UBIR Repository (Univ. at Buffalo)
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Nurse Perception of Technology Integration
No full textPh.D.With the increase in technological advancements integrated into hospitals, physician offices, and nursing programs, there is concern regarding the imposition on the clinical foundation of nursing as a human improvement profession during the implementation of technology advancements. Technology can potentially serve as a distraction and even a false feedback loop for improved care, causing an impact on the fundamental quality of patient care. Mobile technology advancement such as Electronic Health Record (EHR) charting and smartphone use in the clinical nurse setting provides both prospects and challenges that have not been widely researched. This dissertation proposal examines registered nurse survey results, active participant observations of technology use and its perception and impact on patient care across three medical-surgical units, and patient survey results on perception of nursing care. More specifically it focused upon two research questions: 1)In what ways do nurses implement new required technology and iPhone technology into their existing patterns of care? 2)In what ways are nurse beliefs and practices related to "quality of care" impacted by the introduction of these new technology tools? Nurse beliefs in electronic technology related to patient safety affected perception of quality patient care, while active participant observations revealed nurse perception of quality time spent with patient's was synonymous with use of technology outside of the patient room. Implications for implementation and measurement of quality care are discussed.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
King of America: An Exploration of Americana Through the Movies of Henry King
No full textM.A.This thesis engages the work of American filmmaker Henry King (1886-1982) with the understudied concept of Americana. I contend for the constitution of Americana as a cinematic genre, and focus on King's portraits of small-town America, using five films as case studies: Stella Dallas (1925), Remember the Day (1941), Wilson (1944), Margie (1946), and Wait Til the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952). A director whose career as a filmmaker started in the same year that The Birth of a Nation (1915) was released and ended by the time Francis Ford Coppola was presenting his first feature, I argue that King's oeuvre represents the epitome and apex of the studio filmmaker. Working in a wide variety of genres, his depictions of America's heartland and small towns, its iconographies and festivities, are rivaled only by D.W. Griffith's pastorals and John Ford's community's mediations. To sustain my arguments, I highlight the imageries of the idealized American small-town and compare the concept of Americana with two others: nostalgia, and the German Heimat. Present since the rise of motion pictures, films in the Americana genre raise and reflect historical questions and shifts in both the United States' hegemonic ideologies and the Hollywood studio system itself, and no other filmmaker exceeded in this genre quite as much as King
Likelihood-Based Inferential Methods Testing Effect Size Measures for Stratified Correlated Binary Data with Bilateral Outcomes
No full textPh.D.Binary data with bilateral outcomes is often encountered in medical comparative clinical studies where patients receive treatment on paired organs or body parts. Usually, one would expect the measurement contributed from the paired organs of the single person to be correlated. Methods of analysis that overlooked this feature of intraclass correlation may lead to an invalid inference. Taking this issue into consideration, we developed a series of likelihood-based test statistics for proportion-related effect measures on stratified correlated binary data with bilateral outcomes, including (1) three homogeneity test statistics for proportion ratios across strata based on Likelihood ratio test, Score test, and Wald-type test, (2) four confidence interval estimators (unconstrained and semi-constrained MLE-based weighted Wald-type confidence interval, profile likelihood confidence interval, and constrained MLE-based Score confidence interval) for proportion ratios, and (3) three test statistics testing the homogeneity of odds ratios. Two types of Monte Carlo simulation studies were designed and conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed testing methods and confidence interval estimators. The presented testing procedures were demonstrated by revisiting the illustrative rheumatology study.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
Using Principal Component Regression to Predict Soil Nitrogen Supply Potential from Electromagnetic Induction
No full textM.S.Detailed nitrogen (N) management is crucial for viable and cost-effective corn production. SurplusN can negatively impact air and water quality while inadequate amounts of N for crop growth will have adverse effects on corn yield and quality. Determining the correct amount of N to apply requires knowledge of the soil N supply potential (sNsp). The use of electromagnetic induction(EMI) in precision agriculture has become increasingly popular because it noninvasively provides spatially continuous soil characterization. We hypothesize that the potential of soil organic matter(SOM) to mineralize into usable N can be predicted from EMI soil characterization. Thus, by incorporating EMI's spatially continuous soil characterization in a multivariate linear regression model, we propose that EMI can be utilized to predict the soils potential to release N. We employed Principal Component Regression (PCR) to predict high-resolution sNspfrom EMI. Specifically, we developed a sNsp predictive model from collocated EMI and sNspsparse measurements and subsequently applied the model to predict high-resolution sNsp from high-resolution EMI measurements. PCR is a particularly appealing nonlinear, multivariate regression technique for our purpose due to its dimensionality reduction capability and its capacity to create new uncorrelated variables. Using uncorrelated predictor variables in regression analysis eliminates correlations in the variables (multicollinearity), which improves the predictive accuracy of the model. We illustrated the performance of the strategy on EMI data and soil samples collected on a regular grid from a 60-acre corn field in Western New York. We demonstrated the potential to estimate high-resolution sNsp from EMI measurements to improve N fertilizer recommendations, for profitable corn production in an environmentally friendly manner.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
Energy Awareness in Mobile Embedded Systems
No full textPh.D.Recent trends in technology have seen computation move from laptops and desktops to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, wearables, Internet of Things, and robots. One of the primary changes in this transformation is the reliance on batteries for power, limiting their overall performance time. Therefore, it is important to consider energy expenditure in task planning, defining policies, and characterizing the performance of such systems.In my thesis, I study embedded devices that are battery powered, and introduce ways that we can make them energy aware and energy efficient. I focus on the energy measurement of various systems and show how online energy measurement can be beneficial for modeling, planning, and online decision making. I introduce a software architecture that allows the system to track and allocate its energy use. Furthermore, I use specialized hardware to study the energy consumption of the system. This energy profile is used to plan a mission more efficiently, which can lead up to 15% longer run time of the system. I also show how the choice of system configuration and online decision making can affect mission time and performance on a UAV. Thesis statement: Per-component and per-task energy measurements allow us to better build embedded systems designed for energy efficiency.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
Design and Validation of Passive Environmental DNA Sampler (PEDS)
No full textM.S.Environmental DNA (eDNA) shed by organisms into their environments has gained immense prominence as a tool for species and biodiversity monitoring. In aquatic environments, eDNA is captured in a grab sample that is filtered to concentrate the sample before eDNA extraction and analysis. Current capture and filtration methods have several limitations: 1) inability to capture all extracellular DNA, 2) eDNA degradation during sample transport and storage, 3) filter clogging in turbid waters which influences detection of rare organisms, and 4) time sensitivity due to pulse inputs of eDNA. To address these limitations, we designed and validated the Passive Environmental DNA Sampler (PEDS). A PEDS consists of an absorbent-filled sachet that can be suspended in water to collect eDNA over long timescales. eDNA captured by a PEDS is protected from degradation and represents a time weighted average instead of a grab sample snapshot. Two adsorbents, Montmorillonite Clay (MC) and Granular Activated Carbon (GAC), were tested in laboratory, microcosm and field experiments. Laboratory results indicated that MC better adsorbed and desorbed extracellular DNA. However, GAC PEDS more effectively captured eDNA in microcosm and field experiments. Field results further validated PEDS as an effective eDNA capture method comparable to traditional water filtration of a grab samples.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
Earth-Abundant Metal Selection for Acidic Water Electrolysis
No full textM.S.As the environmental movement starts to shape how energy is sourced throughout the planet, researching the technology that will play a role into shifting from fossil fuels to renewables will be crucial to achieve a green economy. Water electrolysis is a supportive technology to take renewable energy and stores excess energy into chemical bonds. These bonds can be broken later to reproduce electricity with fuel cells. As a near alternative technology to producing hydrogen and helping integrate renewable energy into the electric grid, water electrolysis offers a hopeful future towards sustainable production of fuels.Despite the promising attributes of electrolysis systems, they largely suffer from the materials used at their anode in cathode. Since the anode is where water forms oxygen gas and largely limits the rate at which hydrogen is formed, much research seeks to tackle this issue by improving the material selection used as the catalyst. To see this effort come alive, further research into the catalysts used in electrolyzers is imperative to scaling up the systems. This research takes a delve into the field, exploring traditional catalysts and their limitations. This progresses forward towards newer cheap, Earth-abundant catalysts which then breaks off into a specific sub-class of catalysts used in this research approach, metal organic frameworks (MOFs). These MOFs will be used throughout this research to show that with different metal additions and supports, sourcing an active and stable Earth-abundant catalyst is feasible with this material and can be progressed into an electrolyzer system.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
Mapping a Part of the Western Boundary of Oceanus Procellarum within the Southwestern Quadrant of Lunar Quadrangle 10
No full textM.S.Lunar Quadrangle 10 (LQ10) extends from 0° - 30° N and 45° - 90° W and includes the western boundary of Oceanus Procellarum. Examination of this region provides a unique opportunity to observe the nature and timing of multiple maria emplacement events both within Oceanus Procellarum and the adjacent highland terrain. To determine the origin and relative age of landforms within the SW quadrant of LQ10, I created a 1:1,000,000 geologic map of the region. This map, which serves as both a revision and reinterpretation of Apollo-era maps of the region (1:1M to 1:5M scale), is a synthesis of visible, topographic and compositional remote sensing data collected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Clementine and Kaguya (SELENE). The map provides insight into geologic processes at the mare-highland boundary, including evidence that Orientale impact ejecta controlled the distribution of mare emplacement and that highland volcanism occurred sporadically.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
The Fabrication of Fluidity: Glitch, Remediation, and the Protocols of Reading
No full textPh.D.This dissertation takes up the aesthetics and cultural stakes of glitches in works of art and literature that move into digital formats through forms of remediation and variable file types. Tracing a single work across media and platforms reveals the transitional zones between the physical inscriptions, the interpretive layers of applications, and the user-facing displays. The analysis of these transitional spaces creates difficulties for articulating the physicality, the legibility, and the actors involved because it is a space of flux, processing, and transfer. By reading these glitches as meaningful occurrences and not errors, it becomes possible to pull out the hidden and obscured signals that are overlooked and abandoned, focusing on the process of mediation, the channels between humans and machines, and the breakdowns in these transmissions. A practice of reading and analyzing glitches offers an opportunity to reorient our understanding of aesthetics, digital mediation, and the construction of the human within digital environments. Bridging the work of material text studies, critical network theory, and media theories that analyze systems of media through the specificity of their formats and file types, I argue that the variations in format are not only significant in their specificity and comparative qualities, but the very activity of remediating itself produces transformations in a work of art and its cultural resonance. The proliferation of file types, formats, and interfaces are not distinct isolated variations, but a continuing process of mediation. Each reproduction and processing-event leaves traces of mediation on medium-reflexive works that can be read. This type of reading, what I am calling glitch reading, focuses on the materiality of glitches found in the interplay between the aesthetic, cultural, and technical dynamics of remediated texts and changing media. Glitch reading is a practice of extracting meaning from the noise, parsing out the implications of the texts and textures that reverberate through mediation, revealing the integration of humans in and through digital technology.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*
OPTIMAL ECONOMIC OPERATION MODE OF NANO-GRID EQUIPPED WITH PHOTOVOLTAICS AND BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS
No full textPh.D.With the rapid development of renewable energy technology worldwide, more and more attention has been paid to residential renewable energy power generation. But for the centralized power system, this distributed energy resource (DER) could bring stability and reliability issues to the system operation. In order to solve these problems, in recent years, scholars have proposed to establish a decentralized microgrid system. Instead of connecting the distributed energy to the grid, it can be consumed locally through Transactive Energy technology. Nanogrid on the other hand may have more energy efficiency compared with microgrid since the household with the distributed generator only delivers its excess power to the neighbor. This dissertation studied the application of Transactive Energy technology in the nanogrid. Firstly, the nanogrid structure was created with a Home Photovoltaic (PV) system installed as the distributed energy resource. Then the economic operation of the nanogrid was analyzed in detail. And the optimization model of investment portfolio in Home PV system was proposed. Also, an emergency case study on the power outage in Buffalo area was discussed, aiming the voltage profile recovering ability of the regional distribution system with the nanogrid.**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact [email protected]. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.*