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The Art of Boiling Water
No full textThis thesis is a memoir, told in the form of a series of personal essays that examine how love and loyalty exist alongside abuse and misunderstanding in the narrator’s family. The narrator explores her own vulnerability and culpability and is sustained by her love for writing as well as her love for the natural world. Alongside the family narrative are accounts of the narrator’s exploration of wild spaces, revealing how families and ecosystems are vulnerable to contamination: just as water and soil can be polluted by toxins, or animals killed by human carelessness, so too families can be poisoned and broken by a history of physical and emotional abuse.This thesis has been embargoed for 10 years. It will not be available until May 2032 at the earliest
Big Fun
No full textThis thesis comprises roughly the first half of the in-progress novel Big Fun. It is told from two perspectives: Minji Choi, a university drop-out hikikomori, and Simon Koo, a recently fired philosophy professor. When Simon loses his wife’s cherished beagle, he steals Minji’s beagle, thinking it is the same dog. Before Simon can return the dog to Minji, it is kidnapped by his former students who hold the dog for ransom. Not wanting to be found out about kidnapping the dog in the first place, Simon secretly passes the ransom notes along to Minji. As Minji struggles to overcome her depression and find her dog, and as Simon struggles to save his marriage and recover professionally, one unlikely event after another brings their paths together into a big mess.This thesis has been embargoed for 10 years. It will not be available until April 2032 at the earliest
Decadal Trends in Regional Drought, and Its Connection with Wildfire Burn Severity in California
Get PDFSignificant increases in wildfire events in the western United States along with longer and more intense periods of drought have been a focus of climate scientists for the last several decades. This thesis will investigate the relationship between wildfire burn severity, and monthly and seasonal drought. The scope of this investigation is as follows: Does a significant relationship exist between total acres burned and drought in California, as measured by Palmer and Standard Precipitation drought indices? Using statistical significance testing, a relationship is analyzed over a thirty-six-year time frame (1984-
2019), connecting burn severity acreage, with regional accumulated drought indices. The regional area of study is defined by fires and drought overlapping, and within the boundary of California. When sampling at the highest frequency of monthly intervals from 1984-2019, significant correlation is not found when comparing the entire dataset of drought versus total acres burned by wildfire. However, targeted time-scales yield significant correlations when evaluating drought and total acres burned at 3 month seasonal intervals, especially with spring and summer (March-September). Similar results demonstrated strong correlation coefficients with consecutive off-set seasonal comparisons
TAJIKISTAN’S DIASPORIC TRANSNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: COALESCENCE AND COOPTATION
No full textThis work is embargoed by the author and will not be publicly available until August 2033.This dissertation examines the intersection of transnational social movements and internet activism in an authoritarian context. Benedict’s Anderson’s foundational theory of imagined communities is captured in the internet age as diasporas connect and reconnect, reifying and reimagining the community through social media. Continuous communication between Tajikistan’s large diaspora in Russia and Europe is facilitated through information and communication technology (ICT). Families communicate via cell phone, internet, Skype, Viber, Telegram, or WhatsApp and provide a flow of income to extended family through ICT. ‘Real life’ is not erased, but life online and offline merge. Social remittances, as explained by Peggy Levitt, are “the ideas, behaviors, identities and social capital that flow from receiving-to-sending communities” circulate among diaspora groups and back home, creating transnational networks. These networks include internet activism primarily through social media platforms. Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink previously examined transnational activism and international systems, discovering that transnational networks caused shifts in state behavior in favor of human rights and social movements in the context of Latin America. The development of digital platforms has accelerated the ability of transnational activists to build connections and enabled them to harness or create political opportunities similar to the ones documented by Keck and Sikkink. Tajikistan’s diaspora groups are emboldened by the availability of social media to create a critical public sphere for journalists, activists, civil society, and social movements in the context of Tajikistan’s autocracy. Morozov, Kendzior, and Tufekci, however, warn against the assumption of social media as a panacea to authoritarianism. Social media is a tool that can be manipulated and weaponized. I explore how Tajikistan’s transnational activists leverage ICT, harnessing new repertoires of action and the employment of social media strategies. I find that contrary to Keck and Sikkink’s examination, ICT causes fragmentation of Tajikistan’s civil society and social movements. I reexamine Benedict Anderson’s theory of imagined communities and apply the possibility of an unimagined community, which Callan explains as transnational dissent outside of the confines of spatial community—a simulation of community via digital technology. This project contributes to a Cultural Studies understanding of how digital and social media are utilized in the cultural production of activism and diaspora, as well as to an understanding of social movements and their impacts in Eurasia and authoritarianism.2033-08-1
Town as Text: Harriet Jacobs and the Architecture of Literary and Historical Memory in Edenton, North Carolina
Get PDFIn her Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs’s relationships with and toward the constructed, physical spaces around her—plantation houses, hidden crawl spaces, jails, and churches—are intentionally obscured to create a patina of anonymity in her writing, yet the relational distance between and among locations nevertheless creates a map of an antebellum Edenton, North Carolina—the town of her enslavement—that can be read alongside her prose. Against this half-real, half-literary cartography sits presentday Edenton, where her work and life are signified more by their absence in the face of predominantly colonial and antebellum historical markers placed downtown and accompanying well-preserved architecture of Edenton’s elite. Jacobs’s use of both strategically abstract location markers, along with abolitionist rhetorical devices aimed at Northern White audiences, suggest that she is keenly conscious of her ability to shield Edenton by what she omits as much as what she shares, and thus asserts the power she has to literally name names. Her decision not to is a threat as much as an anonymizing tool for conceptualizing Edenton for abolitionist readers as an “everytown.” However, the Edenton outside of her text is not every town—its specific traits unique to the region both contributed to her escape and caused the climate that necessitated the departure. Jacobs further uses her Edenton as a stand-in for all other slaveholding communities, a metonymic tactic which urges the reader to scrutinize their own towns and, in doing so, to condemn the institution of chattel slavery
Effect of Elevated Temperature on Hydraulic Conductivity of Bentonite-Polymer Composite Geosynthetic Clay Liner to Saline Solutions
Get PDFThis thesis has been embargoed for 2 years. It will not be available until July 2023 at the earliest.Current regulation established for disposal of solid waste (e.g., municipal solid waste, and coal combustion residuals) requires disposal facilities to include a composite liner system consisting of a geomembrane overlying a 0.6-m-thick clay liner. Geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) provide a sustainable alternative to use of in lieu of a conventional clay liner, due to benefits of GCLs having low hydraulic conductivity (< 1 x 10-10 m/s), thin to save air space, and easy to install. GCL consists of one layer of sodium bentonite sandwiched between two layers of geotextile that can be woven or non-woven. These GCLs can be modified through addition of polymerized bentonite, called bentonite polymer composite (BPC), to improve the chemical compatibility of GCLs against aggressive landfill leachates. Due to biodegradation of waste materials, each landfill has an associated temperature gradient that describes an increase in temperature with an increase in depth of the landfill causing leachate within to become hotter with depth of the landfill (Yeşiller, N., and Hanson, J. L. 2003). So far, limited study has investigated the effect of elevated temperatures on the hydraulic conductivity of BPC GCLs Four commercial GCLs were evaluated in this study, including three BPC GCLs and one Na-B GCLs. One BPC GCL consists of bentonite modified with cross-linked polymer and the other two BPC GCLs have liner polymer additives. Hydraulic conductivity tests were conducted with DI water, 20 mM CaCl2 and 50 mM CaCl2 solutions at temperatures of 20 oC, 35 oC, and 60 oC. Swell index tests (ASTM D5890) were conducted to analyze the swelling of BPC compared to Na-B at elevated temperatures. Viscosity tests were conducted to analyze rheology of BPC exposed to DI water, 20 mM CaCl2 and 50 mM CaCl2 solutions at elevated temperatures. Both linear polymers produced an increase in hydraulic conductivity permeated with 50 mM CaCl2 at elevated temperatures, however, BPC GCLs exposed to high temperatures show increase in swell index that can potentially affect hydraulic conductivity results. Additionally, viscosity of permeant solution decreases allowing more polymer to be flushed causing an increase in hydraulic conductivity. The cross link GCL showed little to no change in hydraulic conductivity with change in temperature, however, the elevated temperature test showed a reduction in overall polymer eluted. These observations indicated that the hydrogel swell allowed for less polymer to be eluted during permeation because of the larger size clogging polymer hydrogels between bentonite granules.2023-07-1
Disturbing Images Bisection Timing Task in Psychopathy and Impulsive Traits
Get PDFThe proposed study is designed to explore the intersection of psychopathy and impulsivity with time perception. The focus of this research was to understand the impact of disturbing images on the psychopathic population compared to the norm. Reasoning being the limited research and findings connecting psychopathy and time perception. Participants completed a Dark Triad test and the Barratt Impulsiveness scale. They then underwent a bisection timing task that presented disturbing images following will be neutral images. Results from this experiment showed no correlation between the bisection point effect and coefficient of variation effect between neutral and negative images in relation to the psychopathy results of the Dark Triad test or Barratt Impulsiveness scale. There was a positive correlation between psychopathy and impulsiveness. Lastly, there was an effect where negative faces made participants less precise than neutral faces.This thesis has been embargoed for 2 years. It will not be available until December 2024 at the earliest
Solitary Diversion: Reforming Restricted Housing Units for Individuals with Severe Mental Health Diagnoses
Get PDFPennsylvania is the sixth largest carceral system in the US and confines over 40,000 people across their prisons. From 2014 through 2016, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PADOC) experienced concurrent external pressure from the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania to rethink how they punished in-prison rule-breaking and confined individuals with severe mental health diagnoses (SMHD) inside their segregation units. Following both an investigation by the US Department of Justice and a settlement agreement with Disability Rights Network, PADOC operationalized legal agreements into several policy reforms for individuals with severe mental health diagnoses. These policy reforms included: (1) using disciplinary segregation as a last resort, and when using it, reserving it for the most serious rule-breaking offenses; (2) when an individual is sentenced to segregation, placing them in a new Diversionary Treatment Unit (DTU) and changing the "look and feel" of this new unit to include more out-of-cell time, access to group therapy and increased contacts with psychology staff, and; (3) sentencing individuals to the new DTU only for 30-days and releasing individuals earlier when appropriate and as bed space allows in general population. Using both administrative misconduct data and interview data from individuals confined in the DTU and staff working in the DTU, this dissertation considers the degree to which PADOC met each of the specific disciplinary segregation policy reforms. Importantly, this dissertation considers the totality of the progress on these policy reforms and offers a broader discourse about the realities of externally mandated change, the importance of intersectionality as a lens for talking about incarcerated individuals with SMHD, and the need to reconceptualize punishment for, arguably, the most vulnerable carceral population – individuals with severe mental health diagnoses
Set Membership with Accumulators or Signatures
Get PDFVerifying the presence or absence of an element in a set S becomes costly as the set grows. This work presents cryptographic schemes that achieve scalability by compressing the set into a concise digest and using proofs to delegate the increasing cost to a prover. We study further optimizations such as improving computation costs for the prover when the digest is trusted and further limiting the frequency of proof updates when the proofs refer to membership. We also decentralize the trust needed for maintaining the digest when no significant amount of element deletions is expected and achieve privacy against trusted entities who maintain the digest. Regarding fully decentralized settings that do not rely on trust, we present further optimizations through batch proofs for multiple elements that form a set I with verification costs independent from the size of I. Such techniques also apply to the centralized setting. In both settings, we discuss how a prover can avoid disclosing the element(s) of the proof, achieving privacy against a verifier or any outsider. When proving for multiple elements, we describe techniques for proving a stronger statement: only disclose the number of the elements while keeping the elements hidden and verification independent from |I|. Finally, we construct schemes that achieve stronger privacy even against insiders, meaning the rest of the membership proof holders, in the strong, decentralized setting
Cross Domain Reasoning Based on Graph Deep Learning
Get PDFCross domain reasoning has garnered significant attention as a cutting-edge yet challenging research area with numerous practical applications. On the other hand, representing pairwise information via Graph Structure is gaining popularity due to combining ideas from mathematics, physics, biology, computer science, statistics, and many other areas. Cross domain reasoning of graph deep learning, brings the challenges such as heterogeneous knowledge integration, implicit knowledge mining restricted by various cognitive theory-driven constraints, spatio-temporal relation utilization, and problems of tractability and optimization. Therefore, the general goal of this research is to develop the graph deep learning models for cross domain reasoning. To solve the above problems, there are two main aims to be achieved: (1) multi-task learning and (2) task relation reasoning. To achieve these two goals, we proposed four unique models (DETECTIVE, DynAttGraph2Seq, RAPTA, DeepGAR) which have the capabilities of capturing heterogeneous spatiotemporal relationships, dealing with incomplete data, integrating existing rules, and transferring knowledge. Extensive experiments were conducted on synthetic and real-world datasets to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed models for real-world applications including but not limited to static timing analysis, healthcare, spatiotemporal event forecasting, analogical reasoning, etc