabitats and resources provided by the macrophytes.
Improving Scientific Learning and Supporting Civic Engagement for Undergraduate Non-science Majors
In prior research focusing on teaching and learning science, a definitive trend toward a new approach for undergraduate non-major science courses has emerged. Instruction should be refocused from information-transfer to giving students experiences that allow them to explore and engage in their new knowledge and find ways to integrate it into their everyday lives. One technique is to focus class material on real issues of interest and relevance. Course development that allows for civic engagement and self discovery connects learning to the lives of students and their communities. This study used a quasi-experimental design to see if students who engaged in their learning had improved learning gains, increased motivation, and ability to relate it to their lives. The results showed that students were more motivated to connect the subject to their lives when they engaged through civic engagement projects. Techniques used in this research can be used in the future to develop science courses that focus on the needs of 21st century learners.
Parent Partnership: Towards a Constructional Approach to Improving the Life of Parents with Children with Autism
Parents with children diagnosed with autism face a variety of stressors. The typical approach to dealing with these stressors is pathological which focuses on the problem by attempting to eliminate or alleviate the stressors through counseling, behavioral therapy, tutoring, and/or drugs. The purpose of the current study was to assess an alternative approach, a constructional one, which focuses on solutions by teaching 3 parents to analyze their life, formulate goals, and develop programs to reach their goals building off of their strengths and assets. The by-product is the reduction or elimination of the stressors. The results suggest that the use of a constructional program is very effective in helping parents develop a new repertoire that will ultimately improve their overall quality of life.
Modeling and Control of a Motor System Using the Lego EV3 Robot
In this thesis, I present my work on the modeling and control of a motor system using the Lego EV3 robot. The overall goal is to apply introductory systems and controls engineering techniques for estimation and design to a real-world system. First I detail the setup of materials used in this research: the hardware used was the Lego EV3 robot; the software used was the Student 2014 version of Simulink; a wireless network was used to communicate between them using a Netgear WNA1100 wifi dongle. Next I explain the approaches used to model the robot’s motor system: from a description of the basic system components, to data collection through experimentation with a proportionally controlled feedback loop, to parameter estimation (through time-domain specification relationships, Matlab’s curve-fitting toolbox, and a formal least-squares parameter estimation), to the discovery of the effects of frictional disturbance and saturation, and finally to the selection and verification of the final model through comparisons of simulated step responses of the estimated models to the actual time response of the motor system. Next I explore three different types of controllers for use within the motor system: a proportional controller, a lead compensator, and a PID controller. I catalogue the design and performance results – both in simulation and on the real system – of each controller. One controller is then selected to be used within two Controls Systems Engineering final course projects, both involving the robot traveling along a predetermined route. The controller’s performance is analyzed to determine whether it improves upon the accumulation of error in the robot’s position when the projects are executed without control.
Lines by Someone Else: the Pragmatics of Apprompted Poems
Over the last sixty years, overtly intertextual poems with titles such as “Poem Beginning with a Line by John Ashbery” and “Poem Ending with a Line by George W. Bush” have been appearing at an increasing rate in magazines and collections. These poems wed themselves to other texts and authors in distinct ways, inviting readers to engage with poems which are, themselves, in conversation with lines from elsewhere. These poems, which I refer to as “apprompted” poems, explicitly challenge readers to investigate the intertextual conversation, and in doing so, they adopt inherent risks. My thesis will chart the various effects these poems can have for readers and the consequences they may hold for the texts from which they borrow. Literary critics such as Harold Bloom and J. H. Miller have described the act of borrowing as competitive and parasitic—“agon” is Bloom’s term for what he sees as the oedipal anxiety of poets and poets’ texts to their antecedents, but an investigation of this emerging genre in terms of linguistic pragmatics shows that apprompted poems are performing a wider range of acts in relation to their predecessors. Unlike Bloom’s theory, which interprets the impulse of poetic creation through psychoanalysis, I employ linguistic terms from Brown and Levinson’s linguistic Politeness theory to analyze apprompted poems as conversational speech events. Politeness theory provides a useful analysis of these poems by documenting the weight of threats to the positive and negative “faces” of the participants in each poetic conversation. I have documented these “face-threatening-acts” and used them to divide apprompted poems into five major speech events: satire, revision, promotion, pastiche, and ecclesiastic. Ultimately, this paper serves at the intersection of literary criticism and linguistics, as I suggest a theoretical approach to the interpretation and criticism of apprompted poems by way of linguistic pragmatics.
Everyday Performances in U.S. Household Kitchens
BMA Innovation Consulting is committed to serving consumers products that can play a more meaningful role in household cleaning. So far, their innovation department has used psychology-based principles and approaches that have helped them understand consumers’ preferences, attitudes and claimed needs in household cleaning. That said, little information has been collected on the active role that products play or could play as participants in the everyday dynamics of US consumers. An anthropological approach to the study of U.S. kitchens, as an important center of family interaction in U.S. households, should yield important insights to the design and development of products that can more effectively and more actively participate in those dynamics. With this project I am fundamentally proposing a new approach to the identification of critical product design requirements. Figure on the right shows the key differences between the psychology-derived principles the organization is mostly using today vs. the anthropological lenses through which I will be conducting my research. Overall, I will be leveraging existing knowledge in the “individual desires” realm, connecting it to the collective situation & cultural context within which “cleaning action” emerges.
Laws of Inheritance
This thesis is a collection of poems that meditates on the legacies we inherit and the legacies we leave behind.
Maintaining Web Applications Integrity Running on RADIUM
Computer security attacks take place due to the presence of vulnerabilities and bugs in software applications. Bugs and vulnerabilities are the result of weak software architecture and lack of standard software development practices. Despite the fact that software companies are investing millions of dollars in the research and development of software designs security risks are still at large. In some cases software applications are found to carry vulnerabilities for many years before being identified. A recent such example is the popular Heart Bleed Bug in the Open SSL/TSL. In today’s world, where new software application are continuously being developed for a varied community of users; it’s highly unlikely to have software applications running without flaws. Attackers on computer system securities exploit these vulnerabilities and bugs and cause threat to privacy without leaving any trace. The most critical vulnerabilities are those which are related to the integrity of the software applications. Because integrity is directly linked to the credibility of software application and data it contains. Here I am giving solution of maintaining web applications integrity running on RADIUM by using daikon. Daikon generates invariants, these invariants are used to maintain the integrity of the web application and also check the correct behavior of web application at run time on RADIUM architecture in case of any attack or malware. I used data invariants and program flow invariants in my solution to maintain the integrity of web-application against such attack or malware. I check the behavior of my proposed invariants at run-time using Lib-VMI/Volatility memory introspection tool. This is a novel approach and proof of concept toward maintaining web application integrity on RADIUM.
The Study of Comprehensive Reinforcement Mechanism of Hexagonal Boron Nitride on Concrete
The addition of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has introduced a comprehensive reinforcing effect to the mechanical and electrochemical properties of commercial concrete, including fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) and steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC). Although this has been proven effective and applicable, further investigation and study is still required to optimize the strengthen result which will involve the exfoliation of h-BN into single-layered nano sheet, improving the degree of dispersion and dispersion uniformity of h-BN into concrete matrix. There is currently no direct method to test the degree of dispersion of non-conductive particles, including h-BN, in concrete matrix, therefore it is necessary to obtain an analogous quantification method like SEM, etc. The reinforcing mechanism on concrete, including FRC and SFRC is now attracting a great number of interest thanks to the huge potential of application and vast demand across the world. This study briefly describes the reinforcing mechanism brought by h-BN. In this study, different samples under varied conditions were prepared according to the addition of h-BN and dispersant to build a parallel comparison. Characterization is mainly focused on their mechanical properties, corrosive performance and SEM analysis of the cross-section of post-failure samples.
An Arduino Based Control System for a Brackish Water Desalination Plant
Water scarcity for agriculture is one of the most important challenges to improve food security worldwide. In this thesis we study the potential to develop a low-cost controller for a small scale brackish desalination plant that consists of proven water treatment technologies, reverse osmosis, cation exchange, and nanofiltration to treat groundwater into two final products: drinking water and irrigation water. The plant is powered by a combination of wind and solar power systems. The low-cost controller uses Arduino Mega, and Arduino DUE, which consist of ATmega2560 and Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex-M3 CPU microcontrollers. These are widely used systems characterized for good performance and low cost. However, Arduino also requires drivers and interfaces to allow the control and monitoring of sensors and actuators. The thesis explains the process, as well as the hardware and software implemented.
Evaluating a Sustainable Community Development Initiative Among the Lakota People on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
This thesis details my applied thesis project and experience in the evaluation of a workforce development through sustainable construction program. It describes the need of my client, Sweet Grass Consulting and their contractual partner, the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation, in the evaluation of Thunder Valley CDC's Workforce Development through Sustainable Construction Program. My role involved the development of an extensive evaluation package for this program and data analysis of evaluation materials to support Thunder Valley CDC's grant-funded Workforce Development Program. I place the efforts of Thunder Valley CDC in the context of their community, the Pine Ridge Reservation of the Lakota People, and within an historical and contemporary context to highlight the implications of the efforts of Thunder Valley CDC. Using the theoretical frameworks of cultural revitalization and community economic development, I attempt to highlight two important components of Thunder Valley CDC's community development efforts - cultural revitalization for social healing, and development that emphasizes social, community and individual well-being. Thunder Valley CDC's Workforce Development through Sustainable Construction Program is still in its early stages, and so this first year of implementation very much represented a pilot phase. However, while specific successes are difficult to measure at this point, general successes are viewable in the daily operations of Thunder Valley CDC that exemplify their stated mision and goals. These successes include initiatives that holistically address community needs; relevancy in the eyes of the community they serve; support for the community and for Program participants' unique challenges; and a cultural restoration and revitalization emphasis that underlies and strengthens all of this. The program thus has the potential to provide a model for community development by challenging dominant "development" paradigms and utilizing community resources and assets for community development that reflects the community's values and worldviews.
Synchrotron Radiation X-Ray Diffraction of Nickel-Titanium Shape Memory Alloy Wires During Mechanical Deformation
Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are a new generation material which exhibits unique nonlinear deformations due to a phase transformation which allows it to return to its original shape after removal of stress or a change in temperature. It shows a shape memory effect (martensitic condition) and pseudoelasticity (austenitic condition) properties depends on various heat treatment conditions. The reason for these properties depends on phase transformation through temperature changes or applied stress. Many technological applications of austenite SMAs involve cyclical mechanical loading and unloading in order to take advantage of pseudoelasticity, but are limited due to poor fatigue life. In this thesis, I investigated two important mechanical feature to fatigue behavior in pseudoelastic NiTi SMA wires using high energy synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction (SR-XRD). The first of these involved simple bending and the second of these involved relaxation during compression loading. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was performed to identify the phase transformation temperatures. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were collected for the initial condition of the NiTi SMA wires and during simple bending, SEM revealed that micro-cracks in compression regions of the wire propagate with increasing bend angle, while tensile regions tend to not exhibit crack propagation. SR-XRD patterns were analyzed to study the phase transformation and investigate micromechanical properties. By observing the various diffraction peaks such as the austenite (200) and the martensite (100), (110), and (101) planes, intensities and residual strain values exhibit strong anisotropy depending upon whether the sample is in compression or tension during simple bending. This research provides insight into two specific mechanical features in pseudoelastic NiTi SMA wires.
Taking the Irish Pulse: A Revitalization Study of the Irish Language
This thesis argues that Irish can and should be revitalized. Conducted as an observational study, this thesis focuses on interviews with 72 participants during the summer of 2013. All participants live in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. This thesis investigates what has caused the Irish language to lose power and prestige over the centuries, and which Irish language revitalization efforts have been successful. Findings show that although, all-Irish schools have had a substantial growth rate since 1972, when the schools were founded, the majority of Irish students still get their education through English-medium schools. This study concludes that Irish will survive and grow in the numbers of fluent Irish speakers; however, the government will need to further support the growth of the all-Irish schools. In conclusion, the Irish communities must take control of the promotion of the Irish language, and intergenerational transmission must take place between parents and their children.
The Effects of Programmed Reinforcement and Chained Mastery Criteria on Yoga Pose Performance in Two Young Children with Autism
Community exercise can offer many benefits for children, including the opportunity to engage in physical activity and interact with peers in a social setting. Children with autism do not engage in as many community activities as their typical peers. This study examines conditions to teach young children to complete yoga poses to mastery. The effects of prompting, programmed reinforcers, and a chaining criteria were evaluated using a comparison design with two baselines and one intervention condition, replicated across two children with autism. Both children mastered performance of all four targeted yoga poses. The findings are discussed in the context of previous research on the benefits of yoga.
Do contingency-conflicting elements drop out of equivalence classes? Re-testing Sidman's (2000) theory
Sidman's (2000) theory of stimulus equivalence states that all positive elements in a reinforcement contingency enter an equivalence class. The theory also states that if an element from an equivalence class conflicts with a programmed reinforcement contingency, the conflicting element will drop out of the equivalence class. Minster et al. (2006) found evidence suggesting that a conflicting element does not drop out of an equivalence class. In an effort to explain maintained accuracy on programmed reinforcement contingencies, the authors seem to suggest that participants will behave in accordance with a particular partitioning of the equivalence class which continues to include the conflicting element. This hypothesis seems to explain their data well, but their particular procedures are not a good test of the notion of "dropping out" due to the pre-establishment of equivalence classes before the conflicting member entered the class. The current experiment first developed unpartitioned equivalence classes and only later exposed participants to reinforcement contingencies that conflicted with pre-established equivalence classes. The results are consistent with the notion that a partition developed such that the conflicting element had dropped out of certain subclasses of the original equivalence class. The notion of a partitioning of an equivalence class seems to provide a fuller description of the phenomenon Sidman (1994, 2000) described as "dropping out" of an equivalence class.
Competing Models of Hegemonic Masculinity in English Civil War Memoirs by Women
This thesis examines the descriptions of Royalist and Parliamentarian masculinity in English Civil War memoirs by women through a close reading of three biographical memoirs written by Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Newcastle; Lady Ann Fanshawe; and Lucy Hutchinson. Descriptions of masculinity are evaluated through the lens of Raewyn Connell's theory of hegemonic masculinity to understand the impact two competing models of masculinity had on the social and political culture of the period. The prevailing Parliamentarian hegemonic masculinity in English Civil War memoirs is traced to its origins before the English Civil War to demonstrate how hegemonic masculinity changes over time. The thesis argues that these memoirs provide evidence of two competing models of Royalist and Parliamentarian masculinities during the Civil War that date back to changes in the Puritan meaning of the phrase “man of merit”, which influenced the development of a Parliamentarian model of masculinity.
Female Friendship Films: A Post-Feminist Examination of Representations of Women in the Fashion Industry
This thesis focuses on three fashion industry themed female friendship films: Pret-a-Porter/Ready to Wear (1994) by Robert Altman, The Devil Wears Prada (2006) by David Frankel, and The September Issue (2009) by R.J. Cutler. Female interpersonal relationships are complex – women often work to motivate, encourage and transform one another but can just as easily use tactics like intimidation, manipulation, and exploitation in order to save their own jobs and reputations. Through the lens of post-feminist theory, this thesis examines significant female interpersonal relationships in each film to illustrate how femininity is constructed and driven by consumer culture in the fashion industry themed films.
Oral History of Bonton and Ideal Neighborhoods in Dallas, Texas
The Bonton and Ideal neighborhoods in Dallas Texas, developed in the early 1900s, experienced physical and social decay throughout the 1980s. Neighborhood organizations and resident activism were vital to the rebirth of the community in the 1990s. Current revitalization efforts taking place there have been a source of contention as the neighborhood continues to overcome inequalities created by decades of racialized city planning initiatives. This thesis focuses on how the structuring structure of whiteness has historically affected, and continues to affect, the neighborhoods of Ideal and Bonton, as well as acts to identify how black residents have navigated their landscape and increased their collective capital through neighborhood activism.
Spray Cooling with HFC-134a and HFO-1234yf for Thermal Management of Automotive Power Electronics
This study aims to experimentally investigate the spray cooling characteristics for active two-phase cooling of automotive power electronics. Tests are conducted on a small-scale, closed loop spray cooling system featuring a pressure atomized spray nozzle. Two types of refrigerants, HFC-134a (R-134a) and HFO-1234yf, are selected as the working fluids. The test section (heater), made out of oxygen-free copper, has a 1-cm2 plain, smooth surface prepared following a consistent procedure, and would serve as a baseline case. Matching size thick film resistors, attached onto the copper heaters, generate heat and simulate high heat flux power electronics devices. The tests are conducted by controlling the heat flux in increasing steps, and recording the corresponding steady-state temperatures to obtain cooling curves. The working fluid is kept at room temperature level (22oC). Performance comparisons are made based on heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and critical heat flux (CHF) values. Effects of spray characteristics and liquid flow rates on the cooling performance are investigated with the selected coolants. Three types of commercially available nozzles that generate full-cone sprays with fine droplets are utilized in the tests. Effect of liquid flow rate is evaluated varying flow rates at 2, 3, 4 ml/s. The experimental results obtained from this study provide a framework for spray cooling performance with the current and next-generation refrigerants aimed for advanced thermal management of automotive power electronics.
Anger, Forgiveness and Mindfulness: Correlates of Perceived Stress in an LGB Sample
A sexual minority is someone who identifies as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB). According to the Minority Stress Model (Meyer, 2003), sexual minorities encounter significant levels of stress due to their minority group status, thus they are more likely to experience perceived stress. Our cross-sectional, correlational study aimed to explore the relationships between forgiveness, mindfulness and anger and how they are related to perceived stress in a convenience sample of ethnically diverse LGB adults. We hypothesized that: 1) anger is positively associated with perceived stress; 2) forgiveness is negatively associated with perceived stress; 3) mindfulness is negatively associated with perceived stress; and 4) anger, forgiveness and mindfulness account for a significant proportion of the variance in perceived stress. 5) The relationship between anger and perceived stress is moderated by forgiveness. 6) The relationship between anger and perceived stress is moderated by mindfulness. Among LGB adults, the extant literature does not address these four variables in conjunction and the relationships between anger, forgiveness, mindfulness and stress has yet to be explored. Various statistical analyses were conducted, including a hierarchical linear regression to test our model. We found that our overall model accounted for 36% of the total variance in perceived stress (F(5, 142) = 17.31, p <.01) with anger (β = .31, t = 3.55, p = .001) and forgiveness (β = -.21, t = -2.56, p < .05) as the significant predictors. Contrary to prediction, forgiveness and mindfulness did not moderate the relationship between anger and perceived stress in our LGB sample. Limitations, strengths, future research and implications are discussed.
Ghost Machine
This thesis consists of a collection of poems. By virtue of its content and arrangement, the collection ruminates on and attempts to work through the problem of corporeality and bodily experience: the anxieties surrounding illness, mortality, and the physicality of contemporary life. This collection explores the tension inherent in the mind/body duality and, rather than prescribing solutions, offers multiple avenues and perspectives through which to view bodily experience, as well as how that experience affects an individual’s identity, agency, and sense of self.
Prison Notes: an Introductory Study of Inmate Marginalia
This thesis introduces the study of inmate marginalia as a method for understanding inmates’ uses of texts in prison libraries and for understanding the motivations for these uses. Marginalia are the notes, drawings, underlining, and other markings left by readers in the texts with which they interact. I use the examples of the Talmudic projects to set a precedent for the integration of marginal discourses into the central discourse of society. Next, I discuss the arguments surrounding the use of texts in prison libraries, including an outline for an ideal study of inmate marginalia. Finally, I discuss the findings of my on-site research at four prison libraries in Washington State. After scanning evidence of marginalia from forty-eight texts, a relatively small sample, I divided the marginalia by gender of facility, genre of text, address of the marginalia, and type of marginalia and found statistically significant correlations (p < 0.05) between gender and genre, gender and address, gender and type, and genre and type. However, while these correlations are statistically weak and require further investigation, the statistically significant correlations indicate the potential for integrating inmate marginalia studies into the scholarly discussions regarding inmates’ interactions with texts in prison.
Comparative Analysis and Implementation of High Data Rate Wireless Sensor Network Simulation Frameworks
This thesis focuses on developing a high data rate wireless sensor network framework that could be integrated with hardware prototypes to monitor structural health of buildings. In order to better understand the wireless sensor network architecture and its consideration in structural health monitoring, a detailed literature review on wireless sensor networks has been carried out. Through research, it was found that there are numerous simulation software packages available for wireless sensor network simulation. One suitable software was selected for modelling the framework. Research showed that Matlab/Simulink was the most suitable environment, and as a result, a wireless sensor network framework was designed in Matlab/Simulink. Further, the thesis illustrates modeling of a simple accelerometer sensor, such as those used in wireless sensor networks in Matlab/Simulink using a mathematical description. Finally, the framework operation is demonstrated with 10 nodes, and data integrity is analyzed with cyclic redundancy check and transmission error rate calculations.
Determining the Emissivity of Roofing Samples: Asphalt, Ceramic and Coated Cedar
The goal is to perform heat measurements examine of selected roofing material samples. Those roofing materials are asphalt shingles, ceramics, and cedar. It’s important to understand the concept of heat transfer, which consists of conduction, convection, and radiation. Research work was reviewed on different infrared devices to see which one would be suitable for conducting my experiment. In this experiment, the main focus was on a specific property of radiation. That property is the emissivity, which is the amount of heat a material is able to radiate compared to a blackbody. An infrared measuring device, such as the infrared camera was used to determine the emissivity of each sample by using a measurement formula consisting of certain equations. These equations account for the emissivity, transmittance of heat through the atmosphere and temperatures of the samples, atmosphere and background. The experiment verifies how reasonable the data is compared to values in the emissivity table. A blackbody method such as electrical black tape was applied to help generate the correct data. With this data obtained, the emissivity was examined to understand what factors and parameters affect this property of the materials. This experiment was conducted using a suitable heat source to heat up the material samples to high temperature. The measurements were taken during the experiment and displayed by the IR camera. The IR images show the behavior of surface temperatures being distributed throughout the different materials. The main challenge was to determine the most accurate emissivity values for all material samples. The results obtained by the IR camera were displayed in figures and tables at different distances, which was between the heap lamp and materials. The materials exhibited different behaviors in temperature and emissivity at certain distances. The emissivity of each material varied with different temperatures. The results led to suggestions …
Direct Strength Method for Web Crippling of Cold-formed Steel C and Z Sections Subjected to Interior One Flange Loading and End One Flange Loading
The main objective of this research is to extend the “Direct strength method” for determining the web crippling strength of cold-formed steel C and Z sections subjected to End one flange loading and Interior one flange loading conditions. Direct strength method is applied for designing the columns and beams earlier. The existing specifications equation for calculating the web crippling strength of cold-formed steels designed by American Institute of Iron and Steel is very old method and it is based on the extensive experimental investigations conducted at different universities. Calculating the web crippling strength of cold-formed steels using direct strength method is a new technique. In the present research the web crippling strength of cold-formed steels were calculated using Direct Strength Method. The experimental data is collected from the tests that were conducted at different universities. The critical buckling strength of the members were calculated using Abaqus. Microsoft excel is used to generate the equations. The safety and resistance factors for the designed equations were calculated using “Load and resistance factor design” and “Allowable strength design” from North American Cold-Formed Steel Specification, 2012 edition book.
Lone Star Insanity: Efforts to Treat the Mentally Ill in Texas, 1861-1929
During the mid-nineteenth century, the citizens of Texas were forced to keep their mentally disturbed family members at home which caused stress on the caregivers and the further debilitation of the afflicted. To remedy this situation, mental health experts and Texas politicians began to create a system of healing known as state asylums. The purpose of this study is to determine how Texas mental health care came into being, the research and theories behind the prevention and treatment programs that asylum physicians employed to overcome mental illness, in addition to the victories and shortcomings of the system. Through this work, it will be shown that during the 1850s until the 1920s institutions faced difficulty in achieving success from many adverse conditions including, but not limited to, overcrowding, large geographical conditions, poor health practices, faulty construction, insufficient funding, ineffective prevention and treatment methods, disorganization, cases of patient abuse, incompetent employees, prejudice, and legal improprieties. As a result, by 1930, these asylums were merely places to detain the mentally ill in order to rid them from society. This thesis will also confirm that while both Texas politicians and mental health experts desired to address and overcome mental illness in Texas, they were unable to do so due to arguments, selfishness, corruption, failures, and inaction on the part of both sides. However, this thesis will ultimately reveal it was lack of full support from Texas legislators, deriving from the idea that this system was not one of their top priorities among the state’s concerns, that led to the inability of the Texas mental health care system to properly assist their patients.
Searching for a Savior
This collection of essays includes a preference that investigates the role and importance of setting and character in a nonfiction narrative. The preface assesses the writings of four great authors, examining how each author use setting and characterization to further the purpose of their story. This collection focuses on four different issues that the author has wrestled with for two decades. While “Desperado” is an investigation into the problems within her own family, “Being Black Me” highlights the authors struggle against the racial inequality her hometown. “Voices In The Dark”, the author analyze how the abuse she suffered as a child has influenced her life and contributed to a drinking problem that is explored in a later essay “Alors On Danse”.
No Quarter: the Story of the New Orleans Greys
The purpose of this thesis document is to explain the process of making the documentary film, No Quarter: The Story of the New Orleans Greys. The document is organized by having the prospectus and the film proposal at the beginning, with the body describing how the film was made based on the prospectus. The purpose of the film is to tell the history of a unit of volunteers in the Texas Revolution, the New Orleans Greys. The document describes the methods used to make the film and how it will be distributed to the intended audience. As the thesis explains, the film changed slightly from the prospectus, however the resulting film was successful in telling the history of the little-known New Orleans Greys.
Anisotropic Nature of Radially Strained Metal Tubes
Metal pipes are sometimes swaged by a metal cone to enlarge them, which increases the strain in the material. The amount of strain is important because it affects the burst and collapse strength. Burst strength is the amount of internal pressure that a pipe can withstand before failure, while collapse strength is the amount of external pressure that a pipe can withstand before failure. If the burst or collapse strengths are exceeded, the pipe may fracture, causing critical failure. Such an event could cost the owners and their customers millions of dollars in clean up, repair, and lost time, in addition to the potential environmental damage. Therefore, a reliable way of estimating the burst and collapse strength of strained pipe is desired and valuable. The sponsor currently rates strained pipes using the properties of raw steel, because those properties are easily measured (for example, yield strength). In the past, the engineers assumed that the metal would be work-hardened when swaged, so that yield strength would increase. However, swaging introduces anisotropic strain, which may decrease the yield strength. This study measured the yield strength of strained material in the transverse and axial direction and compared them to raw material, to determine the amount of anisotropy. This information will be used to more accurately determine burst and collapse ratings for strained pipes. More accurate ratings mean safer products, which will minimize risk for the sponsor’s customers. Since the strained metal has a higher yield strength than the raw material, using the raw yield strength to calculate burst and collapse ratings is a conservative method. The metal has even higher yield strength after strain aging, which indicates that the stresses are relieved. Even with the 12% anisotropy in the strained and 9% anisotropy in the strain aged specimens, the raw yield strengths are …
The Musical Language of Alberto Ginastera’s Panambí and the Influence of Claude Debussy’s La Mer and Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre Du Printemps
Alberto Ginastera completed his ballet Panambí in 1937. The ballet was arranged as a symphonic suite, and was performed the same year at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, conducted by Juan José Castro. Panambí marked the beginning of Alberto Ginastera’s long and successful career as an Argentine composer. Chapter I of this document provides a brief introduction into the history behind Alberto Ginastera’s Panambí suite, and includes a review of the research that is exclusively devoted to the suite, as well as documents that do not provide direct analyses of Panambí, but contain information that aid in a better understanding of the suite’s composition. Chapter II includes analyses of the suite that illustrate important elements that contribute to the structure and sound of the Panambí suite. These components include Ginastera’s construction of the La Noche theme found in the first movement and its use as a master set, his use of diatonic collections and pitch centricity, the importance of unordered pitch class intervals IC1 and IC6, his use of aggregate completion as a compositional method, and his use of local motives over larger spans of temporal space. Chapter III explores the possibility that many of these compositional methods are due to the influence of Claude Debussy’s La Mer and Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printmeps. The “guitar chord” may also be the result of the influence of Debussy’s La Mer.
Texas Paranormalists
Texas Pararnormalists mixes participatory and observational styles in an effort to portray a small community of paranormal practitioners who live and work in and around North Texas. These practitioners include psychics, ghost investigators, and other enthusiasts and seekers of the spirit world. Through the documentation of their combined perspectives, Texas Paranormalists renders a portrait of a community of outsiders with a shared belief system and an unshakeable passion for reaching out into the unknown.
Weigh-in Environment and Weight Intentionality and Management of Female Collegiate Athletes
Research suggests that female athletes, in particular, experience “sport-environment” pressures such as: weight, performance, and body image demands from their coaches, teammates, and judges. These influences in tandem with society’s portrayal of the thin ideal are thought to considerably increase the risk of developing disordered eating problems in this population. Although numerous studies have been conducted over the past decade on the prevalence of eating disorders and pathogenic weight control behaviors among female athletes, few have examined in detail the weight pressures that exist within the sport environment, such as whether or not (and how often) athletes are weighed by their coaches, and how athletes respond to those pressures in terms of weight management practices. In the proposed study, we will examine the weigh-in environment, weight satisfaction, weight management practices, menstrual health, and reported source of nutritional guidance. The sample includes 414 NCAA Division I female collegiate swimmers/divers and gymnasts drawn from 26 universities across the U.S. Participants anonymously completed a series of questionnaires as part of a larger study on student-athlete health and well-being. This study found that 41% of athletes were weighed, and most often by an athletic trainer in private. Despite most weigh-ins were reportedly conducted in a positive manner, the majority of the athletes who were weighed (75%) reported using at least one strategy to manage their weight prior to weigh-ins (e.g. restrict food, increase exercise). Athletes desire to lose weight, caloric intake, and menstrual cycles were not related to whether athletes were or were not weighed. The majority of athletes received qualified nutritional guidance about how to healthfully manage their weight. Overall, weighing is occurring in a more positive manner than expected; however, athletes are continuing to report using unhealthy weight management strategies at a high rate. It seems important for athletic departments to set …
Shame Due to Heterosexism, Self-esteem and Perceived Stress: Correlates of Psychological Quality of Life in a Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Sample
Sexual minorities experience higher levels of stress than heterosexuals, which in turn affects coping and psychological quality of life (PQOL). Although many sexual minorities remain mentally healthy, a higher prevalence of mental disorders among members of the lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) communities exists; thus, LGB PQOL becomes an important area to examine. Several key factors are related to PQOL: shame due to heterosexism, self-esteem and perceived stress. Using minority stress model, I hypothesized that shame due to heterosexism and perceived stress are negatively correlated with PQOL, while self-esteem is positively correlated with PQOL. I hypothesized that collectively shame due to heterosexism, self-esteem and perceived stress account for a significant proportion of the variance in PQOL, that self-esteem moderates the relationship between perceived stress and PQOL and that age moderates the relationship between shame due to heterosexism and PQOL. I calculated Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and found shame due to heterosexism was negatively correlated with PQOL (r(146) = -.21, p = .009), perceived stress was negatively correlated with PQOL (r (146) = -.69, p < .001) and self-esteem was positively correlated with PQOL (r(146) = .72, p < .001). I conducted a regression analysis and found our model accounted for 59% of the variance in PQOL (adj. R2 = .59, F(3, 144) = 68.88, p < .001). Self-esteem did moderate the relationship between perceived stress and PQOL (p = .029), but age did not moderate the relationship between shame due to heterosexism and PQOL. Results suggest perceived stress and self-esteem play key roles in sexual minorities’ PQOL. Implications are discussed.
Role of GPR17 in Thrombocyte Aggregation in Adult Zebrafish
GPR17, a uracil nucleotide cysteinyl leukotriene receptor, belongs to the GPCR (G protein coupled receptor) family. It has been shown recently that inhibiting this protein in the nervous system in mice can lead to blockage of oligodendrocyte maturation, which supports myelin repair. Interestingly, our laboratory found GPR17 in thrombocytes. However, we do not know whether it has any function in thrombocyte aggregation or the nature of the ligand. In this paper, we studied the role of GPR17 in hemostasis, which is a fundamental defense mechanism in the event of injury. Using zebrafish as a model system, our laboratory has studied specifically thrombocytes, which play a significant role in hemostasis. The major reasons to use zebrafish as a model system are that their thrombocytes are functionally equivalent to human platelets, the adult fish are amenable to knockdown experiments, and they are readily available in the market. This study was performed by using a piggy back knockdown method where we used a chemical hybrid of control morpholino and an antisense oligonucleotide sequence leads to the degradation the mRNA for GPR17. After knockdown GPR17 in thrombocytes, the percent difference of the thrombocytes aggregation between the control and knockdown blood samples was measured by flow cytometry. We used various thrombocyte agonists to study differences in aggregation between the control and knockdown blood samples. The study showed that knockdown of GPR17 resulted in no significant differences in percent thrombocyte aggregation between control and agonist treated samples except for a slight increase in collagen-treated samples. Thus, it appears that GPR17 has no significant role in hemostasis.
Photoinduced Toxicity in Early Lifestage Fiddler Crab (Uca longisignalis) Following Exposure to Deepwater Horizon Spill Oil
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill resulted in a large release of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) into the Gulf of Mexico. PAH can interact with ultraviolet radiation (UV) resulting in increased toxicity, particularly to early lifestage organisms. The goal of this research was to determine the sensitivity of fiddler crab larvae (Uca longisignalis) to photo-induced toxicity following exposure to Deepwater Horizon spill oil in support of the DWH Natural Resource Damage Assessment. Five replicate dishes each containing 20 larvae, were exposed to one of three UV treatments (10%, 50%, and 100% ambient natural sunlight) and one of five dilutions of water accommodated fractions of two naturally weathered source oils. A dose dependent effect of PAH and UV on larval mortality was observed. Mortality was markedly higher in PAH treatments that included co-exposure to more intense UV light. PAH treatments under low intensity sunlight had relatively high survival. These data demonstrate the importance of considering combined effects of non-chemical (i.e. UV exposure) and chemical stressors and the potential for photo-induced effects after exposure to PAH following the Deepwater Horizon spill.
An Accelerometer-based Gesture Recognition System for a Tactical Communications Application
In modern society, computers are primarily interacted with via keyboards, touch screens, voice recognition, video analysis, and many others. For certain applications, these methods may be the most efficient interface. However, there are applications that we can conceive where a more natural interface could be convenient and connect humans and computers in a more intuitive and natural way. These applications are gesture recognition systems and range from the interpretation of sign language by a computer to virtual reality control. This Thesis proposes a gesture recognition system that primarily uses accelerometers to capture gestures from a tactical communications application. A segmentation algorithm is developed based on the accelerometer energy to segment these gestures from an input sequence. Using signal processing and machine learning techniques, the segments are reduced to mathematical features and classified with support vector machines. Experimental results show that the system achieves an overall gesture recognition accuracy of 98.9%. Additional methods, such as non-gesture recognition/suppression, are also proposed and tested.
Thin Cr2O3 (0001) Films and Co (0001) Films Fabrication for Spintronics
The growth of Co (0001) films and Cr2O3 (0001)/Co (0001) has been investigated using surface analysis methods. Such films are of potential importance for a variety of spintronics applications. Co films were directly deposited on commercial Al2O3 (0001) substrates by magnetron sputter deposition or by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), with thicknesses of ~1000Å or 30Å, respectively. Low Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED) shows hexagonal (1x1) pattern for expected epitaxial films grown at 800 K to ensure the hexagonally close-packed structure. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) indicates the metallic cobalt binding energy for Co (2p3/2) peak, which is at 778.1eV. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) indicates the root mean square (rms) roughness of Co films has been dramatically reduced from 10 nm to 0.6 nm by optimization of experiment parameters, especially Ar pressure during plasma deposition. Ultrathin Cr2O3 films (10 to 25 Å) have been successfully fabricated on 1000Å Co (0001) films by MBE. LEED data indicate Cr2O3 has C6v symmetry and bifurcated spots from Co to Cr2O3 with Cr2O3 thickness less than 6 Å. XPS indicates the binding energy of Cr 2p(3/2) is at 576.6eV which is metallic oxide peak. XPS also shows the growth of Cr2O3 on Co (0001) form a thin Cobalt oxide interface, which is stable after exposure to ambient and 1000K UHV anneal.
The Role of Family in Alcohol Consumption Among Turkish Adolescents
Alcohol consumption among adolescents is an important issue because of its link to many negative social and health problems, including depression, suicide, and aggression. Drawing from Hirschi’s social bonding theory and Agnew’s general strain theory, this study examines the effects of family relations on alcohol consumption among Turkish adolescents. Social bonding theory suggests that individuals with stronger social bonds are less likely to use alcohol than individuals with weaker social bonds. General strain theory, on the other hand, proposes that individuals with higher levels of strain due to financial difficulties and/or negative relationships are more likely to consume alcohol compared to individuals with lower levels of strain. In particular, this study proposes to examine how parental attachment, parental monitoring, time spent with family, parents’ religiosity, family economic strain, and negative life events in the family predict alcohol consumption among adolescents in Turkey. 2008 Youth in Europe (YIE) project data is used in the study. In general, the results indicate that social bonding and strain factors have significant effects on the adolescents’ alcohol consumption patterns. These findings will help to inform prevention programs aimed at reducing adolescent alcohol risk behaviors by explaining the importance of family relationships.
Guidelines for Greening (Renovation) of Existing Homes
This Thesis is aimed at evaluating the options of renovation for an existing residential building to make it more energy efficient. The various aspects in the basic structures of residential homes are discussed in order to help the user identify the areas of the house for which renovation is required to improve the energy efficiency of the building. These aspects include doors, roof and wall in addition to various systems of electrical wiring, mechanical systems of ventilation, heating and cooling and plumbing systems for the efficient flow of water throughout the house. The renovation options have been described in detail to provide as many possibilities to the user as possible. The building taken for renovation is a 1953 suburban home which has been awarded the honor of being the first building to be labeled as Zero Energy Home in its vicinity. This has made the home so efficient that its expenditure of energy has become equivalent to its energy generation, therefore, cancelling each other out and creating an estimate of zero energy.
Migration Information Gathering by Mexican-origin Immigrants in the Pre-migration Phase
U.S. immigration procedures are complex and may elude the average individual seeking admission to the United States. Understanding this, the current study investigates how information resources are used by potential migrants to learn about the migratory process. Using a mixed-methods approach, I interviewed 30 Mexican immigrants with unauthorized immigration experience about the process of gathering migration information in the pre-migration phase. Qualitative data were coded using seven themes generated from the primary research questions, including: Information Resources, Resources Used During Migration, Motivation for Migration, Method of Migration, Lack of Information/Misinformation, Types of Help and Types of Information. Findings suggest that the factors motivating migrants to come to the U.S. are combined in complex ways and lack of information about legal alternatives to unauthorized migration is an important factor influencing method of migration. Also, while access to new information resources is increasing, these resources are not being tapped for migration information.
The Countess of Counter-revolution: Madame du Barry and the 1791 Theft of Her Jewelry
Jeanne Bécu, an illegitimate child from the Vaucouleurs area in France, ascended the ranks of the Ancien régime to become the Countess du Barry and take her place as Royal Mistress of Louis XV. During her tenure as Royal Mistress, Jeanne amassed a jewel collection that rivaled all private collections. During the course of the French Revolution, more specifically the Reign of Terror, Jeanne was forced to hatch a plot to secure the remainder of her wealth as she lost a significant portion of her revenue on the night of 4 August 1789. To protect her wealth, Jeanne enlisted Nathaniel Parker Forth, a British spy, to help her plan a fake jewel theft at Louveciennes so that she could remove her economic capital from France while also reducing her total wealth and capital with the intent of reducing her tax payments. As a result of the theft, her jewelry was transported to London, where she would travel four times during the French Revolution on the pretext of recovering her jewelry. This thesis examines her actions while abroad during the Revolution and her culpability in the plot. While traveling to and from London, Jeanne was able to move information, money, and people out of France. Jeanne was arrested and charged with aiding the counter-revolution, for which the Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced her to death. Madame du Barry represented the extravagance and waste of Versailles and of Bourbon absolutism, and this symbolic representation of waste was what eventually inhibited Jeanne’s success.
Small Town Retail Change in East Texas: an Analysis of Retail Growth, Decline, and Spatial Reconfiguration
In recent years, small towns have experienced declining levels of retail activity attributable to a variety of factors. Previously conducted research identifies a number of these factors such as changing population dynamics, continuously evolving retail practices, locational factors, and an assortment of other macroeconomic factors. Although retail decline is common for many small towns, there are some small towns that have been able to maintain their viability in an ever-changing economic climate. The primary purpose of this research is to better understand what spatial and socio-economic characteristics contribute to retail growth and decline in a series of small towns. This research highlights a selection of small towns across a 14 county area within east Texas. The selection of small towns includes a number of towns with an increasing number of retail establishments as well as a number of towns with decreasing retail establishments over the 14 year study timeframe. Contained within this research is a discussion of small town economic and retail development, as well as findings regarding spatial and socio-economic characteristics as they relate to retail growth and decline in small towns. This research finds that locational characteristics do have an effect on retail growth and decline. The research also supports the literature, which states retail growth and decline is more pronounced within certain retail categories.
Examination of Sexual Differences in the Acute Effects of Haloperidol on Licking
Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric condition affecting almost one percent of the US population. Typical antipsychotics (e.g., haloperidol) have been in use for several decades and are generally very effective in treating the emotional and cognitive effects of schizophrenia, but are used as the last line of treatment due to their severe extrapyramidal motor side effects under chronic exposure. The present study was conducted to investigate the role of sex in determining the oromotor side effects of typical antipsychotics via measuring different behavioral dimensions of male and female Sprague-Dawley rats licking sucrose after haloperidol treatment. The results showed a stronger sensitivity in female rats than male rats within total licking responses and inter-lick intervals. The present results suggest closer attention needs to be paid to the role that sexual hormones play in the motor slowing and behavior-reducing effects of antipsychotics.
Influence of the Choice of Disease Mapping Method on Population Characteristics in Areas of High Disease Burdens
Disease maps are powerful tools for depicting spatial variations in disease risk and its underlying drivers. However, producing effective disease maps requires careful consideration of the statistical and spatial properties of the disease data. In fact, the choice of mapping method influences the resulting spatial pattern of the disease, as well as the understanding of its underlying population characteristics. New developments in mapping methods and software in addition to continuing improvements in data quality and quantity are requiring map-makers to make a multitude of decisions before a map of disease burdens can be created. The impact of such decisions on a map, including the choice of appropriate mapping method, not been addressed adequately in the literature. This research demonstrates how choice of mapping method and associated parameters influence the spatial pattern of disease. We use four different disease-mapping methods – unsmoothed choropleth maps, smoothed choropleth maps produced using the headbanging method, smoothed kernel density maps, and smoothed choropleth maps produced using spatial empirical Bayes methods and 5-years of zip code level HIV incidence (2007- 2011) data from Dallas and Tarrant Counties, Texas. For each map, the leading population characteristics and their relative importance with regards to HIV incidence is identified using a regression analysis of a CDC recommended list of socioeconomic determinants of HIV. Our results show that the choice of mapping method leads to different conclusions regarding the associations between HIV disease burden and the underlying demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Thus, the choice of mapping method influences the patterns of disease we see or fail to see. Accurate depiction of areas of high disease burden is important for developing and targeting appropriate public health interventions.
The Role of Cysteinyl Leukotriene Receptor 2 in Thrombocyte Aggregation
Cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 2, a G-protein coupled receptor known to be expressed and functional on human platelets. However, it seems that upon ligand activation the cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 2 activates a variety of signaling pathways in multiple cell types among different species. Previously, a former laboratory member Vrinda Kulkarni found cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 2 to be expressed on the surface of adult zebrafish thrombocytes. In this work I studied the characteristics of aggregation in adult zebrafish thrombocytes with the knockdown of cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 2. I used a newly developed knockdown method to study the function of cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 2. Knockdown of the cysteinyl leukotriene was confirmed using RT-PCR results showed p=.001, reduced sell surface level of expression of the cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 2 results showed that p=.002. I found that the knockdown of cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 2 results in prothrombotic thrombocytes by using flow cytometry p=.0001.
An Initial Study of Binary and Ternary Ti-based Alloys Manufactured Using Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENSTM)
In this study an initial assessment of the composition – microstructure – property relationships in binary and ternary Ti – based systems are made possible using LENSTM technology. Laser Engineering Net Shaping (LENSTM), a rapid prototyping, directed laser deposition methodology of additive manufacturing (AM) was used to create bulk homogenous specimens that are compositionally graded. Compositionally graded specimens were made possible by incorporating elemental blends of powder during the LENSTM process. While there have been numerous studies assessing the influence of common elements (e.g., V, Mo, Al, and Cr) on the resulting microstructure in titanium alloys, other elements have been neglected. A systematic study of the Ti – Fe – Al ternary system based upon varying compositions of the eutectoid former, Fe with Al to stabilize the a and b phases respectively has also been neglected. This research effort focuses on exploiting the LENSTM process by rapidly assessing the composition – microstructure – property relationships in a combinatorial approach for the Ti – W, Ti – Fe, and Ti – Fe – Al systems. Compositionally graded specimens of Ti – xW (0<x<40wt.%(14.79at.%)), Ti – xFe (0<x<35wt.%(36.37at.%)), and Ti – xFe – yAl (0<x<40wt.%(36.37at.%)), y=5,10, 15wt.%) have been heat treated to also assess the influence of thermal history on microstructural features such as phase composition and volume fraction. Lastly, a Ti – xMo (0<x<40wt.%(24.96at.%)) compositionally graded specimen was deposited to re-assess the Mo-equivalency nature of W, as well as assess the role of phase separation in microstructural evolution at temperatures above and below the invariant point (~695°C) of the Ti – W binary system.
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