bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Can I Do It?
Authors:   , Reed Sara Anne , Bureau W. Edward
Published: July 2021

Leadership is considered an imperative for the success of organizations, especially in increasingly dynamic and complex times (Day, 2000; Kotter, 2012). Developing leaders to enable the success of organizations has become an effort of strategic importance in many organizations. Military services have a long history of striving for leader development, and the United States Air Force is no exception. The current methods of leader development may challenge opportunities for growth in individual leader confidence, or leader self-efficacy, especially during career transition. To investigate this problem, the purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the perceptions of U.S. Air Force officers of leader development experiences and to examine how these methods may affect leader self-efficacy, focusing on career transitioning to the civilian sector. This mixed methods study was based on a conceptual framework with three main streams: leader development, self-efficacy, and leader identity and sought to answer three main research questions to investigate leader self-efficacy of officers in transition and to explore their perceptions. 1. Using the lens of leader self-efficacy, how confident do U.S. Air Force officers describe themselves as being to lead in the civilian job market? 2. How do officers describe the value of the United States Air Force's leadership development program(s) in preparing them for civilian leadership positions? 3. How does an individual leader's self-efficacy score relate with the leader development described while serving in the U.S. Air Force? The eight-week study consisted of a quantitative portion, which was an online survey, including a 22-question Leader Efficacy Questionnaire and questions on demographics and leadership development activity completion, and a qualitative portion involving semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the quantitative portion indicated differences were not significant between (a) gender (p = .10). Differences were significant between (a) years of service (p = .03), (b) rank (p = .04), and (c) highest level of professional military education completed (p = .03). However, the differences were not significant between (a) commissioning sources (p = .57) and (b) education (p = .54). Six findings emerged from the study: (a) confidence looks different, (b) perceptions of leading in the civilian sector affect confidence, (c) formal courses are not considered significant in building confidence, (d) informal opportunities are highly valued, (e) learning from experience, and (f) leader development activities affect leader self-efficacy. Finally, the study resulted in recommendations for four populations: (a) U.S. Air Force officers, (b) U.S. Air Force educators, (c) U.S. Air Force supervisors, and (d) transition counselors.
The Role of Document Structure and Citation Analysis in Literature Information Retrieval
Authors:   , Zhao Haozhen , Hu Xiaohua
Published: July 2021

Literature Information Retrieval (IR) is the task of searching relevant publications given a particular information need expressed as a set of queries. With the staggering growth of scientific literature, it is critical to design effective retrieval solutions to facilitate efficient access to them. We hypothesize that particular genre specific characteristics of scientific literature such as metadata and citations are potentially helpful for enhancing scientific literature search. We conducted systematic and extensive IR experiments on open information retrieval test collections to investigate their roles in enhancing literature information retrieval effectiveness. This thesis consists of three major parts of studies. First, we examined the role of document structure in literature search through comprehensive studies on the retrieval effectiveness of a set of structure-aware retrieval models on ad hoc scientific literature search tasks. Second, under the language modeling retrieval framework, we studied exploiting citation and co-citation analysis results as sources of evidence for enhancing literature search. Specifically, we examined relevant document distribution patterns over partitioned clusters of document citation and co-citation graphs; we examined seven ways of modeling document prior probabilities of being relevant based on document citation and co-citation analysis; we studied the effectiveness of boosting retrieved documents with scores of their neighborhood documents in terms co-citation counts, co-citation similarities and Howard White's pennant scores. Third, we combined both structured retrieval features and citation related features in developing machine learned retrieval models for literatures search and assessed the effectiveness of learning to rank algorithms and various literature-specific features. Our major findings are as follows. State-of-the-art structure-ware retrieval models though reportedly perform well in known item finding tasks do not significantly outperform non-fielded baseline retrieval models in ad hoc literature information retrieval. Though relevant document distributions over citation and co-citation network graph partitions reveal favorable pattern, citation and co-citation analysis results on the current iSearch test collection only modestly improve retrieval effectiveness. However, priors derived from co-citation analysis outperform that derived from citation analysis, and pennant score for document expansion outperforms raw co-citation count or cosine similarity of co-citation counts. Our learning to rank experiments show that in a heterogeneous collection setting, citation related features can significantly outperform baselines.
Exploring the Electronic Landscape at Interfaces and Junctions in Semiconductor Nanowire Devices with Subsurface Local Probing of Carrier Dynamics
Authors:   , McGuckin Terrence , Spanier Jonathan E. , Schauer Caroline L.
Published: July 2021

The solid state devices that are pervasive in our society, are based on building blocks composed of interfaces between materials and junctions that manipulate how charge carriers behave in a device. As the dimensions of these devices are reduced to the nanoscale, surfaces and interfaces play a larger role in the behavior of carriers in devices and must be thoroughly investigated to understand not only the material properties but how these materials interact. Separating the effects of these different building blocks is a challenge, as most testing methods measure the performance of the whole device. Semiconductor nanowires represent an excellent test system to explore the limits of size and novel device structures. The behavior of charge carriers in semiconductor nanowire devices under operational conditions is investigated using local probing technique electron beam induced current (EBIC). The behavior of locally excited carriers are driven by the forces of drift, from electric fields within a device at junctions, surfaces, contacts and, applied voltage bias, and diffusion. This thesis presents the results of directly measuring these effects spatially with nanometer resolution, using EBIC in Ge, Si, and complex heterostructure GaAs/AlGaAs nanowire devices. Advancements to the EBIC technique, have pushed the resolution from tens of nanometers down to 1 to 2 nanometers. Depth profiling and tuning of the interaction volume allows for the separating the signal originating from the surface and the interior of the nanowire. Radial junctions and variations in bands can now be analyzed including core/shell hetero-structures. This local carrier probing reveals a number of surprising behaviors; Most notably, directly imaging the evolution of surface traps filling with electrons causing bandbending at the surface of Ge nanowires that leads to an enhancement in the charge separation of electrons and holes, and extracting different characteristic lengths from GaAs and AlGaAs in core/shell nanowires. For new and emerging solid state materials, understanding charge carrier dynamics is crucial to designing functional devices. Presented here are examples of the wide application of EBIC, and its variants, through imaging domains in ferroelectric materials, local electric fields and defects in 2D semiconductor material MoS₂, and gradients in doping profiles of solar cells. Measuring the local behavior of carrier dynamics, EBIC has the potential to be a key metrology technique in correlative microscopy, enabling a deeper understanding of materials and how they interact within devices.
A System for Mechanically Testing In-situ Clavicular Fracture Fixation Devices
Authors:   , Wright Rebecca Lynn , Sarver Joseph J. , Ebaugh Duane David
Published: July 2021

Clavicular fractures account for 35% of all shoulder injuries. These fractures are prone to mal-alignment and conservative treatment of these mal-aligned fractures has been shown to be a key contributing factor in decreased shoulder function. Although surgical correction methods have been developed, it is still unknown what degree of mal-alignment requires surgical intervention. The purpose of this study was to develop and test an in-situ clavicular fracture mal-alignment device to be used in a cadaveric shoulder kinematic study. Ultimately this cadaveric study would provide guidance to orthopaedic surgeons on when conservative treatment is appropriate, and when surgical intervention is needed. In order to test the performance of this device, an ex-vivo mechanical testing platform was developed. The platform was based on a cantilever beam concept where: turkey-tibia bones were used as a model of the human clavicle, kinematic markers (Polhemus motion capture system) measured displacement along the bone's length, a load cell (OptoForce) was placed on the free end to record the force applied, and the mal-alignment device was fixed to the bone and spanned the fracture site. The platform was then used to conduct several experiments on bone before and after fracture/fixation which examined the effect of: a) specimen variability, b) loading direction, c) device material and d) device fixation to bone, on displacement of the distal bone. Maximum displacements were found to be different for the various intact bones, thus all fractured/fixed displacement data were measured relative to intact data for each specimen. In addition, maximum displacements of the fractured/fixed bone were found to vary according to loading direction, thus displacement data for each loading direction were compared separately. Using this approach, the plastic mal-alignment device was found to have dramatically larger displacements (43.68mm) than the aluminum device (1.51mm). In addition, mechanical fixation was found to have larger displacements (9.19mm) than both mechanical/glue (0.72mm) as well as all glue fixation (1.51mm). Ultimately, the testing system was successful at measuring increases in displacements of fractured/fixed bone relative to intact, and as such is an ideal platform for future mal-alignment device testing. With respect to the mal-alignment device, the testing clearly indicated that aluminum material must be used and that proper fixation of the device to the bone needs improvement. Future work can now use this platform to improve the mal-alignment device such that it can be used in a cadaver study to examine the effect of mal-alignment on shoulder kinematics.
Wastewater Disinfection with Peracetic Acid
Authors:   , Bakst Ian , Farouk Bakhtier
Published: July 2021

Peracetic acid (PAA) is well-known as an antimicrobial agent for disinfection, and has particular applicability for treatment of wastewater for reuse. The performance of a per-acetic acid disinfection system is a function of site, specific water characteristics, intrinsic kinetics, and reactor hydraulics. Often on-site pilot testing is important to determine the site-specific kinetics. Prediction and optimization of disinfection performance is often difficult without modeling the full-scale disinfection system. Metamodels offer an elegant solution to this problem. In this thesis, we present the results of microorganism inactivation in a mobile serpentine pilot reactor using a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. A 3-D CFD model was used for the prediction of transport of momentum as well as the concentrations of the disinfectant PAA and its decay, and the microorganisms (dead and alive). The CFD model developed was calibrated with tracer data from the on-site pilot reactor and used to analyze the chemical and biological performance of such a system. Polynomial t and ANN-based metamodels were developed from the CFD model predictions of microorganism inactivation in lieu of experimental disinfection data. It was determined through cross-validation analysis that the 5-neuron ANN was the optimum metamodel for this application. The metamodel was applied to obtain algebraic relations of the disinfection rate as a function of the inlet conditions of the microbial concentration and PAA dose.
It's Not Worth Fixin'
Authors:   , Carone Justin Nathaniel Charles , Slaton Amy Elisabeth
Published: July 2021

By imposing a purportedly egalitarian meritocratic ideal, institutions of disciplinary power, including regulatory agencies, systems of wage labor management, and educational opportunity structures, naturalize the gross social inequities evident in the capitalistic social formations of the United States. This thesis draws upon theoretical framings from labor history, disability studies, queer theory, and science and technology studies to explore, interrogate, and destabilize the notions of hierarchy and merit that underlie the practices of such institutions. It develops the notion of "deservingness" from poverty studies to reveal how the measurement and delineation of identity categories like productive capacity and its constituent parts, intellectual capacity and physical ability, serve to legitimize an unequal distribution of power and resources, in part by obfuscating the conflation of these categories with the more familiar identity categories of race, gender, sexuality, and disability. Using an "ontological toolkit," this thesis proceeds to follow various enactments of the consumer appliance-and, along with it, the "productive worker"-in a small, independently owned appliance repair shop and across the practices of the institutions of disciplinary power with which its employees interface. Through an ethnographic and ontological analysis of repair in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Kensington, this thesis reveals that, rather than being inevitable or "units continuous in time," all the categories that we use to organize our world, whether they refer to identities or objects, are both constituted by and constitutive of a complex set of social relations and ideological priorities.
Third Party Support and Risk Costs in Supply Chain Coordination
Authors:   , Masten Kurt A. , Banerjee Avijit
Published: July 2021

It is broadly accepted that supply chain members which can jointly optimize their decisions, using techniques such as joint economic lot-sizing (JELS), will always produce equal or superior total profits than those supply chains which do not cooperate. In addition to increased profits, cooperation offers other established benefits. The majority of research has explored the use of coordination mechanisms (e.g. quantity discounts) to improve on purely competitive (arms-length) arrangements in supply chain purchase contracts. Though the use of these mechanisms can potentially improve profits, they often fail to offer any substantive guidance in implementing the proposed solution. Further, the JELS solution proposals often presuppose a spontaneous and effective coordination effort led by one or both supply chain parties. However, research has shown that very little meaningful cooperation occurs in practice. This thesis proposes and explores the novel use of an expert third party to assist in coordination and cooperation efforts of a contract-based dyadic (supplier-buyer) relationship. It is shown that coordination using a third party can, not only ensure optimal profits for the entire supply chain, but also provide significant contributions to the extant body of knowledge. These benefits include consideration of intangible factors such as neutral arbitration and protection of confidential information. An updated cost model accounts for many costs not typically considered in lot-sizing problems, including the introduction of the seller's costs of commitment and contract costs. Numerical studies via simulation are performed to add insight into the implications of the updated model. Sensitivity and algebraic analyses are included for selected scenarios.
Trends in Sugar-sweetened Beverage Intake by Middle School Students in the HEALTHY Study
Authors:   , McManus Elizabeth L. , Volpe Stella L.
Published: July 2021

BACKGROUND: Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption has been linked to health issues, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Adolescents in the 6th through 8th grades are at increased risk for heavy consumption, due to peer influences and increased purchasing power. The purpose of the present study was to analyze sugar-sweetened beverage intake by students in the HEALTHY Study. METHODS: Multivariate analyses of variance were performed to assess differences in the frequencies of total sugar-sweetened beverage intake, as well as of chocolate milk, soda, Kool Aid, and Tang consumption, among 4,603 students in the HEALTHY Study. RESULTS: All students had a significantly higher mean intake of soda (P<0.0001) and Kool Aid (P<0.0001), and a significantly lower intake of Tang (P<0.0001), in 8th grade compared to 6th grade. Students in control schools had a lower intake of soda and Kool Aid in 6th grade and a higher intake of these beverages in 8th grade, compared to students in intervention schools. CONCLUSIONS: These findings may offer support for the effectiveness of the HEALTHY programming in influencing healthier behaviors in intervention schools. However, our results suggest that school-based nutrition interventions do not have a meaningful impact on behaviors involving sugar-sweetened beverage intake.
Assessment of Changes in Anthropometric Measures, and Dietary and Physical Activity Behaviors in Children Receiving School-Based Obesity Intervention
Authors:   , Higgins Brianna D. , Volpe Stella L.
Published: July 2021

Multi-component childhood obesity interventions in community-based settings show promise as being effective strategies to prevent childhood obesity, especially in schools, since no other institution has as much contact time with children. The present study aims to evaluate how effectively a three-pronged school-based childhood obesity intervention, related to nutrition, physical activity and preventive health, may positively affect measures of weight status and health behaviors. Thirteen public, parochial and charter schools in Greater Philadelphia area (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties) were included in this school-based childhood obesity intervention. Recruited schools were categorized into Intervention schools (Core and Level 1 schools) and Control schools, in which the categorizations varied based on the dosage of the intervention received. Anthropometric measures and self-reported dietary intake and physical activity behaviors were taken on all 5th grade students at baseline, at the beginning of the 2014 to 2015 school year, and follow-up, at the end of the 2014 to 2015 school year. Non-parametic Kruskall-Wallis and Mann-Whitney analyses were conducted. In total, 269 5th grade students participating in this intervention were identified as overweight or obese at the beginning of the school year. Though body mass index (BMI) z-score slightly decreased in this population over the school year, no significant changes were found in difference of BMI z-score and waist circumference over the school year. Cross-sectional analyses indicated that at, follow-up, children in Level 1 schools consumed vegetables other than green salad significantly more frequently than Core and Control schools (P=0.002 and P=0.001, respectively), and consumed soda significantly less frequently than Core and Control schools (P<0.001 for both Core and Control schools). Furthermore, at follow-up, it was found that males had a significantly higher number of days in which they participated in 60 minutes of physical activity than females (P<0.001). At baseline and follow-up, non-Hispanic Black students consumed soda significantly more times per week than non-Hispanic White students (P<0.001, both). Although this school-based intervention may not have led to significant decreases in BMI z-score or waist circumferences over one year in overweight and obese children in 5th grade, a longer term intervention may provide positive changes in these measures.
Utilization of Behavioral Health Services among Medicaid-Eligible Women with Pre-Existing Psychiatric Disorders during the Perinatal Period
Authors:   , Larach Carol S. , Sell Randall
Published: July 2021

Objective: Using Behavioral Model of Health Services Use (Andersen, 1995) as a theoretical framework, this study (a) examined the patterns behavioral health service utilization among Medicaid-eligible women with pre-existing psychiatric disorders and established behavioral health treatment, and (b) investigated the individual-level factors associated with behavioral health services pre-pregnancy, during pregnancy, and the postpartum period. Methods: Administrative data from Community Behavioral Health were used in a retrospective cohort study design. The study included 813 women who (a) delivered babies (live births) between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008, (b) were residents of Philadelphia County, (c) were Medicaid-eligible during some or all of the study period, between January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2009, (d) had a primary DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of attention-deficit/disruptive behavior disorder, substance-related disorder, schizophrenia/psychotic disorder, mood disorder, anxiety disorder, impulse control disorder, or adjustment disorder, and (e) had an established behavioral health treatment history prior to pregnancy. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to examine associations between predisposing, enabling, and need factors and four types of behavioral health services: (a) outpatient use (use vs. non-use; (b) number of outpatient visits; (c) inpatient use; and (d) number of inpatient days. Results: During pregnancy, rates of outpatient use decreased to 46%, but increased to 71% during the postpartum period. Similarly, rates of inpatient us decreased during pregnancy to 10%, but increased to 18% postpartum. Approximately 24% of the women made 35 or more outpatient visits, and 17% had 10 or more inpatient days. Predisposing (White and Hispanic race/ethnicity and older age), enabling (SSI without Medicare and days of Medicaid enrollment), and evaluated need (a mental health diagnosis) factors were associated with outpatient use. Predisposing (White race) and enabling (SSI without Medicare and days of Medicaid enrollment) factors were associated with the number of outpatient visits. Predisposing (White race) and enabling (days of Medicaid enrollment) factors were associated with inpatient use. The enabling factor, days of Medicaid enrollment, was associated with the number of inpatient days. Conclusion: Health insurance coverage via Medicaid was positively associated with behavioral health service use and intensity of use, but was not robust enough to decrease racial and ethnic disparities in behavioral health service use, suggesting an unmet need for behavioral health services among racial and ethnic minority perinatal women. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.
What Is the Impact of In Situ Simulation on Delays in Defibrillation Among Nurses on an Intermediate Critical Care Unit (ICCU)?
Authors:   , Toth Patricia A. , Wilson Linda
Published: July 2021

Defibrillation, if executed within two minutes of identification of a lethal dysrhythmia, has been identified as the single most important predictor of survival in patients who experience a cardiac arrest. However, most hospitals report a greater than two minute time to defibrillation after identification of the lethal dysrhythmia. Psychomotor skills, such as defibrillation, if not practiced regularly diminish within a three month time frame. The aim of this QI project was to demonstrate that through deliberate practice, using a high fidelity simulation manikin, the time to defibrillation would decrease on an Intermediate Critical Care Unit. The participants were the Registered Nurses working on the unit who volunteered to participate in the pretest/intervention/posttest design. An in situ simulation (pretest) was initiated after a short prebrief and introduction to the manikin. Time to defibrillation was measured during the pretest. After the pretest, each group of participants received didactic and hands on education surrounding the procedure of defibrillation. Another in situ simulation (posttest) followed the educational intervention and time to defibrillation was measured during each posttest. Paired sample t-tests were noted to be statistically significant (p=.001) demonstrating that the time to defibrillation was lessened after the participants received the educational intervention and deliberate practice. Deliberate practice can lead to improved patient safety, improved staff confidence, and better patient outcomes during a clinical emergency.
Impact Palliative Care Consults Have on Readmission Rates for Patients Diagnosed With Heart Failure
Authors:   , Smith Patricia A. , DiMaria-Ghalili Rose Ann
Published: July 2021

Background and Purpose: In the United States, approximately 5.8 million individuals have heart failure (HF) with newly diagnosed cases annually. Patients diagnosed with symptomatic HF continue to have mortality and readmission rates approximating 5% - 30%, respectively. Palliative care is one transitional care process which may reduce readmission rates from one third to one half. The aim of this quality improvement (QI) project was to evaluate the impact of palliative care (PC) consults on 30-day readmission rates for patients with the primary diagnosis of HF. Methods: A retrospective chart review of HF patients treated at an academic medical center between July 1, 2014 and July 1, 2015 was performed. Data extracted from the medical records included documentation of a PC consult and presence of a 30-day readmission after index HF admission. Demographic and descriptive variables included: sex, age, race, insurance type, and severity of illness. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis were conducted to identify the differences in 30-day readmissions by PC consults. Results: A total of 1,032 patient records were retrieved and 222 excluded for not meeting inclusion criteria; the remaining 810 records were used for analysis. The sample was primarily men (59.8%, n = 484), Blacks (46.4%, n = 376), and between the ages of 50 - 64 (44.9%, n = 364). The 30-day readmission rate for the total sample was 16.7%. There was a difference between 30-day readmission rates for those who did not receive a PC consult (15.9%) and those patients who did receive a PC consult (25%). Out of 135 reported 30-day readmissions for HF, 87.4% did not receive a PC consult and 12.6% did receive a PC consult. The results were not statistically significant (p = 0.54). Clinical Implications and Recommendations: Readmission rates were lower in those who received a PC consult however, this was not statistically significant. Further evaluation of PC consults and interventions in patients with HF is warranted.
Impact of Care Coordination and Caseload on the Job Satisfaction and Perceived Work-related Stress of Public Health Nurses
Authors:   , Remy Caridad P. , Giarelli Ellen
Published: July 2021

Background: Public health nurses (PHN) work long hours, carry high caseloads, manage with fewer resources, and must deal with increasing technology while ensuring the provision of quality care. Since the time of Lillian Wald, public health nursing has undergone a major transformation in the types of services provided in the community due to the complexity and acuity of the current patient population. PHNs play a significant role in helping patients to effectively manage their illness in order to prevent unplanned hospitalizations. Illness, absenteeism, turnover, and poor job satisfaction are end products of stress. The purpose of this DNP project was to examine the impact of care coordination and caseload on job satisfaction and stress on the PHNs who are providing care to patients in the community. Methods: Descriptive study using mixed methods of data collection and analysis. A purposive sample of nurses who have had experience working in home care and who have provided skilled nursing care for a minimum of one year completed self-reported surveys. Perceived stress was measured with the Expanded Nursing Stress Scale. Job satisfaction was assessed using the Measurement of Job Satisfaction Tool. Analysis of the data collected from the surveys included descriptive and inferential statistics. Correlation coefficients, two-sample t-tests and content analysis were used to summarize the data and compare group differences between nurses with different caseloads. Results: However, due to a small sample size, the correlation and t test results showed inconsistency with content analysis. Content analysis provided more insight and represented more accurately the characteristics of a small sample size. Conclusion/ Clinical relevance: There exists a gap in the research regarding the impact of these factors on PHN and additional research is needed to explore the relationships between work conditions and PHN stress and impact on patient care. The results of this study support the idea that high caseloads impact job satisfaction and stress levels of nurses working in public health. Implementing changes to improve work conditions would provide PHNs with the time needed to focus on quality patient care which would ultimately lead to improved patient outcomes. In addition, the data collected from this project could influence change as it relates to the current model of care delivery in public health.
Among hospitalized adults, what is the effect of medication discussion by a pharmacist, compared to a registered nurse on patient satisfaction
Authors:   , Torres Tammy , Patton Carol M.
Published: July 2021

This project took place in a 169-bed hospital in Coatesville, PA. This hospital has poor Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores and is receiving a reduction in payment from the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The CMS links HCAHPS scores with reimbursement to hospitals as a component of the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (HVBP) program (Huppertz & Smith, 2014). The HCAHPS survey is a standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients' perception on hospital care (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2014). The aim of this project was to change the care delivery model on the nursing care units as a solution to increasing the HCAHPS in the area of medication communication. By incorporating the pharmacists into the healthcare team, they will be in an ideal position to support nursing by educating the patients on their medications (Chisholm-Burns, Lee, Spivey, Slack, Herrier, Hall-Lipsy, &Wunz, 2010, p.932). The two questions in the standardized tool that gauge patient satisfaction in the area of medication education are Question (1) Before giving you any new medicine, how often did hospital staff tell you what the medicine was for? Question (2) Before giving you any new medicine, how often did hospital staff describe possible side effects in a way you could understand? To achieve this aim, pharmacists were placed on the 51-bed Progressive Care Unit (PCU) and scripted on how to enter the patients' room and engage the patient in a medication discussion. Data was collected from the patient population from Quarter 1 of the previous fiscal year prior to changing the care delivery model (current practice) and compared to the Quarter 1 results of the current fiscal year after implementation of the care delivery model (incorporation of the pharmacist).
Dual-Axial Blood Pump Mechanical Circulatory Support for Fontan Patients
Authors:   , Birewar Shravani N. , Throckmorton Amy
Published: July 2021

The current treatment paradigm for patients with dysfunctional or failing single ventricle physiology involves pharmacologic therapy, surgical reconstruction of the Fontan physiology, and heart transplantation. The limited number of donor hearts and complication of a Fontan surgical takedown require alternative treatment strategies for these patients. Existing mechanical circulatory support systems are inadequate for these patients since these devices were designed for the systemic circulation in patients with a biventricular circulation, not a Fontan physiology. Therefore, researchers have been developing new blood pumps for single ventricle patients. As a new therapeutic approach, this thesis considers a newly combined configuration of dual-axial flow blood pumps located in the pulmonary arteries to mechanically support the Fontan physiology. The initial design geometries were constructed using computer-aided design software. Pump design equations and empirical data were utilized to create the differing design configurations based on pump placement, diameter, protective cage filaments, stagger angle, blade number, and operational states. The pump performance of these configurations was assessed using robust ANSYS CFX turbomachinery software. Over 150 simulations were performed over a range of blood flow rates and rotational speeds. Pressure rise, energy augmentation, and blood damage indices were determined for the pump geometries considered. All simulations showed pressure and energy augmentations within and above the needed range for improved cavopulmonary conditions. Additionally, all simulations examined for blood trauma showed mean blood damage indices below 1%. Overall, the current research was successful and demonstrated significant proof-of-concept support in the development of a dual-support approach for patients having dysfunctional or failing Fontan physiology.
Machinima Filmmaking
Authors:   , Mercado Jonnathan , Artz Theo A. , Muschio Glen , Ontañón Santiago
Published: July 2021

This Digital Media MS project proposes to create a flexible, intuitive, and low-entry barrier virtual cinematography tool that will enable participants engaged in human computer interaction (HCI) activities to quickly stage, choreograph, rehearse, and capture performances in real-time. Heretofore, Machinima developers have used limited forms of expressive input devices to puppeteer characters and record in-game live performances, using a gamepad, keyboard, mouse, and joystick to produce content. This has stagnated Machinima development because machinimators have not embraced the current evolution of input devices to create, capture, and edit content, thereby omitting game engine programming possibilities that could exploit new 3D compositing techniques and alternatives to strengthen interactivity, collaboration, and efficiency in cinematic pipelines. Our system, leveraging consumer-affordable hardware and software, advances the development of Machinima production by providing a foundation for alternative cinematic practices, to create a seamless form of human computer interaction and to positively convince more people toward Machinima filmmaking. We propose to produce an Unreal Engine 4 system plugin which integrates virtual reality and eye tracking, via the Oculus Rift DK2 and Tobii EyeX, respectively. The plugin will enable two people, in the roles of Director and Performer, to navigate and interact within a virtual 3D space to productively affect collaborative Machinima filmmaking.
Virtual Puppet
Authors:   , Wang Zheng , Berton John Andrew , Muschio Glen , Hunn Lydia
Published: July 2021

This thesis project produced a Virtual Chinese Shadow Puppet System used in concert with Microsoft's Kinect V2. The Virtual Puppet System enables players to use their whole body motions to control virtual puppets instead of using rods or sticks in a traditional way. There are two modes of play in the system. Players can elect to play in a group with multiple puppets performing at the same time, or an individual player may choose to play alone. Twelve puppets were produced for the Virtual Puppet System based on classical characters from the famous Chinese fiction, "Journey to the West." The thesis includes a literature review of relevant works that influenced the project; it describes the workings of the interface and gesture control systems as well as the 2D virtual puppets produced. It also describes lessons learned from observations of a group of 7 - 15 year olds studying Chinese culture who played with the system, and with conversations held with a panel of experts who also observed the children using the system.
A Multiple Case Study of Mandatory Professional Development, Change, and Transformation
Authors:   , Bobley Laurie , Smith Brian K.
Published: July 2021

Higher education institutions are making significant investments in online education and are implementing comprehensive new programs to teach faculty how to become effective online instructors. These investments often come with significant strings attached that require that changes be made across the board to efficiently accommodate 21st Century teaching and learning tools and techniques. The purpose of this multiple case study is to explore the experiences of higher education faculty who participated in mandated professional development to learn how to effectively design and deliver online courses. An additional purpose is to determine the elements of professional development that create opportunities for transformative learning and impactful change in faculty teaching practice. This qualitative study collected data from semi-structured interviews and surveys, and from a review of online courses artifacts that were generated as a result of the mandatory professional development initiative. The data demonstrated that mandated professional development was generally perceived as a positive signal for organizational change, but professional development needs to be highly targeted to specific interests and levels of digital fluency. Mandated professional development enabled the faculty participants to see new possibilities and potential for their online practice. The results of this research may provide insights into how professional development can be designed to help faculty transform their online teaching.
Extremal Entropy
Authors:   , Liu Yunshu , Walsh John MacLaren
Published: July 2021

Entropy and conditional mutual information are the key quantities information theory provides to measure uncertainty of and independence relations between random variables. While these measures are key to diverse areas such as physics, communication, signal processing, and machine learning, surprisingly there is still much about them that is yet unknown. This thesis explores some of this unknown territory, ranging from tackling fundamental questions involving the interdependence between entropies of different subsets of random variables via the characterization of the region of entropic vectors, to applied questions involving how conditional independences can be harnessed to improve the efficiency of supervised learning in discrete valued datasets. The region of entropic vectors is a convex cone that has been shown to be at the core of many fundamental limits for problems in multiterminal data compression, network coding, and multimedia transmission. This cone has been shown to be non-polyhedral for four or more random variables, however its boundary remains unknown for four or more discrete random variables. We prove that only one form of nonlinear non-shannon inequality is necessary to fully characterize the region for four random variables. We identify this inequality in terms of a function that is the solution to an optimization problem. We also give some symmetry and convexity properties of this function which rely on the structure of the region of entropic vectors and Ingleton inequalities. Methods for specifying probability distributions that are in faces and on the boundary of the convex cone are derived, then utilized to map optimized inner bounds to the unknown part of the entropy region. The first method utilizes tools and algorithms from abstract algebra to efficiently determine those supports for the joint probability mass functions for four or more random variables that can, for some appropriate set of non-zero probabilities, yield entropic vectors in the gap between the best known inner and outer bounds. These supports are utilized, together with numerical optimization over non-zero probabilities, to provide inner bounds to the unknown part of the entropy region. Next, information geometry is utilized to parameterize and study the structure of probability distributions on these supports yielding entropic vectors in the faces of entropy and in the unknown part of the entropy region. In the final section of the thesis, we propose score functions based on entropy and conditional mutual information as components in partition strategies for supervised learning of datasets with discrete valued features. Partitioning the data enables a reduction in the complexity of training and testing on large datasets. We demonstrate that such partition strategies can also be efficient in the sense that when the training and testing datasets are split according to them, and the blocks in the partition are processed separately, the classification performance is comparable to, or better than, the performance when the data are not partitioned at all.
A Data-driven Exploration of Rhythmic Attributes and Style in Music
Authors:   , Prockup Matthew K. , Kim Youngmoo
Published: July 2021

Humans identify with three basic components of music: melody, harmony, and rhythm, in order to describe and differentiate songs. With these simple components, one can recognize higher level concepts such as the style and other expressive elements of a piece of music. In this thesis, I explore rhythmic components and their relationships to each other, to genre, and other geo-cultural factors (i.e., language) through data driven approaches using audio signals. Working in conjunction with Pandora, I employ a corpus of over 1 million expertly-labeled audio examples across many rhythmic styles and genres from their flagship Music Genome Project. Each song is labeled with more than 500 attributes of rhythm, instrumentation, timbre, and genre. In order to model the rhythmically related information from audio signals, I implement a set of novel and compact rhythm-specific acoustic features. They represent beat-level and meter-level information as well as elements of rhythmic variation and pulse stability. First, the acoustic features are used to predict the presence of human-annotated attributes of the meter and rhythmic feel (i.e., swing). Previous work has studied the general recognition of rhythmic styles in music audio signals, but few efforts have focused on the deconstruction and quantification of the foundational components of global rhythmic structures. Second, I focus on rhythm and its relationship to genre. Genre provides one of the most convenient categorizations of music, but it is often regarded as a poorly defined or largely subjective musical construct. I provide evidence that musical genres can to a large extent be objectively modeled via a combination of musical attributes, with rhythm playing a significant role. Finally, through a set of unsupervised machine learning experiments that employ both the human-labeled attributes and acoustic features, a set of low-dimensional, perceptually-motivated rhythm spaces is designed. These spaces provide grounded and visual insight into the relationships between rhythmic attributes and rhythmic styles. Most previous work strives to automatically predict a specific phenomena (i.e., genre) without a contextual understanding of why a label is applied. This work is motivated by largely the same idea, however, I aim to not only predict the phenomena but also understand the components used to construct it. This opens up the door to a more grounded and intuitive understanding of these components and how they interact to create the different styles of music we enjoy.
Determination of vertical fluxes of sulfur dioxide and dimethyl sulfide in the remote marine atmosphere by eddy correlation and an airborne isotopic dilution atmospheric pressure ionization mass spectrometer
Authors:   , Mitchell Glenn M. , Bandy Alan R.
Published: July 2021

Vertical fluxes of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and sulfur dioxide (SO₂) were determined by eddy correlation and an isotopic dilution atmospheric pressure ionization mass spectrometer (APIMS) on an aircraft platform. The sampling frequency of the isotopic dilution APIMS ranged from 1 Hz to 25 Hz for real-time measurements. Measurements were made near the surface in the marine boundary layer to over 6 km in the free troposphere. The APIMS demonstrated an average sensitivity of 80 cps/pptv for DMS and SO₂ with a signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio > 5. A lower limit of detection of 0.1 pptv in a one second integration period was also determined for DMS and SO₂ in airborne atmospheric measurements. Use of the isotopic dilution technique provided an internal calibration of every ambient sample along with manifold conditioning for rapid and efficient transport of the ambient species through the manifold. As a result the eddy correlation flux determinations were accurate, precise, and reproducible. Laboratory results suggest the addition of ozone in excess of 45 ppbv to the APIMS sampling manifold to ensure unaltered formation of SO₅⁻ ion (the ion detected for SO₂). Use of a Nafion dryer was warranted for sensitive APIMS detection of SO₂ in humid air. A Nafion dryer along with an air temperature of 400°C was required for sensitive APIMS detection of DMS in humid air. Results from an initial airborne test deployment in continental air include a successful SO₂ intercomparison between the APIMS and a GC/MS/ILS (isotopically labeled standard-gas chromatography/mass spectrometer). Fast SO₂ measurements in thin moist layers and pollution plumes demonstrated the utility of the fast isotopic dilution APIMS technique. Results from a second airborne test deployment in the remote marine boundary layer include a successful DMS intercomparison and eddy correlation fluxes of DMS and SO₂ from isotopic dilution APIMS. The average DMS flux near the surface was (1.7±0.2)x10¹³ molecules m⁻² s⁻¹. A flux gradient for DMS generated a DMS surface flux of (2.3±0.7)x10¹³ molecules m⁻² s⁻¹ and a DMS entrainment flux of (7.5±4.4)x10¹² molecules m⁻²s⁻¹. High resolution altitude profiles of DMS allowed for the determination of the DMS entrainment velocity (1.91±1.1 cm/s). A SO₂ flux of (4.3±1.9)x10¹² molecules m⁻²s⁻¹ and a deposition velocity of 2.4±1.1 mm/s also was determined. All values reported are in good agreement with the literature.