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On the embeddability of small cubic graphs into the torus
Get PDFThe embeddability of graphs into different surfaces has been studied for nearly a century. In 1930, Kuratowski famously proved that a graph is planar if and only if it does not contain the complete graph K5 or the complete bipartite graph K3,3 as a topological minor. In particular, K3,3 is the only cubic obstructions for the plane. This sparked interest in two different directions: What are analogous results for other surfaces, and what can be said about embeddings of K5 and K3,3 into other surfaces? Regarding the first question, it was shown in the 1970s and 80s by Glover, Huneke, Wang, and Archdeacon that a graph is projective planar if and only if it does not contain one of 103 graphs as a topological minor. For other surfaces, such as the torus, there are partial results at best, many of which have been obtained using computer algorithms. Regarding the embeddability of K5 and K3,3 into other surfaces, Mohar classified their embeddings into the real projective plane, while Gagarin, Kocay, and Neilson classified their embeddings into the torus. The main objective of this dissertation is to obtain a theoretical proof that the set of cubic torus obstructions of Betti number at most eight consists of ten graphs, and to specify these graphs. Our second main result is a classification of toroidal embeddings of the six cubic projective plane obstructions
Positioning the Unthought: Charting Octavia E. Butler\u27s Cognitive Self
No full textThis dissertation, Positioning the Unthought: Charting Octavia E. Butler’s Cognitive-Self, explores how Butler theorizes a dynamic self through a subset of her archived, unpublished commonplace books, housed at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Drawing on my original theory of cognizing self-making (CSM)—the dynamic, conscious process of developing psychological self-knowledge in active opposition to, yet beyond, systems of domination—this project examines the ways in which Butler represents and manipulates self-knowledge. I build upon Elizabeth Alexander’s (2004) notion of ‘Black Interiority,’ which captures Black inner life and creativity beyond the public face of stereotype and limited imagination, to highlight the malleability of self-concept and its intersection with existing frameworks of self-definition in Black Feminist Studies. Through a series of ‘conversations,’—what Therí Pickens (2019) describes as a set of organizational tools to open fields up to one another—I illuminate the historical and contemporary significances of CSM and explore this work vis-à-vis Butler’s archived self-writing. Conversation I: Cognizing Self-Making explores the motivations for creating this theory along with its inter/multidisciplinary genealogical backdrops. Conversation II: The (un)commonplace: The Archive, discusses the history of archives and the commonplace book as political, instable categories. Conversation III: Psionics, Noetics, and CSM: An Imagined Conversation is a constructed dialogue between ‘Octavia E. Butler’ and myself, where I use a combination of Butler’s verbatim archived self-writing, contextualized using supplemental published material, to discuss the ways she practices CSM. Here, I place my own voice and experiences in the dialogue and organically enlivening the ways the themes destabilizing of categories, documenting metacognitive epiphanies, and politicizing of science fiction emerge from Butler’s unpublished self-writing. Conversation IV: From Woe to Wonder, is the dissertation’s final section, but refuses a neat conclusion. Here, I reiterate the significance of the themes emerging from this project, highlighting the challenges, next steps, and broader implications. This project serves as an intervention not only in Butler studies but also in critically reexamining Black feminisms through the site of archives. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that the internal, often unseen and taken for granted processes of selfhood are crucial to understanding intertwined narratives of identity—not merely as external performances but as deeply rooted, conscious processes. Subverting the ‘unthought’ as a generative possibility, this project challenges assumptions surrounding the Black feminist tradition of self-making. In doing so, it interrogates the iconicity imposed on Black women within a global political climate shaped by racial neoliberalism, identitarianism, and growing attacks on the humanities and education for social justice and liberation
MUSLIM STUDENTS IN K-12 EXPERIENCING THEIR FAITH IN THE US SCHOOLS
Get PDFThis study explores Muslim students\u27 experiences of faith in a K-12 school setting in the United States. The research questions focus on how Muslim students experience their faith in K-12 schools in the United States, their challenges regarding their faith practices, and what support influences their K-12 success. The study aims to highlight the voices of Muslim students and provide educators with valuable insights from their experiences, hoping to assist in creating an equitable educational atmosphere that supports their success and fosters a sense of belonging. Eight students, five females and three males, participated in the study; the participants are students who graduated from high school in Central New York (CNY) in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The study provides insights into the experiences of Muslim students and raises awareness about the importance of ensuring equity and equal opportunities for all students, including Muslims. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT), the study highlights their challenges and the limited support they receive. It underscores the challenges of racism, discrimination, misconceptions about Islam, lack of representation, and various challenges that Muslim students face while trying to manage their religious obligations and school requirements. The study’s findings address the challenges and the limited support that Muslim students receive in schools from some educators, hoping to see a fundamental change in policy and Muslim staff representation. The study provides essential implications for district leaders, building leaders, teachers, and future leaders. The study also offers important recommendations to education leaders and community leaders. This study was conducted to highlight the voice of Muslim students in CNY schools, identify challenges, and bring solutions to support educators understand their Muslim students and create an equitable learning environment for all students, including Muslims
Plio-Pleistocene Hydroclimate in Southern Africa: Insights from Proxy Records and Climate Models
Get PDFIn the recent decade, a number of extreme weather events have highlighted the vulnerability and unpreparedness of communities in Southern Africa (SA) to anthropogenic climate-change related weather events. Such occurrences are only expected to increase in frequency, however projections of the future mean state of hydroclimate in SA are uncertain; there is broad agreement of earth system models that Africa as a whole will become hotter and drier by 2100, however, projected changes to regional hydroclimate are ambiguous. Insights from past intervals of warm climates, like the Pliocene, or intervals of rapid climate change, like the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, can reveal mechanisms of future change and help benchmark models. In this work, I conduct a comprehensive examination of Southern African hydroclimate dynamics using a combination of organic biogeochemistry, statistical methods, and modeling approaches. I use leaf wax hydrogen and carbon isotopes to reconstruct precipitation and vegetation changes in Southern Africa. I employ a variety of statistical methods to identify long term and short term (sub-million-year) modes of variability in those records, and I utilize climate models, like the isotope-enabled Community Atmosphere Model and the Hadley Center Climate Model to evaluate the climate dynamics driving these precipitation and vegetation changes. Finally, I analyze a set of Community Earth System Model simulations to evaluate the influence of model resolution on the model’s ability to simulate Southern African hydroclimate. The work presented herein (1) contributes to our understanding of the processes driving long and short term changes in Southern African hydroclimate, (2) emphasizes the similarities of past mechanisms to those observed in the modern, and prompts us to consider whether the relatively short-lived drought events we see in the modern have the potential to become longer-lived features of the future climatology, and (3) revisits the debate for increased model resolution versus improved model parametrization
Development of New Oxidative Methods and Synthesis of Small Molecules for Modulation of Biological Systems
Get PDFOxoammonium salts have commonly been used to oxidize alcohols to aldehydes and ketones. More recently these reagents have been employed in several different oxidative transformations. Utilizing these reagents a new tandem elimination-oxidation process of tertiary alcohols has been developed. The new process yields an allylic ether which can be transformed to the alcohol easily through a reduction with zinc metal, removing the tetramethylpipyridyl protecting group derived form the oxoammonium salt. Mechanistically the reaction likely proceeds through oxoammonium salt mediated elimination followed by allylic oxidation through an ene-type mechanism. Due to the alcohol being protected by the easily removed oxoammonium salt, the reaction has a high atom economy. The PI3K pathway is a major cell signaling pathway that influences many important cellular functions including apoptosis. A number of enzymes participate in the PI3K pathway, facilitating the movement of signals from outside the cell membrane to the nucleus. SHIP1 is an inositol phosphatase that is one of the first enzymes that mediates responses after signals have moved across the cell membrane. Increasing SHIP1 activity has been shown to promote phagolysosomal degradation of lipids by microglia, suggesting that targeting the enzyme might have beneficial effects in Alzheimer’s disease. A bis-sulfonamide has been recently discovered that increases activity of SHIP1. Similar SHIP1 activators have been synthesized with modifications at four different key sites on the molecule have led to the creation of a number of analogues. These molecules were then tested to determine structure-activity relationships and to increase compound stability in vivo. The peptide hormone known as ghrelin is the only known hormone that stimulates hunger in humans. Ghrelin signaling has also been implicated in some disorders related to substance abuse, including alcohol use disorder and alcohol-associated liver disease. Ghrelin needs to be acylated by an enzyme called ghrelin O-acyltransferase (GOAT) in order to be recognized by its receptor and exert its effects. Inhibition of GOAT prevents ghrelin from being activated, which may have downstream effects on many different biological functions pertaining to obesity, diabetes and substance abuse. Amino phosphonate inhibitors were synthesized and tested for their ability to inhibit GOAT. Attempts were also made to use these inhibitors to identify the active site of GOAT, as it is still unknown, through labeling with a covalent inhibitor
Quasiparticle poisoning and mitigation strategies in superconducting qubits
Get PDFQuantum computers promise to solve currently intractable problems of great interest for a diverse range of applications. For a quantum computer to solve these problems, it must handle occasional errors with quantum error correction, which distributes the quantum information across many physical qubits, increasing resilience. A promising technology for implementing such a system uses superconducting circuits as physical qubits. Standard quantum error correction schemes can accommodate random, local errors, but errors that are correlated across multiple qubits are fatal. Correlated errors can arise from ionizing radiation impacting the device substrate, which creates free charge that can be sensed by the qubits and energetic phonons that travel throughout the chip. When theses phonons impinge on the device layer, they create dissipative excitations, called quasiparticles, in the superconducting qubit electrodes, which can poison many of the qubits simultaneously, leading to correlated errors. Correlated errors can also arise from another source that has no corresponding charge signature, so-called phonon-only events, which have been observed in other communities but never investigated in superconducting qubits previously. In this thesis, we explore both sources of correlated errors and use various mitigation strategies to inhibit correlated errors. We first describe the experiment observing phonon-only events in our superconducting qubit devices and characterize a decrease in the poisoning rates from these events during the cooldown. We believe the source of these events is the relaxation of thermal stresses between the substrate and metal films contracting differently upon cooling to cryogenic temperatures. In another experiment, we use a -ray source outside of the cryostat to controllably poison our qubits. We develop a new technique to characterize the poisoning footprint of devices with and without explicit mitigation strategies, which is vital knowledge for quantum error correction schemes based on identifying and managing poisoning events. The work presented in this thesis serves to inform future quantum processor designs that minimize correlated errors, forming a pathway towards fault-tolerant operation
College Men and Masculinities: Why College Men and Students Do Antisexist Work on Campus
No full textAbstract: This qualitative study explores the motivations, experiences, and meaning-making processes of 28 college men and sexual and gender minority students across three campuses in the Eastern U.S. that do anti-sexist and anti-violence work on campus. I grounded this study theoretically in Intersectionality, Progressive Black Masculinity Studies, and Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities. The research examined how male-identified and gender non-binary students involved in student organizations—Men Against Violence (MAV), Students Advocating Violence Education and Support (SAVES), and Men Stopping Rape (MSR)—understood their roles as gender justice advocates within higher education. Through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and case studies, this dissertation revealed how personal relationships, exposure to gender-based violence, mentorship, primary prevention, and campus culture shaped students\u27 engagement. Findings highlighted the tensions participants experienced while managing hegemonic masculinity, the importance of community and accountability in sustaining allyship, and the challenges of navigating profeminist performative expectations. Participants described growth through discomfort, often reconfiguring their understanding of manhood, power, and social responsibility. This study contributed to the literature on college masculinities by centering the voices of those actively resisting patriarchal norms and domination broadly. It also reflects the methodological insights of a Black profeminist scholar-practitioner who has worked on campuses as an advisor, advocate, compliance officer, and volunteered for service agencies. The findings offer insights to engage college students in equity-based violence prevention. Institutional support, intersectional programming, and reflexive leadership development are necessary to affirm college men and students’ prevention and allyship
The Hagiography of Trinity Sparkle
Get PDFThrough painting and soft sculpture, I create a theoretical realm intertwined with my lived reality pushing against norms perpetuated by religious and secular heteronormativity. I mobilize my desire and dualistic experiences to initiate and recognize the uneasy and necessary conversations surrounding the ways we search for and live out our sexualities and identities in relationships and communities. Themes of acceptance stem from my personal life and are applied in the fictional realm through figuration, cropped imagery, and highly saturated colors in my paintings and soft sculptures. I rewrite art historical Biblical imagery and interweave them with my personal experiences, in order to exemplify the competing parts of my identity appearing in this fictional realm. I situate my own lived experiences through my alter ego, Trinity Sparkle, which runs parallel to Mary Magdalene. The intensity of my desire cultivates a fabricated safe space for my friends and partners where trust grounds the interaction between the figures and the viewers. This visual exchange complicates the push and pull of belonging as people operating fluidly around binaries born from religious and secular cultures. I challenge the conditioned conceptions of exclusion, inclusion, and authenticity of identity and relationships
Avatars in Virtual Live Streaming: Identity, Authenticity and Interaction
Get PDFWith the advancement and development of technology, people now have more and more choices for entertainment. Virtual live streaming, as a rapidly growing form of entertainment, is receiving increasing attention. As an intersection of emerging technology and traditional entertainment modes, virtual live streamers interact with audiences through virtual avatars, bringing a new entertainment experience while also raising many interesting research questions. This thesis focuses on virtual avatars, discussing how virtual live streamers and audiences perceive virtual avatars and how these avatars influence both streamers and the audience. More importantly, this thesis explores the role that virtual avatars play in the entire virtual live streaming process that makes virtual live streaming stand out from other forms of live streaming with its unparalleled unique charm
Back Then, Long From Now
Get PDFThere is a disruption occurring in our homes, causing a dissociation from the now. Troxler examines the power of objects and spaces of our homes through his works, in the hope to create experiences that mirror a dissociative phenomenon of being pulled between past and future. Here, he provides context to his artistic process - establishing methods for his traditional painting practice, sculptures, and digital works. Through an interdisciplinary artistic practice, he asserts connections to his personal memory and experiences. Within this thesis, Troxler approaches a shared phenomenon of temporal dissociation by establishing our dwelling spaces as incubators for loaded objects of the past that are causing a major disruption, leading to a removal of access to experiencing the present time – a fixation on histories and futures outside of our immediate grasp. The connections made between the past and future hinge on aspects of embodied physical memory and digital technology, where memory is being converted into coded information and having its access limited to the flawed function of machines. His work aims to recognize the temporal No Space, the result of where we are ultimately ending up in – a space where past and future collide, where the individual memory and public memory merge to establish the contorted and distorted landscape we currently see as the present