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A Study of Ultrafast, Intense-field Photodynamics in Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Disulfide, and Select Substituted Benzenes
Get PDFThe study of the photodynamics of molecules in ultrashort pulses of intense radiation continues to be of interest. Electric field strengths in such pulses can approach or exceed the typical electric field strengths binding the electrons to the nuclear framework (ke/a20 ≈ 5 × 109 V/cm). The resulting excitation, ionization, and dissociation of molecular targets is of interest in many areas including attosecond science, femtochemistry, atmospheric science, high harmonic generation, and many other fields.
This dissertation investigates the photoionization and photofragmentation behavior of carbon dioxide, carbon disulfide, and the substituted benzenes nitrobenzene, aniline, as well as toluene, phenol, and anisole in the gas phase under single-molecule conditions. Using 800 nm, 50-fs laser pulses at intensities ranging from 8 × 1012 W/cm2 to 3 × 1014 W/cm2, time-of-flight mass spectrometry data was collected for each target in the absence of the focal volume effect. For each systematic series, the effect of the different structural parameters are examined. We find many similarities between CO2 and CS2, but find differences beyond single ionization. Comparative analysis of aniline and nitrobenzene highlights how electron-donating versus electron-withdrawing substituents influence stability and fragmentation. In toluene, phenol, and anisole ionization dominates over fragmentation, but differences in yield slopes and REMPI signatures underscore the role of molecular substituents and their impact on intermediate state accessibility.Advisor: Cornelis Uiterwaa
Holding Ground in the Cerulean Tide: Minority Party Legislators\u27 Strategies for Advancing Climate Policies in Landslide States
Get PDFThis dissertation addresses a key puzzle: Why do states sometimes adopt nationally polarized policies, such as climate change legislation, even when doing so does not align with strict partisan interests? The analysis focuses on “landslide states,” where a single party overwhelmingly dominates, and the minority party cannot realistically expect to gain a majority. In these environments, reduced partisan conflict allows minority party legislators to break from traditional partisan paths. As a result, I argue that electoral motivations drive them to signal moderation by advancing liberal policy agendas or incorporating provisions that minimize backlash from their core constituents in landslide states. In Chapter 2, I examine how Republican minority party legislators in liberal landslide states introduce climate change bills. Findings show that electorally safe Republicans propose incentive‐based policies to appeal to both partisan and moderate voters, but electorally vulnerable Republicans introduce regulatory provisions favored by the moderate constituency, hoping to broaden their electoral base in liberal landslide states. Chapter 3 builds on the analysis of bill advancements by examining how minority party legislators advance their bills. In liberal landslide states, vulnerable Republican legislators strategically align their cosponsored bills combined with preferences of key pivotal actors, thereby signaling moderation, circumventing majority‐party gatekeeping, and improving reelection prospects based on legislative success. Conversely, in competitive states—where partisan polarization is higher—electorally safe Republicans are more successful at moving legislation forward, largely because they can invest the necessary time and resources to navigate the legislative process. Chapter 4 then shifts to final policy adoption, specifically examining Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). Overall, liberal state ideology drives RPS innovation; however, non‐renewable clauses and regulatory policies serve as strategic tools for Republican legislators. By incorporating different policy designs, Republican minority party members can maintain ideological consistency while still appealing to moderate voters in landslide states. Taken together, these findings suggest that landslide environments enable minority party legislators to adopt more moderate strategies from bill introduction to policy adoption to achieve legislative success. Ultimately, electoral considerations and strategic positioning—rather than strict partisan loyalty—play crucial roles in shaping policies at the state level.Advisor: Geoff Loren
The Ballad of the Wheel
Get PDFThe Ballad of the Wheel is a piece for voice, percussion, and electronics that examines the cyclical nature of humanity. It draws texts from existential literature that spans almost all of recorded history, from antiquity to present day. In this work, a single narrator poses the same concerns about the nature of existence in different texts, revealing that questions about the meaning of life transcend boundaries of time and space. The prevalence of the theme of reincarnation also suggests that each movement of the piece presents a different manifestation of a single being. The Ballad of the Wheel implies a narrative in which one soul wrestles with their own existence across multiple lifetimes as they progress from panic and despair to a place of clarity and optimism.Advisor: Greg Simo
Mass of Perpetual Indulgence
Get PDFMass of Perpetual Indulgence for chamber orchestra, electronics, soprano solo, and drag performer was written to bridge the gap between queerness and spirituality, to sanctify queer people and celebrate queer lives and communities. Amalgamating musical styles ranging from disco to opera, art song to EDM, this appropriation of the traditional Mass blurs the lines between the sacred and the profane. This work features original text by librettist Caroliena Cabada that responds to the narrative of the Mass Ordinary from a distinctly queer perspective. Ultimately, this work celebrates the queer body as a holy body, queer community as a sacred communion, and carnal pleasure as a consecrated sacrament.Advisor: Greg Simo
An American Song Cycle: A Performance Guide to \u3cem\u3eThe Rim of Love\u3c/em\u3e by Andrea Clearfield
Get PDFPhiladelphia-based American female composer Andrea Clearfield (b. 1960) arranged the cantata The Rim of Love into a song cycle for soprano and piano, featuring poetry written by Manfred Fischbeck (1940–2021). Fischbeck and Clearfield met in 1985 while both on faculty at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where they cultivated a lifelong creative partnership and friendship, along with being romantic partners for 20 years.
Clearfield has composed over 170 works, including opera, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, chorus, and orchestra. In 2005, the nonprofit mentoring program Astral Artists, based out of Philadelphia, commissioned Clearfield to compose The Rim of Love, to be premiered on March 31st, 2006, at the Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The premiere included soprano Disella Larusdotter with the orchestra Symphony in C, conducted by Rossen Milanov. Clearfield arranged the cantata into a song cycle for soprano and piano the same year.
The Rim of Love for soprano and piano is a four-movement song cycle featuring the poems CLIFF, CANYON, EDGE, and RIM. The document analyzes the unique thematic motifs, text painting, and interpersonal relationship Clearfield has with the poetry and how, as a composer, she was able to bring her experiences with Fischbeck, detailed in his poetry, to musical life. This connection makes the song cycle autobiographical, as Clearfield reflected on her real-life experiences to create the motifs, melodies, and harmonies. Clearfield intertwines her motivic golden nuggets into the dense interpretation of each song within the cycle.Advisor: Jamie Reime
ANALYTICAL FACTORS BOOSTING STAFF TRAINING IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA – A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
No full textThis paper examined some factors that would boost staff training in university libraries in Ekiti State, Nigeria. A review research design was adopted. Training has been the integral part of any organization that desired to be productive in its services; therefore, university libraries have been embarking on training and capacity enhancement for their employees so as to boost and promote productivity and overall performance of their workforce. To this end, the following factors could contribute to staff training in any library especially the university libraries that are our focus in this paper: training budget and budget, conducive training environment, effective training techniques, managerial support, favorable training atmosphere, trainee motivation, adequate training resources, and trainee’s attitude. Each of these listed factors shall be succinctly discussed in this paper. The paper concluded that the management of every university library is advised to implement factors that would positively boost the capacity building of its workers as these would enable them [library staff] to be more effective in discharging their duties towards library users in meeting their information needs. This would enable the library to attain a greater height in delivering robust and effective services to the best interest of the library patrons
Large Scale Deletion and Rebalancing within the k1C Kafirin Family in Sorghum
No full textSorghum bicolor (L.) Monech (sorghum) is cultivated as food for humans and livestock and is valued for its low input requirements. However, sorghum grain protein is deficient in the essential amino acid lysine and has poor protein digestibility because of the abundance of proline-rich kafirins that constitute \u3e70% of proteins that form low-digestibility protein bodies. To reduce kafirin expression in the endosperm, and elicit wholesale proteome rebalancing to increase non-kafirin proteins, a single-guide RNA (sgRNA) Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR/Cas9) construct was previously used to target members of the highly-repetitive alpha-kafirin family, k1C in RTx430 sorghum. The current study was conceived to evaluate nutritional and biophysical characteristics of two sorghum lines with k1C family deletions compared to unedited RTx430. Despite confirming a ~400 kb deletion in the k1C family of both edited lines encompassing seven active genes (SbiRTX430.05G198600, SbiRTX430.05G198800, SbiRTX430.05G202500, SbiRTX430.05G202600, SbiRTX430.05G202700, SbiRTX430.05G202800, and SbiRTX430.05G203000) we observed no significant decrease in k1C expression or compensatory increase in non-kafirins. We observed a significant increase in protein-bound amino acids in both k1C-deleted lines and in both edited lines relative to unedited RTx430 which increased seed protein in one line. Protein bodies were observed to be more irregularly shaped with seeds retaining near wild-type levels of vitreous endosperm. RNA IsoSeq was performed to assess the expression of the k1C family and capture differentially-expressed non-kafirin genes. We observed that five k1C members had biologically significant expression with only two k1C members not deleted with elevated expression in lines with the deletion. The results of this study demonstrate the ability of CRISPR/Cas9 editing of kafirins to elicit changes to the amino acid profile of sorghum and increase protein. Moreover, the results demonstrate an extreme example of the ability of highly repetitive regions like the k1C subfamily to compensate the effects of CRISPR-induced multigene deletions.
Advisor: David R. Holdin
The Connection Between an Unequitable Distribution of Care Responsibilities and a Widening Gender Nutrition Gap in Latin America
No full textThe notion of care refers to activities that satisfy the basic needs of existence and reproduction. Within rural communities, care work such as the production and preparation of food contributes to food security at the household level. Care work supports the paid workforce, allowing workers to focus on commercial productive activities that generate economic income in rural communities. Women perform 6.3 to 29.5 more hours per week than men in unpaid care work, reducing their time for income-generating activities and personal nutrition management. Affecting their economic independence and ability to access and consume nutritious food. Studies show that in food-insecure households, women often prioritize feeding other family members over themselves (FAO, 2023).
This thesis argues that the unequitable distribution of unpaid care responsibilities significantly contributes to the widening gender nutrition gap in Latin America. By limiting women’s access to economic opportunities, decision-making power and time for self-care, excessive care burdens perpetuate food insecurity among women and girls. Addressing this issue requires integrating gender-transformative policies and programs
Low-Level Polarimetric Signatures of Supercells During EF3+ Tornado Production
No full textMost EF3+ tornadoes are produced by supercells. Understanding of microscale features surrounding intense tornado production remains limited. This research aims to determine commonalities in low-level microphysical processes during intense tornado production via polarimetric radar signature assessment with a Python-based algorithm. Polarimetric variables hypothesized to reflect low-level wind profiles such as the differential reflectivity (ZDR) arc and the ZDR–KDP (specific differential phase) separation vector will be investigated. Supercells which produced EF3+ tornadoes will be examined since these tornadoes pose the highest threat. From 2010 to 2024, the United States recorded approximately 19,100 tornadoes which resulted in 1,260 fatalities. Of these tornadoes, only 476 (~2.5%) were rated EF3+, but these tornadoes were responsible for 1,076 (~85%) of the fatalities.
ZDR arc area and magnitude, as well as large ZDR–KDP separation vectors with orientations nearing 90o orthogonal to storm motion may indicate strong low-level vertical wind shear, storm-relative helicity (SRH), or storm-relative inflow. This work will compare these “shear signatures” to low-level mesocyclone (LLM) intensity as diagnosed with normalized rotation (NROT) in the 20 minutes leading up to EF3+ tornadogenesis. It was hypothesized that NROT would increase with increasing ZDR arc area and magnitude, as with lengthening ZDR–KDP separation vectors which approach 90o from storm motion. Maximum ZDR arc area and magnitude, and maximum ZDR–KDP separation were expected at tornadogenesis. ZDR–KDP separation angles were hypothesized to be closest to 90o from storm motion at genesis.
Before genesis, ZDR arcs were slightly larger in size, but maintained mostly the same magnitude of values. ZDR–KDP separation distances briefly shortened, then suddenly increased around genesis time, with the final five minutes yielding a significant result. ZDR–KDP separation angle offsets from 90o orthogonal to storm motion were greater in the 10 minutes prior to genesis, against the hypothesis.
The findings of this research suggest that National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists should not place great emphasis on low-level dual-pol signature evolution in tornado warning operations. Rather, given the more robust statistical significance in NROT differences preceding strong tornadogenesis, rotational metrics in the velocity field should serve as the primary means of diagnosing tornadic threat in real time nowcasting operations.
Advisor: Matthew S. Van Den Broek