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Two Network Flow Problems: Volume Inequalities for Flow Polytopes of Full Directed Acyclic Graphs; Optimal Additions to the Low-Stress Bike Network in Lexington, Kentucky
Get PDFThis dissertation addresses two distinct problems related by their foundation in network flows. The first problem concerns volumes of flow polytopes of directed acyclic graphs with out-degree sequence (3,2,...,2,0). It is proved that there is an interchange operation on the edge set of these graphs that induces a partial order on the graphs isomorphic to a Boolean algebra, and that moving up through this partial order decreases (weakly) the volumes of the corresponding flow polytopes. This result is reinterpreted in the context of linear extensions for posets that are bipartite non-crossing trees.
The second problem develops a discrete optimization model for Lexington, Kentucky\u27s bicycle network. Riding bikes is a crucial piece of a larger transportation sustainability puzzle, but many car-centric cities have incomplete bike networks. How can cities identify locations for new bicycle facilities that will achieve the lowest average travel distance for the population? Cyclist experience of safety and comfort has been quantified as ``stress\u27\u27 based on road characteristics. To identify impactful additions to low-stress networks, a network flow optimization model is introduced that minimizes average trip distance within a city. Using solver software and Lexington, Kentucky, USA as a case study, near-optimal solutions to the were found for different input parameters. These results can inform planning decisions in Lexington, and the method can be carried out for any other city for which data is available
RECIPIENT EXPERIENCES OF DONOR-FUNDED COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS: “I DON\u27T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT ME. I DON\u27T KNOW WHAT I KNOW ABOUT YOU.”
Get PDFThis qualitative study explores the experience of receiving donor-funded scholarship support facilitated through a higher education institution, especially when the recipient has interacted with the donor of the funding. This recipient-and-donor-interaction is common at American post-secondary institutions in the form of written thank you notes and attendance at donor recognition events. This research addressed the following questions: How do donor-funded scholarship recipients experience this funding? How do donor-funded scholarship recipients experience interaction with the donor of the scholarship? These questions were explored through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 23 recent alumni from five private universities and colleges who received donor-funded scholarships as undergraduate students. The six phases of reflexive thematic analysis guided the analysis. Key themes identified showed participants often expressed uncertainty and questions about their funding. Participants often viewed the funding as financial aid with an added dynamic due to the presence of donors and additional expectations. Some participants felt obligated and othered by this type of funding. Yet, participants celebrated the donor’s presence and gift of funding. In addition, funding and interactions created an inward focus for some participants in which they internalized the funding and donor experience as being recipient-centered in ways that presented feelings of motivation and belonging. These themes highlight the need for increased scholarship recipient education and integration of donor-funded scholarship recipients into advancement efforts. This research will be of interest to fundraising, advancement, donor relations, alumni, and stewardship professionals, university leadership, donors of scholarship support, and student affairs and student life professionals looking to better understand this facet of the student experience and how it could impact larger issues of student belonging and future donative behavior
How do Couples of Autistic Children Perceive their Quality of Life? A Case Study Featuring Sequential Mixed Methodology
No full textFamilies who have autistic children report significantly lower quality of life indicators than neurotypical families and those with other developmental disabilities (Bitsika & Sharpley, 2004; Brown et al., 2006; Charnsil & Bathia, 2010; De Sousa, 2010; Merkaj et al., 2013). However, the reports fluctuate between family members as mothers report more mental health challenges than fathers, including stress, anxiety, and depression (Dabrowska & Pstiula, 2010; Hodapp et al., 2003; Merkaj et al., 2013). Yet, these findings are based on the limited research that has been done on fathers and couples (Cheuk & Lashewicz, 2015; Osborne & Reed, 2008; Papageorgiou & Kalyva, 2010). To better understand family member dynamics, interactions, and functioning, I conducted a series of case studies using a sequential, mixed-methods design. This study included four couples, completing a comprehensive, validated QoL measure and participating in separate interviews to better understand their individual perspectives. This practice led to an increased understanding of parents of children with ASD and their everyday experiences. The results of this research provided insights on how teachers and clinicians can develop, adapt, and administer family-centered services
Towards Automating the Study and Discovery of Electroactive π-Conjugated Molecules
Get PDFChemistry is entering a new paradigm of automation and data-driven discovery. Automated discovery is grounded in well-curated “big data.” As generative and predictive models fueled by simulation data see growing success, emerging robotic automation enables the generation of unprecedented volumes of experimental data. Automation-powered, data-driven approaches hold tremendous potential for groundbreaking insights and innovations, particularly in the study and discovery of electroactive π-conjugated molecules. Realizing this potential, however, requires democratizing chemical data and the automation needed to generate and use it. There is a need to expand access to the tools for findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) data management and experimental automation. This dissertation contends that efficient discovery in the realm of electroactive π-conjugated molecules requires a coalition of automation and data-driven design with chemists and chemical intuition; this necessitates both large-scale FAIR data and intuitive man-machine interfaces. This dissertation investigates the automation of big-data generation, management, and analysis in the context of studying small electroactive π-conjugated molecules. First, this work examines the philosophical and historical foundations underpinning chemical data ontologies upon which automation and data-driven approaches depend. It advocates for interdisciplinary collaboration between philosophers and chemists to create more realistic, intuitive, and FAIR-compliant data structures. Then, this dissertation explores data generation and management in practice by producing computational data for over 40,000 electroactive molecules via automated high-throughput quantum chemical calculations and building a management infrastructure for the resulting data. It next demonstrates the insights gained through analyzing big data with a study of dihedral angle rotations in π-conjugated systems. The results demonstrate the ability of data-empowered machine learning (ML) to inexpensively automate the estimation of experiment-aligned estimations for mesoscale properties. Likewise, it discusses how big data can be utilized for informing the selection of similarity measures, a key metric in many automated discovery applications. This work finally transitions to the automated generation of experimental data. It overviews a software developed for translating experimental protocols to robotic actions, validating the system by reproducing well-reported electrochemical experiments. Overall, this dissertation offers a path through effective organization, generation, management, and use of chemical data towards the automated study and discovery of electroactive π-conjugated molecules
POPPYSEEDS: ARTS & CRAFTS
No full textPoppyseeds: Arts & Crafts is a collection of short stories which analyzes the relationship art as a concept has with human relations, specifically familial and romantic bonds, and how art can both positively and negatively affect the individual. These stories depict the multiple lives an artist leads, the inherent selfishness of creation, and how parent and childhood impact both parties. Characters deal with the gender norms society has placed on them as well as their own pretentiousness and anxieties surrounding those norms. I was most interested, while writing this thesis, in following the lead set forth by satirists and humorists like Cynthia Ozick, Becky Mandelbaum, and George Saunders, who portray artists as confident and ignorant figures and art itself a noble endeavor worthy enough to ruin one’s life over. This work is also influenced by the short fiction of Miranda July, wherein sensuality and desire are often at the forefront, rendered with an honest pen. Poppyseeds: Arts & Crafts can be called surreal and satirical, a bit Midwestern, and overall laughable. Motherhood is written about often. And so is art and its ability to both create and destroy us
WOKE-LAHOMA: ANTI-TRANS IDEOLOGY ON THE FRONTLINES
No full textThe past decade (2015-2025) of American politics has been marked by a sharp rise in anti-trans politics. Indeed, during this period, anti-trans rhetoric and legislation have become central to American conservative politics more broadly. As the Republican party under Donald Trump works daily to remake the federal government in its image, studying the recent past of Republican-controlled states like Oklahoma offers a window into the future of anti-trans politics at the national scale. This thesis uses a mix of discourse analysis of anti-trans media and participant observation at 2SLGBTQ+ Pride events to analyze the ideological underpinnings of the present-day anti-trans panic in the state of Oklahoma. Anti-trans rhetoric and legislation, I contend, cast trans people as deceptive, delusional, dangerous, and disgusting. For anti-trans ideologists, trans people pose an existential threat to the fabric of American society, of which the basic building block is the white Christian heterosexual nuclear family. In this panicked, anti-trans climate, 2SLGBTQ+ pride events across Oklahoma are sites for trans and queer community-building, cis/straight allyship, and contestations of anti-trans politics. At the same time, these pride events’ corporate and military-industrial entanglements fundamentally constrain the radical content of trans politics by imposing limits on what constitutes “politics.
IN THE CAMPS AND IN THE CONCERT HALLS: THE FUNCTIONS AND MEANINGS OF MUSIC BY FRENCH PRISONERS OF WAR DURING WORLD WAR II
Get PDFDuring the summer of 1940, Nazi military forces invaded France, occupied the northern half of the country, and took more than 1.5 million French soldiers prisoner. Men of various civilian backgrounds found themselves forced into captivity together, imprisoned in prisoner of war (POW) camps across Germany and its occupied territories. Despite the suffering French prisoners endured, POW camps boasted rich intellectual, spiritual, and artistic life. Music played a central role; camp ensembles performed at formal concerts, themed revues, theater productions, and religious services. Furthermore, prisoners organized music classes and conferences, and composers among them created new works.
This dissertation emphasizes music composed in captivity, highlighting the myriad purposes these works served: boosting morale, concealing resistance messages, aiding in worship, and expressing emotions. In addition, many prisoner-composers returned their scores to France via mail or their repatriated comrades and had their works performed in occupied Paris. Often performed with some level of intervention from the so-called Vichy government that oversaw unoccupied France, “prisoner concerts” became associated with Vichy rhetoric in the press. Thus, compositions that fulfilled so many different needs in the POW camps became extensions of the propagandistic messages of Vichy government and its Nazi collaborators
In-Situ Characterization of Damage Mechanisms in Ceramic Matrix Composites
Get PDFCeramic Matrix Composites have many advantages, attracting the nuclear, aerospace, and automotive industries with their high heat stability, strength, and oxidation resistance. However, challenges are presented when machining these materials due to the brittle properties and complicated microstructure. The objective of this project was to identify damage mechanisms that occur when a CMC is orthogonally machined and the cutting mechanics are observed in-situ, followed by post-cut characterization of the as-machined surface morphology. In this analysis, the main variable is the feed rate, which can influence the damage mechanisms, such as matrix failure (matrix cracking) or fiber failure (pullout). Through this investigation, the process parameters are optimized, to find a process that keeps the surface integrity intact, while successfully removing material
A Thesis
No full textThis cycle of cross genre work examines themes of reflection written over the course of two years during the author’s time in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Kentucky. While sections of this thesis are intended to function as stand-alone essays, the cycle of stories and poems are to be read in conversation with one another—offering the reader multiple a patchwork of perspectives over the larger body of work
A Twenty-First Century Approach to Darius Milhaud\u27s \u3ci\u3eSaudades do Brasil\u3ci\u3e
Get PDFFrench composer Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from February 1917 to November 1918. Milhaud’s experience in Rio was overwhelmingly positive, and several of his works were influenced by this period of his life, one being a suite for solo piano titled Saudades do Brasil, Op. 67. Inspired by Brazilian popular music, this piece is an example of exoticism, a trend of writing music based on cultures other than the composer’s own. Considering that exoticism historically has the potential to perpetuate harmful stereotypes or generate false information, this research delves into Saudades do Brasil, exploring Milhaud’s Brazilian influences and his approach to them. Four genres of Brazilian popular music from the early twentieth century and some of their key artists are studied and compared to Saudades do Brasil to determine whether Milhaud approached them with sensitivity and accuracy.
To further strengthen the connection between Milhaud’s piano suite and its Brazilian influences, a chamber arrangement of Saudades do Brasil is included in this research. This arrangement for flute, guitar, and piano represents the fusion between the two cultures; flute and guitar were commonly found in the popular music Milhaud experienced, and piano maintains the thread of continuity from the original score. The chamber arrangement calls attention to Milhaud’s Brazilian influences and allows the opportunity for more performers to access this work