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Knotted together through time and place: a reexamination of a seventeenth-century Khorasan carpet
No full textBrückner, MartinJohnson, Laura E.This thesis explores the life of a Khorasan carpet located in Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library’s collection through the seventeenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Although this carpet embodies a vast and complex history involving several imperial cultures and significant changes to its material structure, late nineteenth and early twentieth century Western perspectives have come to define its legacy and interpretation. This thesis critically examines the history of this Khorasan carpet to highlight the imperialist legacies that led to its creation and inform its continued interpretation. This analysis not only shows the historical value of this carpet, but also seeks to take a step away from the limited and problematic nature of its current interpretation and take a step towards decolonizing Western material culture epistemologies about Iranian carpets.M.A.University of Delaware, Winterthur Program in American Material Cultur
Elucidation of the solution synthesis and growth of non-noble metal TE3-type intermetallics (T= Fe, Co; E= Ga, In)
No full textThis article was originally published in Chemistry of Materials. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1113/JP289173
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Chemistry of Materials, copyright © 2025 American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/page/4authors/benefits/index.html#articles-request
This publication is embargoed until September 25, 2026Due to challenging synthetic routes, non-noble metal intermetallic nanomaterials are seldom studied despite having promising thermoelectric, magnetic, and catalytic properties. To initiate these materials’ further study, we present a facile, quick, and modifiable solution-based procedure for the synthesis of FeGa3, CoGa3, CoIn3, and Fe0.5Co0.5Ga3, which are characterized by pXRD, TEM, SEM, EDS, ICP-MS, and XPS. Reaction insights for these isostructural intermetallics demonstrate a reliance on long-chain secondary amines, fast injection rates, as well as select aluminum hydride reductants, such as diisobutylaluminum hydride (DIBAL-H), whereas other strong reductants like alkoxyaluminum hydrides and borohydrides inhibit the formation of Ga-containing intermetallics. Our results suggest that these reactions can be tailored to proceed through either a coreduction or rapid amalgamation (seeded growth) mechanism, in which liquid Ga nanoseeds are formed, followed by rapid diffusion of the first-row transition metals, leading to crystallization of a thermodynamically stable intermetallic. These results lay foundational groundwork for accessing and understanding other underexplored non-noble metal intermetallic nanomaterials, and we believe it may be succeeded by further developments to improve control over composition, morphology, and thus physical properties.The work was supported by the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Delaware as well as the University of Delaware Research Foundation (UDRF). TEM and SEM analyses were conducted at the Keck Center at the University of Delaware. XPS analysis was performed at UD’s Surface Analysis Facility using an instrument sponsored by the National Science Foundation under grant no. CHE-1428149. The authors thank Cameron Armstrong for the discussion of XPS data and Prof. Joel Rosenthal for helpful discussions and advice. The authors also thank the reviewers for their insightful comments and observations, which helped us improve the manuscript
Effect of sulfur amendments on grain arsenic in flooded rice paddy soils
No full textSeyfferth, Angelia L.Arsenic (As) accumulation in rice grain poses substantial human health risks, so finding ways to lower its concentration is critically important. Rice is particularly prone to As accumulation because it is typically grown under flooded management where anaerobic paddy conditions mobilize As from the soil and facilitate plant uptake. Different species of As exist in rice paddy systems with inorganic As (iAs), a Group I carcinogen, being predominant; thus, attention has largely focused on iAs in rice grain. Organic forms of As (oAs) also exist in rice paddies and in rice grain. While some species such as dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) are less acutely toxic to humans than inorganic As, other oAs forms such as dimethyl monothioarsenate (DMMTA) are more cytotoxic than iAs, and emerging evidence suggests that DMMTA may pose a yet unknown risk to humans. Previous research has shown that sulfur (S) amendments can decrease As in rice, but new evidence suggests they may also simultaneously increase DMMTA concentrations. Much of the previous work on S amendments used soils that were highly contaminated with As or/and had unrealistically high levels of S added. To date, the effect of S amendments on grain As in non-contaminated United States (U.S.) soils, is unknown. To evaluate the impact of S-amendments on As in rice, we conducted a pot study with three geochemically distinct paddy soils (e.g. soil texture, pH, total As, and S) obtained from production-scale fields in central Arkansas. The experiment included four treatments in triplicate in each soil: elemental S (300 mg S kg-1), ammonium sulfate (50 mg S kg-1) applied at either preflood or at midseason, and non-amended control. These S levels were chosen because they are in the range that farmers would apply to field-grown rice. Rice was sewn into the soil and amendments were applied at recommended times: preflood elemental S (5 mos. prior to seeding), preflood ammonium sulfate (2 mos. prior to seeding), and midseason ammonium sulfate (at booting d 77-109 after seeding) and grown to grain maturity (d 140-150 after seeding). Each week, porewater and Indicator of Reduction in Soil (IRIS) films were sampled to monitor chemistry over time. Plant tissues were analyzed post-harvest to compare As concentrations among the soils and treatments. In contrast to previous research, none of the S amendments decreased grain As concentrations relative to untreated controls under the conditions used here (i.e., non-contaminated soils with realistic S application rates). The elemental S increased grain As concentrations by 47% in the acidic silt loam soil, while S amendments had no impact on the other soils. Soil had a larger effect on grain As concentrations with coarser-textured soils having higher grain As concentrations than finer-textured soils despite lower total soil As concentrations. The results suggest that S amendments, when applied at recommended rates to soils with background As concentration, are not an effective strategy for limiting total grain As in these three Arkansas rice paddy soils.University of Delaware, Department of Plant and Soil SciencesM.S
Collision Sports and Neurodegenerative Disease: Inclusion of Moderating Risk Factors
No full textThis is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews. The published version of record Buckley, Thomas A., Jaclyn B Caccese, and John J Jela. “Collision Sports and Neurodegenerative Disease: Inclusion of Moderating Risk Factors.” Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, 9900. https://doi.org/10.1249/JES.0000000000000362 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1249/JES.0000000000000362.
Copyright © 2025 by the American College of Sports Medicine. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews articles in the Published Ahead-of-Print section have been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication. However, during copyediting, page composition, or proof review changes may be made that could affect the content.
This article will be embargoed until 05/01/2026.Collision sport participation with repetitive head impacts has been associated with increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases, but also have lower mortality rates for many individual conditions. The role of modifiable risk factors in later life development of neurodegenerative diseases in athletes is a clear knowledge gap and a potential opportunity for interventions to improve health related quality of life.The authors report no funding related to this work. The authors report no conflicts of interest related to this wor
Infant containers: a comprehensive analysis of movement and play affordances, developmental impact, and beliefs of caregivers and clinicians
No full textLobo, Michele A.Infant containers (e.g., jumpers, seats, strollers, and car seats) serve practical roles that are important for caregivers. For example, strollers and car seats can be used for transportation, jumpers and exersaucers for infant entertainment, swings for soothing and sleep, and seats and highchairs for feeding. The time that an infant spends in these devices every day can quickly add up: an infant may eat in a highchair, play in an exersaucer, nap in a swing, and ride in a car seat. This may negatively affect infants’ development and health, as these devices can limit infants’ movement and exploration of the environment. ☐ The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the association between the use of infant containers and infants’ development and physical activity, and to compare parents’ use and beliefs with therapists’ beliefs and educational practices regarding container use. This work aimed to inform professional recommendations and parent education regarding container use. In Aim 1, we conducted a systematic evaluation of the potential movement and play affordances of several container types and reported on the developmental claims made by the manufacturers. We found that containers vary in the affordances they provide for movement and play, with play gyms and exersaucers offering greater affordances, while car seats and carriers offer considerably fewer. Additionally, many containers had developmental claims made by the manufacturers, especially related to motor development and learning. Aim 2 involved cross-sectional surveys for parents and pediatric therapists to evaluate 1) parents’ use of containers, 2) the beliefs of parents and therapists about the impact of containers on infant development, and 3) pediatric therapists’ educational practices regarding container use. This study revealed that prolonged container use was associated with lower fine motor scores on the Ages and Stages Questionnaire 3rd edition (ASQ-3). Additionally, parents and therapists had significantly different beliefs about containers, and therapists’ recommendations about durations for container use differed from parents’ reported use. Moreover, pediatric therapists indicated different approaches to parent education regarding containers, with most recommending parents limit container use to a specific amount of time per day. Aim 3 was a pilot experiment to evaluate the immediate effects of containers and the floor on infants’ physical activity and to explore infants’ interactions with built-in toys. The container types, identified as having different levels of movement affordances in Aim 1, were the exersaucer, floor seat, and car seat. We found that, overall, infants’ physical activity was the highest in the floor condition compared to the exersaucer, floor seat, and car seat. ☐ This dissertation builds on previous research by conducting a comprehensive analysis of the association between container use and infants’ activity and development. It employed a variety of research methods, including content analysis, surveys, and movement analysis with wearable sensors. The findings can enhance parent education regarding containers by identifying gaps between parents’ and pediatric therapists’ beliefs and providing insight into the effects of varying container types on infants’ development and physical activity.University of Delaware, Department of Physical TherapyPh.D.University of Delaware, Biomechanics and Movement Science Progra
TRANSPORT MODELLING USING IN-VITRO AND COMPUTATIONAL APPROACHES FOR BIOPHARMACEUTICAL APPLICATIONS
No full textenterUnderstanding transport within complex, biologically relevant environments is
crucial for advancing the pharmaceutical industry. In-vitro systems serve as vital tools
in this effort, providing controlled platforms for studying and mimicking biological
processes outside of living organisms, such as drug distribution and metabolism. These
experimental setups allow for the isolation and manipulation of variables, enabling
researchers to obtain precise, reproducible, and cost-effective results without the ethical
and logistical challenges of in-vivo testing. As ethical concerns and regulatory standards
grow more stringent, in-vitro methodologies offer a reliable and efficient alternative,
supporting the advancement of therapeutic innovations and the broader goal of
improving human health. Consequently, there is growing interest in developing, and
advancing, in-vitro research platforms to more accurately replicate complex biological
systems to aid with drug development.
This thesis contributes to that effort by addressing two complementary aspects
of in-vitro drug delivery research: (1) the simulation of an advanced Tangential Flow
Filtration (TFF) device for gene therapy applications, and (2) the creation of an
experimental platform to study aerosol deposition in pediatric airways for inhalable
therapeutics.
The first section focuses on a new and improved version of a widely used TFF
device, modified by Bomb et al.,
1 which is simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics to
analyze internal concentration and velocity profiles. Unlike traditional TFF systems,
this updated model provides an increased interaction between cells and therapeutic
components within the device. Understanding the transport phenomena within this
system is particularly relevant to applications such as T-cell transduction, a key process
in the development of cell-based immunotherapies. The simulation platform developed
offers a cost-effective and flexible means to explore experimental conditions in silico,
reducing the need for iterative experimental testing.
The second part of the work introduces an experimental in-vitro framework for
investigating the influence of tonsil size on aerosol deposition in pediatric upper
airways. Anatomically accurate, 3D-printed, models were used to simulate deposition
patterns across varying degrees of tonsilitis. Initially, three distinct patient-based airway
models with varying tonsil sizes were tested to evaluate the effects of different degrees
of tonsil size on aerosol behavior. To eliminate the influence of inter-patient variability,
and more precisely isolate the effect of tonsil size, the experiments were subsequently
re-run using a single airway geometry in which the tonsils were artificially enlarged.
Ultimately, this system provides an in-vitro framework for studying how airway
anatomy influences drug delivery in pediatric patients, without the need for in-vivo
experimentation. Contributing to the development of more effective, and targeted
aerosol-based therapies through a deeper understanding of transport phenomena.ente
DEEP REINFORCEMENT LEARNING IN EXTREMAL COMBINATORICS
No full textenterIn extremal combinatorics, there are many open conjectures, some of which are
probably false. One can attempt to disprove a conjecture via a proof by contradiction,
but the common method is to find a single counterexample. However, this is not
efficient to find by hand, especially for complex problems that involve large graphs.
Therefore, it makes sense for us to attempt to train machines that can automate the
process and develop counterexamples for us. In particular, Adam Z. Wagner from
Google DeepMind proposed a reinforcement learning approach to accomplish this and
was able to find counterexamples to several published conjectures in graph theory.
In this thesis, we first review Wagner’s approach and provide more details about its
implementation. Next, we propose and explore a new variant of his approach where
we focus on geometric graphs to reduce the size of the search space. Using simple
conjectures, we show that this new approach can significantly reduce the training time
to discover a counterexample.ente
Closed mouths don't get fed: infusing self-advocacy into student affairs case management practice
No full textHickok, Teresa R.The problem that this Education Leadership Portfolio (ELP) addresses is that there is too little self-advocacy skill development within the case management meeting intervention within the Office of the Dean of Students (ODS) at the University of Delaware (UD). The improvement goal of this ELP was to enhance the case managers' (CMs) capacity to assist students in gaining self-advocacy skills within their meetings with students. To meet this improvement goal, (a)I first developed a better understanding of college student self-advocacy skill development in a student affairs context, (b) developed a new case management meeting intervention protocol, and (3) developed a data collection and analysis plan to better understand self-advocacy skill development as a result of case management meetings- all as improvement strategies. ☐ Results of Improvement Strategy 1 included that extant literature regarding self-advocacy centers the experiences of college students with learning differences and includes four components: knowledge of self, knowledge of rights, communication, and leadership. Self-advocacy is also an enactment of self-determination theory, which examines intrinsic motivation through three constructs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Additionally, student affairs practitioners, specifically case managers, are well suited to assist college students as student affairs professionals are encouraged to use student development theory to guide their practice. Student development theory aligns with self-determination theory as they both promote development. Furthermore, ODS CMs shared that they believe they help students develop self-advocacy skills by speaking with college students about their needs, including assisting students to navigate the university and helping college students to address their concerns. Results from Improvement Strategy 2 yielded that CMs felt that there were some components of the proposed meeting intervention that they may not regularly include in their current intervention that could be helpful as they adapt their practice by following the protocol. CMs reported that this protocol will help keep the meetings organized, elevate student voice and participation, and allow for consistency amongst the ODS staff when meeting with students. Each CM trained on the new protocol could respond to the student within the case study, which is a tool that allows researchers to study the applicability of studied activity or process, using the protocol and sharing a directive or question that they propose regarding each portion of the protocol (Hays & Singh, 2012). Improvement Strategy 3 yielded a plan that the Senior Assistant Dean of Students can use to collect and analyze data regarding self-advocacy skill development due to the protocol. ☐ Recommendations for next steps consist of understanding what students who meet with CMs within the ODS at UD would say about their self-assessment of self-advocacy, as this ELP addresses the CMs' capacity to assist students with self-advocacy skill development. It would also be helpful to understand what those who refer students to ODS would say about a student's self-advocacy skill development after meeting with an ODS CM. Both of these recommendations may allow ODS to understand what gaps may exist between the referral agent and the CM, and could inform future training opportunities for CMs. The last recommendation involves examining intersectionality within the case management process to understand what self-advocacy skill development means for marginalized student populations, such as international students, DACA students, parenting students, LGBTQ+ students, students of color, etc., as these identities may experience self-advocacy differently.University of Delaware, School of EducationD.Ed