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Placing Ourselves: Media and the Transition to Adulthood in a Rural Community
No full textThis work is embargoed by the author and will not be publicly available until May 2033.The United States has grown more racially and ethnically diverse, yet large pockets of the rural Rust Belt and Northern Appalachia remain relatively homogenous. No longer sites of middle-class prosperity, these enclaves are becoming increasingly isolated and residents feel as if they are forgotten and ignored. At the same time, we are living in a unique political moment when white working-class individuals living in rural areas have become an urgent focus in the social sciences. This evolving milieu offers limited opportunities for social mobility and few avenues to articulate an identity tied to class status and/or place. The study uses ethnographic methods to better understand how young people in a rural place use media in making sense of identity, moral boundaries, and politics within the context of a changing yet enduring community. This work contributes to the need for more research beyond “the Rust Belt Diner” genre of journalism that often focuses on conservative white working-class adults and broadens the scope to focus on youth transitioning to adulthood with an emphasis on media as an institution. Ultimately, this dissertation considers how white working-class youth use media to make sense of, engage in, and/or challenge our social world in everyday life.2033-05-1
The Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Passenger Hub Airport Abandonment by Legacy US Carriers
Get PDFSince the United States' 1978 Airline Deregulation Act, the legacy commercial air transport industry followed two significant and interdependent trends: a shift to hub-and-spoke network operations and air carrier consolidation. However, as airlines merge operations through consolidation, they rationalize routes, aircraft fleet and facilities to maximize efficiency and reduce costs. This includes abandoning redundant hub airports.Research on airlines and airports demonstrate the overall positive impact of aviation deregulation including reduced airfares and greater accessibility. As a result, United States national policy makers review airline consolidation proposals through the lens of competition and market concentration. Available literature regarding the impact of hub abandonment through consolidation is very limited. This dissertation addresses that gap in the literature
The Perceptions of Writers with Learning Disabilities: What Helps Them Write in College
Get PDFThis study examined the perceptions of college writers with learning disabilities (LD) toward their writing challenges and effective instructional strategies. The study also investigated the perceptions of composition faculty and writing program administrators. College writers with LD may be considered invisible, as they do not always disclose their disabilities to their professor or to an office of disability services on their campus. A qualitative design was used to capture the participants’ voices and experiences. Interviews were conducted with student and faculty participants. Results showed several students with LD displayed low self-efficacy and expressed self-doubts in their abilities to write, revise, or peer review. Some writers with LD also showed a lack of goal setting and difficulty in adopting powerful strategies to attain goals. In addition, some students reported having prewriting, translating, and revising difficulties. As for strategies, student and faculty participants in this study confirmed that feedback on student drafts may be significant for the writing development of writers with LD. Although the request for feedback voiced by writers with LD mirrored that of typical students, some students with LD reported they needed more support in managing instructor feedback. Student and faculty participants also confirmed that conferences may be significant for supporting students with LD who may have a more intense need to meet with their professors. Some faculty, however, reported that heavy workloads may hinder their ability to conference with students. In addition, data in this study showed that writers with LD found scaffolding very helpful in completing writing tasks. Students in this study also reported that peer review is reassuring and helpful in showing them what needs improvement, although they lacked confidence in giving peer feedback and were concerned they may hurt their peers’ feelings. Students with LD in this study also confirmed that meeting regularly with a tutor was instrumental in their writing progress. Implications for practice and research are discussed
Assessing Dental Care Utilization and Health Outcomes among Homeless Women of Reproductive Age
Get PDFThe purpose of this dissertation was to explore dental care utilization and oral health among women of reproductive age in the United States (U.S.) as well as examine adverse pregnancy and postpartum health outcomes in women who experienced homelessness before or around pregnancy. Study 1 examined associations between dental healthcare utilization, adverse dental health outcomes (e.g., tooth loss) and mental health conditions, sociodemographic characteristics, and health-related and behavioral factors among non-pregnant women of reproductive age (18-44 years) using parametric and machine learning methodologies based on data from the 2016, 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Study 2 used data from the 2012-2018 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) to examine associations between dental care utilization during pregnancy and social and behavioral determinants of health, along with dental health factors among homeless and non-homeless pregnant women in the U.S. Study 3 was a systematic review that examined pregnancy and postpartum outcomes among women who experienced homelessness before or around pregnancy
Computational Approach to Understanding Signaling Pathways Underlying Functional and Structural Plasticity of CA1 Dendritic Spines
Get PDFThis work is embargoed by the author and will not be publicly available until August 2025.Memory is the ongoing, cognitive process of retaining information over time. Episodic memories, memories associated with events and facts, have long been associated with the hippocampus. CA1 neurons of the hippocampus are critically involved in formation, consolidation, and retrieval of hippocampal-dependent memories. It has been proposed that memories are encoded by modification of synaptic strength such as long-term potentiation (LTP), which is the experience-dependent change in connection strength between neurons. LTP requires the release of neurotransmitters by the pre-synaptic neuron to depolarize the post-synaptic neuron and initiate multiple processes in the post-synaptic neuron. This ultimately yields structural modification of the spine, i.e., an increase in spine volume due to actin polymerization and insertion of new receptors into the spine plasma membrane. Supporting and maintaining the structural changes of the spine requires the synthesis of new proteins. Synthesized proteins are involved in the enlargement and stabilization of existing synapses as well as the construction of new synaptic contacts. Structural changes allow the spine to hold more receptors thus increasing depolarization in response to synaptic input, the read-out of LTP. Multiple signaling pathways regulate these processes. Protein synthesis is initiated through transcription factor activation in the cell body, mediated by the Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase (ERK) cascade. Structural change is due to actin reorganization which is partly mediated by cofilin activation. Using computational modeling of biochemical reactions and diffusion, we investigate the molecular networks underlying these two signaling pathways to understand LTP induction. We show that the ERK signaling pathway selectively responds to different temporal patterns of inputs depending on which combination of inputs are active. We also show that the dynamics of cofilin can predict LTP occurrence and the spreading of upstream molecules facilitates cofilin activation in nearby spines. Together these results contribute to advances in understanding the molecular mechanism of signaling pathways in synaptic plasticity and can support future discoveries into developing treatments of neurological disorders related to memory storage.2025-08-1
NextG MEC Coordinated Resilient Cyber-Physical System Services
No full textThis dissertation has been embargoed by the author and will not be available until 2027-05-31.Cyber-physical systems fueled by NextG are rapidly adopted to sense, compute, control, and network the underlying physical system. However, components in different domains have different processing, network bandwidth, handling capability, and idiosyncrasies of its protocols. These differences induce the challenge of having secured communication among such components. For such secured communication, the TLS(Transport Layer Security) protocol is heavily used to an extent called the core building block for Internet security.First, recognizing that the current form of TLS cannot be universally applied due to the constraint imposed by devices, this dissertation extends TLS 1.3 with implicit certificates. This addition can serve domains with constrained devices with limited power and networking capacity without compromising security. This is done by decreasing the size of the certificate but with that has high-security strength with lesser bits and fully complying with TLS 1.3. Secondly, this research addresses ways to determine and address algorithms for onboard units (OBUs) of NextG connected vehicles' OBU under-performance and their remedies to complete driving missions. This is done by enhancing priority queue-based message processing algorithm at OBUs with an approximation algorithm that estimates the number of vehicles that the OBU’s CPU can process in real-time estimates. Finally, we show a scheme to move local traffic controllers to NextG Multi-edge Access servers (MEC). This work uses multiple features of NextG such as Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLCC) and mmWave radios, short delays, and large bandwidth, which enables local, low latency high throughput transmissions. This work is based on recent cellular vehicle to Everything(C-V2X) specifications
Developing Redox-active Polymers for Sustainable Alkali-ion Batteries
No full textThis work is embargoed by the author and will not be publicly available until May 2028.Due to the great electrochemical performance and durability, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have dominated the energy storage market since their launch in the 1990s. To date, as we move towards carbon neutrality by extensively utilizing renewable energy sources, state-of-the-art LIBs based on expensive and toxic inorganic electrode materials cannot meet the ever-growing demand for cost-effective, high-performance, environmentally benign, recyclable, and sustainable energy storage. The revolutionary design for energy storage devices in consumer electronics, electric transportation, and grid-scale energy storage systems is imperative. However, lithium resources and transition metals (nickel and cobalt) are unevenly distributed in the earth’s crust and not strategically accessible for all countries. This makes them more expensive compared to other industrial metals. In contrast, sodium and potassium resources are promising for developing next-generation rechargeable batteries owing to their low cost, abundance, high sustainability, and high similarity to lithium. The rocking chair redox mechanism in LIBs extends to Na-ion batteries (NIBs) and K-ion batteries (KIBs). Nevertheless, conventional inorganic electrode materials do not extend their high performance in LIBs to NIBs and KIBs because of the larger sizes and more complicated intercalation chemistries of Na+/K+. To address this challenge and achieve high-performance alkali-ion batteries, developing organic electrode materials (OEMs) consisting of lightweight elements and flexible chemical structures offer numerous opportunities. The abundant and diverse organic synthetic pathways allow tuning and optimizing the structures of OEMs by adding different redox-active sites with various conformations. In addition, polymerization is a promising approach to suppressing the solubility of small organic molecules in organic electrolytes. Redox-active polymers (RAPs) with flexible long chains offer fast reaction kinetics and rapid electron transfer, resulting in great cyclic performances. The chemical architecture of the RAPs is a key factor to determine their electrochemical performance. Therefore, understanding the structure-property relationship is vital to enable the rational structural design of high-performance RAPs. In this study, insights into the correlation between the chemical structure and electrochemical performance of RAPs in alkali-ion batteries were gained. Various organic synthetic pathways were leveraged to incorporate multiple functional groups and extended π-conjugation structures in the repeating unit of the polymers. Several characterization methods such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), etc. were utilized to confirm the chemical structure, verify the redox mechanism, and evaluate the stability of polymer electrodes. The electrochemical performance of the designed cells was measured by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD), galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results show that the rational design of RAPs with multiple functional groups and a stable framework affords multi-electron redox reactions, high capacity, long cycling performance, and fast charging capability. The designed polymers can serve as high-performance cathode materials in sustainable NIBs and KIBs.2028-05-1
Toward a New Model for Disciplinary Literacy Instruction: Reuniting Reading and Writing as Co-equal Literacies with the WAC/WID Balanced Disciplinary Literacy Instruction Model
No full textThis work is embargoed by the author and will not be publicly available until August 2028.While Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), Writing in the Disciplines (WID), and writing studies have spent a considerable time and effort on conceptualizing writing as a situated practice and improving writing instruction as curricular reform, scholarship and professional development have paid less attention to reading as part of disciplinary literacy over the last 50 years. This dissertation explores reading as a part of an integrated practice of disciplinary literacy instruction. It proposes a model to help instructors and faculty development leaders conceptualize aspects of reading literacy and of transparent reading instruction that have been elided in the field’s focus on writing. The WAC/WID Balanced Literacy Instruction Model I introduce in this dissertation envisions reading and writing as literacies that are co-equal and are situated in and bounded by the epistemology of a disciplinary discourse community. It balances the already well-established Elements of Disciplinary Writing Literacy with Elements of Disciplinary Reading Literacy. The Model was grounded in a qualitative study of the practices of four instructors who taught writing-intensive (WI) courses within their disciplines and was influenced by the literature of discourse psychology, literacy studies, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and writing studies. A dialogic exploration of data from participants’ interviews and course documents and from scholarly literature illuminated the five Elements of Disciplinary Reading Literacy that I used to examine faculty practices. The findings from the study reveal that reading is a complex literacy practice and that faculty literacy instruction varied. While many of the Elements of Writing Literacy were supported with explicit writing instruction, faculty’s integration of cognitive, affective, and metacognitive Elements of Reading Literacy fell along a continuum. Faculty who acknowledged and taught reading as a disciplinary practice seemed to design courses, develop assignments, and employ pedagogies that helped students more fully engage in both the reading and writing work of the discipline. Thus, this dissertation’s findings suggest that the Model could be used by faculty development leaders and WAC programs for professional development that 1) fosters a reclamation of reading as a literacy as important as writing in disciplinary discourse communities and 2) helps faculty develop transparent reading instruction practices to support disciplinary literacy acquisition. The Model provides a tool to reunite and balance reading and writing through a heuristic that honors both reading and writing as co-equal disciplinary literacies.2028-08-1
Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar Burned Area Detection Using Expectation Maximization in a Multiscale Approach
Get PDFThis research explores wildfire burn mapping using Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery for the 2021 Woods Creek Fire in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana and the 2021 French Fire near Lake Isabella in Kern County California. Sentinel-1 SAR imagery is used since it can be collected during most weather conditions as well as in heavy smoke and is useful in the upper latitudes where wildfires often occur. Both the ascending and descending orbits as well as the co-polarity (VV) and cross-polarity (VH) are evaluated. The increase of wildfire occurrence is the result of lower precipitation and fuel moisture content as a result of climate change. The methodology by which SAR imagery detects wildfire burns is adapted to use SAR imagery from Google Earth Engine (GEE) and a method provided by the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF). This method utilizes a stationary wavelet transform and math morphology to process imagery at various scales and expectation maximization in order to generate change classes. The resulting burn area is compared to Sentinel-2 differenced Normalized Burn Area (dNBR) and MODIS Burned Area. The ascending orbits of Sentinel-1 burned areas provided the best results compared to those of the descending orbits likely due to the limited ability of GEE to radiometrically terrain correct SAR imagery
Reconfigurable FET Approximate Computing-based Accelerator for Deep Learning Applications
Get PDFArtificial Intelligence (AI) has recently surged in the last few years, facilitating revolutionary state-of-the-art solutions in healthcare, banking, data & business analytics, transportation, retail, and much more. The tremendous increase in data to deliver AI solutions has led to the need for ML acceleration, enabling improved performance, efficient realtime processing, scalability, energy, and cost efficiency. In recent years, active research has been on ML acceleration using FPGAs, GPUs, and ASICs. ASIC-based ML accelerators have superior performance, reduced latency, energy-efficient and cost-efficient compared to their counterparts. However, the traditional CMOS-based ASIC accelerator lacks flexibility leading to reconfigurability overheads. The hardware’s reconfigurability enables multiple functionalities per computational unit with less resource consumption. Emerging transistor technology devices such as FinFETs, RFETs, and Memristors are adopted in designing accelerators to facilitate reconfigurability at to the transistor level. Furthermore, some of these devices, such as Memristors, also support storage along with computations. Among multiple emerging devices, the recent research on reconfigurable nanotechnologies such as Silicon Nanowire Reconfigurable Field Effect Transistors (SiNW RFET) serve as a promising technology that not only facilitates lower power consumption but also supports multi-functionality through reconfigurability. It enables reconfigurability and supports multiple functionalities per computational unit. These features motivate us to design a novel state-of-the-art energy-efficient hardware accelerator for implementing memory-intensive applications, including convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and deep neural networks (DNNs). To accelerate the computations, we design Multiply and Accumulate (MAC) units to perform the computations. For the design of MAC units, we employ Silicon nanowire reconfigurable FETs (RFETs). The use of RFETs leads to nearly 70% power reduction compared to the traditional CMOS implementation and also reduced latency in performing the computations. Further, to optimize the overheads and improve memory efficiency, we introduce a novel approximation technique for RFETs. The RFET-based approximate adders lead to reduced power, area, and delay while having a minimal impact on the accuracy of the DNN/CNN. In addition, we carry out a detailed study of varied combinations of architectures involving CMOS, RFETs, accurate adders, and approximate adders to demonstrate the benefits of the proposed RFET-based approximate accelerator. The proposed RFET-based accelerator achieves an accuracy of 94% on MNIST datasets with 93% and 73%reduction in the area, power and delay metrics, respectively compared to the state-of-the- art hardware accelerator architectures