UBIR Repository (Univ. at Buffalo)
Not a member yet
5736 research outputs found
Sort by
Concept Mapping Analysis of Camp Counselors' Perceptions of the Campers' Therapeutic Experience
No full textPh.D.There is very little research that explores the perceptions of therapeutic camp counselors. Through the use of concept mapping, this study begins to fill this research gap by examining archival data of 81 therapeutic camp counselors. Counselors were asked to sort and rate 100 unique camper generated ideas regarding the benefits of attending camp. Counselors' sorting and rating data were collected along with the campers' sorting and rating data as described in previous concept mapping works by Dipeolu et al. (2016) and Lee et al. (2015). The counselors' concept map produced eight distinct clusters: Traditional Camp Content and Fun, Experiential Learning, Character Building, Behavior Changing Environment, Personal Transformation, Fun Escape, Conditions for a Safe and Welcoming Environment, and Interpersonal Growth and Self-Acceptance. The top and bottom quartiles of counselor importance ratings and camper importance ratings (obtained from Dipeolu et al., 2015) were compared. Results found a number of similarities and a few differences in perceptions between counselors and campers regarding perceptions of why a child should attend camp. Study limitations include the use of archival data, counselors rating ideas determined by campers, and generalizability due to small sample size. Implications for future research suggest that counselors’ perceptions should be considered an important aspect of evaluating the therapeutic camping experience as a whole.**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.*
A Morphing Continuum Analysis of Energy Transfer in Turbulent Flow
No full textPh.D.The study aims at understanding the relationship between the kinematics of the small-scale eddies and the energy cascade in turbulent flows. In particular, the work decouples small-scale rotational motions from the translational motions and tries to explain the impact of each movement of the energy flow. Resorting to Navier-Stokes (NS) based methods to showcase this energy flow is tedious considering the strong coupling between translational and rotational motions of the fluid. The present work is on the basis of a morphing continuum theory (MCT), a high order continuum theory. MCT is a multi-scale continuum theory that incorporates small-scale structures in its continuum. The MCT small-scale structure has its own independent degrees of freedom and allows decoupling of the rotational motion from the translational motion of the flow, giving the fluid element a total of six-degrees of motion. The study will then assume and prove that the MCT small-scale structures can adopt the role of the smallest eddies in a turbulent flow. The MCT balance laws are presented, and their relationship to the classical fluid theory balance law is addressed. The MCT conservation laws for linear momentum, angular momentum, and energy are derived from the spatial symmetry being applied to the balance laws. The conservation laws show similarities between the morphing continuum theory and the classical Navier-Stokes in the conservation of linear momentum, but the difference in the conservation of angular momentum. The conservation of energy shows that by segregating the kinetic energy into its rotational and translational components, one can realize new energy routes not found in the classical theory. The current work aims at exploiting these routes to investigate the effect of the small-scale motions on the turbulent flows. Since the kinematics of turbulent flows is highly dependent on the behavior of the smallest relevant eddies, the study will prove that MCT small-scale structures can adopt the role of the smallest relevant eddies. Numerical methodologies for solving the compressible and incompressible MCT governing laws are also presented. The incompressible scheme is a pressure-based solver, based upon the famous SIMPLE scheme, while the compressible scheme is a density-based solver. Both schemes are validated and show at least a 2nd degree of accuracy. Preliminary numerical simulations of the MCT governing equations are employed for two turbulent flows. The first case employs the MCT incompressible scheme to investigate the energy flow in homogeneous isotropic turbulence (HIT). The study begins by presenting a model to reproduce the Navier-Stokes HIT case into the presented MCT framework. The study compares the results of both cases and assesses the accuracy of the proposed MCT model. The two cases show similar results on the global scale by having equivalent mean kinetic energy and on the small-scale by agreeing to Kolmogorov 5/3 law. The study implements the MCT conservation law to investigate the impact of the rotational and translational motion on the flow of energy. The second example showcases MCT in predicting the compressible turbulent flow. A supersonic flow with a 2.93 Mach over an 8-degree ramp is considered. The study shows that MCT is a much more computationally friendly theory than the classicalNS equations. The dynamics of energy cascade at the length-scale of individual eddies is illuminated through the subscale rotation introduced by MCT. In this regard, a statistical averaging procedure for capturing energy transfer incompressible turbulence is employed. The analysis show the existence of a statistical coupling between the internal energy and the translational and rotational kinetic energy indicating a multi-scale transfer of energy. In conclusion, MCT gives a new characterization of the energy cascade within compressible turbulence without the use of excessive computational resources.**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 Taiwanese Making of the Canada Presbyterian Mission
No full textPh.D.In March of 1872, George Leslie Mackay became the first Canada Presbyterian Missionary to Taiwan. Many have claimed that he was the most successful Protestant missionary of all time. In the twenty-nine years he worked in Northern Taiwan, Mackay oversaw the building of sixty chapels, two schools, and a hospital. When he died there in 1901 there were more than three thousand baptized members of the Canada Presbyterian Mission in Taiwan, and the church continues to thrive to this day. While most prior narratives of the Canada Presbyterian Mission focus on George Leslie Mackay's ability as the cornerstone of this exceptional mission, I argue that it was the Taiwanese people who built most of the institutions and did most of the evangelizing for the Canada Presbyterian Mission. Mackay was deeply committed to the ideal of a Native Church built by Native workers and had the good fortune to encounter a small group of influential families who wanted to build a church for reasons of their own. For many reasons, both the Canada Presbyterian Church and its Taiwanese converts benefited by promoting Mackay as the the sole author of this project. In addition to challenging the image of native converts as mere "helpers" by arguing that they were actively attempting to construct a system which fit their needs and desires, I argue that conditions specific to Taiwan, including several significant events, helped to make Taiwan better suited to the growth of a native ministry than other parts of East Asia. In the course of making these arguments, I also attempt to illuminate the lives of several prominent Taiwanese people who enabled the growth of this exceptional mission.**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.*
Infant Handling, Supply and Demand, and Grooming Time Matching in Cayo Santiago Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)
No full textPh.D.The scope and willingness of modern humans to behave altruistically, that is to help others at a cost to themselves, demands explanation, as the existence of any costly behavior seemingly defies natural selection. Other forms of cooperation also warrant explanation, as cooperative behavior increases the recipient’s fitness, without necessarily augmenting the donor’s. Like humans, rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) rely on cooperation to navigate their social world. This dissertation broadly examines cooperative exchanges among Cayo Santiago rhesus macaques to answer questions about the applicability of biological markets theory (BMT) to primate exchanges, focusing on the interchange of grooming for infant handling and grooming reciprocity. I 1) review the literature concerned with the function of infant handling and 2) theoretical controversies related to BMT. I also empirically examine whether 3) infant handling facilitates the formation of social bonds between infants and frequent handlers, and whether 4) grooming for infant handling interchanges conform to supply and demand principles (S&D) or 5) if maternal stress responses mediate the appearance of S&D in these interchanges. Finally, I empirically investigate whether 6) rhesus macaques show evidence for time matched grooming over short temporal intervals and 7) the methodology chosen by researchers to distinguish short from long-term reciprocation in studies of time matching influences the consistency of results.**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.*
Beam Forming and Steering Techniques in Antenna and Array Based on Composite Right/Left Handed Metamaterial
No full textPh.D.This dissertation aims to explore novel methodologies of realizing beam forming and steering antennas based on composite right/left handed (CRLH) metamaterial. Five CRLH based antenna designs with wide-range beam scanning and flexible beam forming capabilities are examined in this study through in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis.The first three designs using CRLH leaky wave antennas (LWAs) highlight the cost-effective frequency scanning antenna configurations by combining both radiating and phase engineering elements together. Moreover, reflection-type amplifier and bi-directional amplifier are utilized to enable the beam forming functionality of CRLH LWAs. On the contrast, the following two CRLH transmission line based antenna arrays investigate the extra design freedom of structure with isolated radiating and phase engineering parts. Due to the additional design flexibility, all-passive four-quadrant beam steerable antenna array with polarization and radiation pattern controllability can be achieved. In summary, this dissertation provides a detailed description of the operating mechanism and circuit implementation of beam steering and forming antennas based on CRLH metamaterial. Presented designs are validated through both measurement and simulation results.**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.*
Predicting Treatment Outcomes of Coiled Intracranial Aneurysms using Finite Element Modeling and Machine Learning
No full textPh.D.Coil embolization is currently the predominate endovascular treatment modality for intracranial aneurysms (IAs). Coils, which are metallic spring-like devices that are implanted into the IA sac, obliterate the IA and exclude it from the cerebral circulation via thrombotic occlusion. Though endovascular coiling is a well-established IA treatment option and its use is wide-spread, it is not always effective at completely obliterating an IA. Incomplete occlusion of an IA after coiling is a major concern because it leaves the IA at risk of rupturing, the consequence of which is devastating bleeding in the patient’s brain. Unfortunately, in current clinical practice, there is no way to know whether a specific coil treatment strategy will lead to complete occlusion of an IA in time, and thus patients are subject to frequent and costly treatment follow-ups. However, if poor treatment outcomes could be predicted a priori, then clinicians could make better treatment decisions, which could potentially lead to improved outcomes and less need for treatment follow-ups. To that end, this work aimed to establish the feasibility of predicting outcomes of endovascular coiling of IAs using computer modeling and machine learning. To do so, we first developed and experimentally validated a state-of-the-art finite element method simulation technique that models endovascular coiling in patient-specific IAs. Next, we used this technique, in conjunction with computational fluid dynamics, to establish that incomplete occlusion of coiled IAs in the long-term is significantly associated with several morphologic, treatment-specific, and hemodynamic parameters. Finally, using machine learning, we established that predicting endovascular coiling outcomes with simulation-based parameters is possible, paving the way for the potential of simulation-based treatment planning and optimization in the future.**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.*
Testimony and Imagination: The Power of the Human Rights Fiction for Argentina's Dirty War
No full textM.A.History is a mixture of fact and fiction blended together beyond recognition. Laura Stoler in her book Along the Archival Grain investigates the archival process and attempts to "distinguish between what was 'unwritten' because 'everyone knew it,' what was unwritten because it could not yet be articulated, and what was unwritten because it could not be said" (Stoler 2009). She argues that official colonial archives are products of state machines that "reproduce those states themselves" (Stoler 2009). [H]istory is built on the official documents and letters that are left behind for us. Cathy Caruth also investigates [H]istory, but she tackles the question in reverse. Rather than exploring the official colonial trail, she begs the question of how to retrieve a history whose advent is "constituted by the way it disappears from consciousness, that eludes or erases memory in the very act of creating new events" (Caruth 2013). In authoritarian regimes – such as the Argentine dictatorship from 1976-1983, on which this paper is centered – censorship is used as an oppressive tactic to keep citizens in line. When the military junta took control of the Argentine state, they simultaneously took control of the historical record.This paper investigates the literature of the Argentine 'Dirty Way,' with a focus on fiction. In attempt to uncover what happened under the military junta during this regime, one will encounter warring narratives. Speeches, newspapers and official government documents can provide important details about the time period; they also leave certain things out. Works of fiction and poetry about the regime can lend an understanding as to what it felt like under the junta – but they do not stand as credible sources for the Archive. This exclusion is unfair. Jacques Derrida argues in his text, Demeure, that fiction constitutes the possibility of testimony. He writes that testimony will "always suffer both having, undecidably, a connection to fiction, perjury, or lie and never being able or obligated – without ceasing to testify – to become a proof" (Derrida, 2000.) Truth and fiction exist within the same language, and often find themselves indiscernible from one another. In this paper, I will argue that authors of the Dirty War used rhetorical language to evoke emotion and write fiction – but as state officials, their literature gained access to the Archive. Two of the books I discuss are novels centered around invented characters living in Argentina during the Dirty War; they are Lawrence Thornton's Imagining Argentina, and Nathan Englander's The Ministry of Special Cases. The third text is a work of 'testimonial fiction,' entitled The Little School written by a survivor, Alicia Partnoy. Through these texts I will explore the power of fiction as a counter-weapon, and the instability of 'facts' under the Argentine dictatorship.**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.*
Polymer-Based Nanostructures for Encapsulation, Conjugation, and Therapeutic Delivery
No full textPh.D.Effective delivery of therapeutic agents, such as free drug molecules and genes, to specific biological sites presents a significant challenge for biomedical researchers. Several biological barriers are hindering the delivery of free therapeutic materials directly to the diseased tissue, such as degradation by serum protein absorption, macrophage internalization, sequestration in the reticuloendothelial system, clearance by the kidney, etc. Over the past decades, nanocarriers have emerged as promising biomaterials that may overcome biological barriers, protect the therapeutic cargo, and effectively deliver them to the diseased tissue. Polymer-based nanocarriers have drawn tremendous interest because of their significant potential to improve therapeutic biocompatibility, solubility, bioavailability, controlled release, and also minimizing therapeutic toxicity, and nonspecific interactions. With a thoughtful structural design, they can exhibit provide biomedical-relevant stimuli-responsive behavior via variables such as pH, light, and temperatures. The formulation of novel polymer-based nanocarriers for therapeutic delivery has been the focus of many researchers over the past decades. Aligned with such a research direction, this dissertation research includes two major projects: 1) nanocapsules preparation by layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly, and 2) synthesis and development of multiple polycaprolactone (PCL)-based nanocarriers for drug and gene delivery applications.**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.*
Development of Compact Phantom with Embedded 3-Dimensional Capillary Network for Use in Biomedical and Biometric Applications
No full textM.S.There are many challenges in the field of tissue engineering to develop a model which accurately resembles the tissue structures located in the human finger, most importantly the smaller capillary vessel network. Several techniques have been studied using microfluidics and sacrificial sugar layers. These capillary network structures have many potential applications but are difficult to develop often requiring time consuming and difficult processes such as photolithography or imprint lithography. The goal of this research was to take the vascular phantom proposed by Schneider et al and expand on its capabilities and functionality relating to: size, efficiency, reproducibility, and added all-in-one feature sets. A simple technique was developed to streamline the fabrication process of creating randomized vascular networks which are 10-30 μm in diameter. This technique uses the structure of a paperclip to serve as the frame for the inlet/outlet and smaller capillary network. Other features are included such as relative acoustic impedance matching of tissue layers, a fingerprint implanted on the surface, embedded working capillary network with inlet and outlet connections, and an implanted bone. The phantom measures ~25x50 mm and is intended to be used for liveness testing with ultrasonic fingerprint readers.**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.*
Tuscarora Morphology & Language Revitalization
No full textPh.D.This dissertation is a study of some of the morphology of the Tuscarora language. The specific, targeted focus of the study was the Pronominal Prefix and Prepronominal Prefix systems. This work was intended to further carry on existing descriptive work on the language, and to provide a resource that would provide greater clarity on issues pertaining to morphological and phonological analysis of verb prefixes in Tuscarora. The verb prefixes in Tuscarora, however, appear to be not only affixed to verbs, but also affixed to nouns and kinship terminology as well, and as such, these systems are also described. This work contributes to not only the understanding of the Tuscarora language, but of all the Iroquoian languages. The final results of this study indicate that there are ways to create improved analysis (in the sense of clarity and comprehensiveness) of other morphological systems.**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.*