bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Формирование композитных полимерных фотонных кристаллов и изучение их свойств методами оптической спектроскопии
Authors: Шевченко Н. Н. , Якобсон О. Д. , Иванькова Е. М. , Селькин А. В.
Published: September 2024

Методами последовательной эмульсионной и затравочной эмульсионной полимеризации изготовлены монодисперсные полимерные частицы типа ядро‒оболочка. Структура поверхностного слоя частиц изучена с помощью растровой электронной микроскопии. Установлено, что последовательная эмульсионная полимеризация позволяет получать частицы с наименьшими значениями дисперсии их диаметра. Введение метилметакрилата как на стадии синтеза ядер, так и в процессе формирования оболочки приводит к формированию сферических частиц с гладким поверхностным слоем. На основе таких частиц получены пленки с ярко выраженными свойствами фотонных кристаллов и исследованы их спектры брэгговского отражения в поляризованном свете.
Формирование наночастиц оксида цинка в водных растворах карбоксиметилцеллюлозы и их физико-химические свойства
Authors: Юнусов Х. Э. , Мирхолисов М. М. , Ашуров Н. Ш. , Сарымсаков А. А. , Рашидова С. Ш.
Published: September 2024

Определены условия синтеза полимерметаллокомплексов, вмещающих в себя наночастицы оксида цинка различных размеров и форм, из растворов очищенной натрий-карбоксиметилцеллюлозы со степенью замещения 0.97, степенью полимеризации 850 и кристаллогидрата нитрата цинка химическими методами при температуре 80°C. Физико-химические свойства образцов натрий-карбоксиметилцеллюлозы, имеющих в своем составе стабилизированные наночастицы оксида цинка различных размеров и форм, изучены с помощью ИК-фурье-спектроскопии, атомно-силовой микроскопии и рентгеноструктурного анализа. Установлено, что с увеличением первоначальной концентрации Zn(NO3)2 в растворах натрий-карбоксиметилцеллюлозы при последующем химическом восстановлении образуются наночастицы оксида цинка разных размеров и форм. Растворы натрий-карбоксиметилцеллюлозы, содержащие наночастицы оксида цинка, могут найти широкое применение в медицинской практике в качестве биоматериалов с антибактериальными свойствами.
DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH POP-UP BOOK MEDIA TO TEACH WRITING SKILL AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Authors: Ita Aida Nur , Rofi'ah Siti , Makrifah Istina Atul
Published: September 2024

This study aims to ensure that the use of Pop-Up Book Media affects the writing abilities of junior high school students. This media focuses with Descriptive Text material to teach writing skill to class VII students. This research use ADDIE model. The sample for this research was class VIIA MTs Sunan Ampel Kediri, totaling 14 students. Data collection was carried out by observation, unstructured interviews with teacher and questionnaires. Data were analyzed using a manual percentage formula. These findings show that the validation percentage of media experts reached 98%, that means "very valid", then the percentage of material validation reached 96%, with means "very valid". The total percentage of student satisfaction questionnaires reached 83.9% which is classified as "Very Satisfied". In conclusion, the use of Pop-Up Book media in learning can increase students' motivation in learning English and increase the creativity of students' in making paragraphs this is immediately effective for developing students' writing skills and the Pop-Up Book learning media is ready to be used by teachers as a learning media.
PROBLEMS AND PRACTICAL NEEDS IN LEARNING VOCABULARY IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Authors: Aida Ade Nurul , Thohir Lalu , Zamzam Ahmad
Published: September 2024

This study analyzed the problems and practical needs of English vocabulary learning among low-score students at a state university in Mataram, Lombok, Indonesia. To provide appropriate instructional materials, learning tasks, or assessment tasks, a need analysis of the student’s prior knowledge is the most important thing that should be done by a teacher. The research involved forty students and used qualitative methods, including questionnaires and interviews, to collect data. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive qualitative methods, such as data reduction, display, analysis, and conclusion. The results of this study show that there are problems in vocabulary learning faced by students such as problems with inaccurate pronunciation, problems in knowing the meaning of too much vocabulary, problems in dealing with grammatical alterations, and problems in using words appropriately. On the other hand, students' practical needs are engaging in learning with interactive activities in the form of games/discussions in class, practicing the words adequately, and asking for feedback for better learning improvement. Future research can further examine overcoming the problems found by linking them directly to practical needs.
PENGARUH PERSEPSI PELAKU USAHA MIKRO, KECIL DAN MENENGAH (UMKM), KUALITAS SDM, UKURAN USAHA, TERHADAP TINGKAT PEMAHAMAN UMKM DI SURABAYA DALAM IMPLEMENTASI STANDAR AKUNTANSI UNTUK ENTITAS, MIKRO, KECIL, DAN MENENGAH (SAK EMKM)
Authors: Febrianti Ananda Ayu Sherly , Prayogi Gusti Dian
Published: September 2024

Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk melihat bagaimana persepsi pelaku usaha UMKM di Surabaya, kualitas sumber daya manusia, dan ukuran usahanya dalam kaitannya dengan pemahaman mereka terhadap Standar Akuntansi Keuangan Entitas Mikro, Kecil, dan Menengah (SAK). EMKM). Kota metropolitan utama di Jawa Timur, Surabaya, adalah rumah bagi UMKM yang cukup besar dan memainkan peran penting dalam perekonomian lokal. Namun karena kurangnya keahlian dan personel yang diperlukan, UMKM seringkali mengalami kesulitan ketika mencoba menerapkan SAK EMKM. Temuan studi ini menunjukkan bahwa pendapat dan pemahaman yang baik terhadap SAK EMKM, serta sumber daya manusia berkaliber tinggi yang memadai, semuanya mendukung efisiensi penggunaan standar tersebut. Penelitian ini diharapkan dapat memberikan informasi mendalam kepada para pemangku kepentingan untuk membantu pertumbuhan.
KOMPENSASI, JOB DESCRIPTION, DISIPLIN KERJA PADA KINERJA KARYAWAN
Authors: Due Apolonia , Qurochman Arief Nurdiannova
Published: September 2024

Perusahaan sangat perlu memperhatikan hal-hal yang mempengaruhi kinerja karyawan, supaya kinerja karyawan bisa meningkat dan tujuan perusahaan tercapai. Riset ini dilaksanakan untuk memverifikasi peranan variabel kompensasi, job description, dan disiplin kerja pada kinerja karyawan. Metode kuantitatif dengan regresi linear berganda dimanfaatkan pada riset secara survey pada 35 karyawan CV. Surya Jaya Maju Perkasa, Surabaya sebagai responden berdasarkan indicator masing-masing variabel. Hasil secara keseluruhan menyatakan variabel kompensasi, job description, dan disiplin kerja berperan penting pada kinerja karyawan, meskipun peranan ketiga variabel bebas pada kinerja karyawan hanya sebesar 31.2 %. Selanjutnya, secara per bagian, kompensasi tidak berperan pada kinerja karyawan. Sementara, job description dan disiplin kerja berperan penting pada kinerja karyawan.
UNVEILING THE INTERPLAY OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE, MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND SME PERFORMANCE
Authors: Wuryaningsih Wuryaningsih
Published: September 2024

This research uses the resource-based view theory to examine the influence of competitive advantage on SME performance. Furthermore, this research also examines the effect of management accounting information systems on SME performance. This study used a survey method with 129 SMEs in Malang City, Indonesia. Research data was analyzed using Warp PLS 8.0. The research results show a significant effect between competitive advantage and management accounting information systems on the performance of SMEs. In addition, management accounting information systems can moderate the relationship between competitive advantage and SME performance. These results imply that SMEs must create a competitive advantage over competitors, which will positively affect profits. In addition, implementing a management accounting information system will further strengthen the role of competitive advantage in improving performance for SMEs
TROPION-Lung01 Results Indicate PFS Benefit With Datopotamab Deruxtecan Over Docetaxel in Previously Treated Nonsquamous NSCLC. A critique and question
Authors: Bornstein Leticia , Dueñas-Gonzalez Alfonso
Published: September 2024

This commentary critically reviews the findings of the TROPION-Lung01 Phase III study, which compared the efficacy and safety of datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd) with docetaxel in patients with pretreated advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The study reported a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) for the overall population, with a pronounced benefit in patients with nonsquamous histology. However, no significant increase in overall survival (OS) was observed. While Dato-DXd exhibited a favorable safety profile, with fewer treatment-related adverse events compared to docetaxel, concerns arose regarding an increased progression risk in patients with squamous histology. This commentary also explores the study’s adherence to CONSORT guidelines in presenting absolute and relative risks and reflects on how these findings might be communicated to patients considering Dato-DXd treatment for NSCLC.
A Comparative Study of Local Government Leave Programs
Authors:   The Korean Association For Local Administration, Bak HyeonUk , Yoo Soodong
Published: September 2024

A variety of local government leave programs have been introduced and improved to increase government productivity, help government employees achieve work-life balance, and create a family-friendly workplace culture. However, the usage rate of annual and long-term leave is still low, and public employees are not satisfied with their work-life balance. The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze local government employee leave programs in Korea and overseas countries (U.S., France, and Japan) and provide policy implications for improving leave programs. It is necessary to provide more detailed regulations on the use of annual leave for more than 10 consecutive days so that employees can get enough rest when they need it and gain new vitality through long-term leave. In addition, local governments should be given the autonomy to set their own vacation policies to suit their local and environmental characteristics.
Virtue reliabilism and favorable epistemic environments
Authors:   , Alvear Fernando
Published: September 2024

This dissertation develops a virtue-theoretic framework that properly considers the role of the epistemic environment in the acquisition of knowledge and other related normative statuses. It argues that such a framework provides a series of theoretical benefits: it enables an improved articulation of the safety condition for knowledge, motivates an appropriate analysis of fake barn cases, and furnishes tools to assess the epistemic harms caused by deepfakes. The main strategy used to understand the effects of the epistemic environment in these issues is to analyze the normativity of the practices in which skillful performances take place. The central idea is that these practices involve norms that require the agent's local environment to be shaped in specific ways.
A modern test theory approach to selecting eye tracking stimuli
Authors:   , Graves Benjamin Lee
Published: September 2024

Researchers who conduct eye-tracking studies often consider stimuli to be interchangeable without much consideration for item effects. For example, the saliency of distractor objects in an image plays a role in the difficulty of spotting a specific target object. This, in addition to using a large number of images, use up the resources of both the researcher and participant. The goal of this project is to explore the application of item response models to eye tracking data in order to reduce the number of images used in a study while keeping similar amounts of information. Specifically, I use data from an image memorability study by Bylinskii et al. (2015) to fit item response models formulated in a GLMM framework. Associated memorability scores are used as a standard of comparison for parameter estimates in the item response models. This method provides a way to select images of varying difficulty and to thin out images that overlap in the information they provide. Alternative link functions are explored for use with eye tracking data that is not dichotomous and simulations are conducted to assess various thinning methods as well as their stability. Overall, models tend to retain their predictive ability as the number of images are reduced. These findings suggest that researchers can decrease the number of images used in a study, given that they are high quality and cover a range of difficulty levels. This decrease then saves researchers and participants time and resources.
The Suicide Table
Authors:   , Hatjakes AnnElise
Published: September 2024

The Suicide Table is a formally experimental novel composed of narrative, primary source material, and fictionalized historical accounts. It opens in present-day Reno, Nevada, and follows Nellie, a historian by training. It's not just her work that is rooted in the past. She avoids as many aspects of modernity as she can, dressing in vintage clothing and carrying around a flip phone that she rarely charges. In hopes of getting a grant from a historical preservation society, she pitches a project about women who lived through the 19th-century mining bonanza in Virginia City, Nevada. Soon, her focus narrows on Julia Bulette, a beloved historical figure and local legend, whose fictionalized diary entries appear early in the novel to form a narrative thread of their own. The novel concludes with Nellie's discovery of the diary, which had been secreted away in the famed Delta Saloon Suicide Table that her grandfather acquired at his pawn shop after the saloon-turned-casino went out of business. In conversation with the Western novel tradition that influenced its creation, the novel explores points of intersection between historical records, folklore, and fictional stories.
An arts-based research study of art students engaging in collaborative sketchbooks to learn about drawing
Authors:   , Hobbs Joshua T
Published: September 2024

This Arts-based Research (ABR) study explores using rotating collaborative sketchbooks as a teaching tool in a university foundations drawing course to expand students' understanding of what drawing is and how drawing is a literacy. This study seeks to help fill a gap in the literature about collaborative drawing practices as a pedagogical tool in the training of artists in foundations or freshman-level drawing courses. Data is carved out by students curating and collaging pages from their sketchbooks into a class-wide work, along with having verbal conversations throughout the process, including using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) to visually decode the imagery. Response drawing practices are used by the researcher to analyze, synthesis and (re)present the data. The findings are presented through drawings and written statements called conclusionary catalysts. True to the generative nature of ABR, these conclusionary catalysts resist making authoritative claims, but rather seek to inspire other art educators in considering how collaborative drawing practices might positively impact curriculum and student learning.
The states strike back : an examination of multistate lawsuits against the federal government
Authors:   , Lang Zachary
Published: September 2024

Around the time of the Constitutional Convention, the states were very diverse places, especially in terms of size. The 1790 Census found that one in five Americans lived in massive Virginia, yet the entire state of nearby Delaware was home to fewer than 60,000 people (US Census 2021). The states were also diverse in terms of language. French was the predominant language in parts of upstate New York, Massachusetts (which encompassed Maine), and the Vermont Republic, which was one year away from joining the US. German was common throughout segments of central Pennsylvania, and English had only recently unseated Dutch as the predominant language in New York City and northern New Jersey (Crawford 1987; O'Keefe 2020). Americans and their states varied across every possible dimension: geography, climate, industry, religion, and economics, and this is to say nothing about political disagreements over representation, slavery, Native Tribes, relations with Europe, and the direction of the country. As the Founders discovered at the Constitutional Convention, the states were too different to be governed together easily. The Founders kept these differences in mind when developing a federalist system. They designed a system where citizens had two simultaneous relationships with two separate governments: one state, and one federal. Among the many principled and practical reasons for a federalist system, chief among them was to preserve liberty (ex: Fed. No. 15-17, 23, 27, 45, and 46). The idea was that federalism would preserve liberty in two primary ways. First, states would have the incentive to protect their own local identities. Second, just as the separation of powers system provides horizontal checks and balances between branches of the national government, the federalist system would provide vertical checks and balances between the states and the federal government. The Constitution grants both governments some unique and some overlapping powers, and a continual ability to check each other (US Constitution Art. I Sec. X, Art. IV Sec. I-IV, Amendment No. 10). The Founders hoped that this arrangement would produce a constant tension between the states and the federal government that would prevent any one government from becoming tyrannical.
School leadership, math instruction, school climate and culture, and student achievement
Authors:   , Strother Samuel
Published: September 2024

This study examined different outcomes for teachers and students dependent upon school leadership's approach to mathematics at their campus sites. Data from grades 3-5 teachers and students were collected from two adjacent school districts in semi-rural communities in the western United States. Nine schools were selected for participation comprising high, moderate, and low levels of alignment to a common leadership framework. Interviews with teachers at each of the schools were conducted to determine the school climate -- specific to mathematics -- as well as the common features of their math instruction contingent upon leadership's actions. State standardized test scores for students were also collected and analyzed. The study found a significant, but relatively minor, association between leadership and student achievement. These findings extended to analyses controlling for various demographic sub-groups. Results were inconsistent when examining sub-groups, yet still significant and informative. Qualitative analysis of interviews of teachers revealed consistent themes linking teachers' perceptions of their school's leadership to the framework used to determine school levels of leadership efficacy. Teachers' instruction also appeared to be influenced by leaderships' actions. Suggestions for future studies and research designs are provided based on the present study's findings.
Deep mapping apocalypse : cartographies of resistance in contemporary BIWOC climate justice futurisms
Authors:   , Wilson Brittany Nicole
Published: September 2024

In this dissertation, I identify and define a new category of fiction, which I call climate justice futurisms. Unlike mainstream climate fiction (cli-fi), climate justice futurisms articulate the slow violence of climate injustice, which stem from forms of environmental racism and ecological destruction that disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, and migrant communities across the United States. I argue that because these texts operate at the intersections of climate change, social justice, and human rights, their approaches to climate move through marginalized individuals' lived, everyday experiences of climate change rather than portrayals of spectacular, large-scale natural disasters or events. This means that the texts I include within this category are not overtly climate-specific or rooted in the tenets of mainstream environmentalism, so they have been largely dismissed within the Environmental Humanities and climate discourse. The fiction I study illustrates climate injustice as a mundane, attritional violence that is naturalized and justified through U.S. cartographies, which have historically displaced and relegated Black, Indigenous, and migrant communities to contained spaces that are later turned into industrial, highly polluted, under-resourced zones. I argue the climate justice futurisms I analyze reveal the capitalist-colonial violence inherent in these cartographies and actively resist them through their world-building, creating new maps and visions for more equitable and sustainable ways of living, thinking, and being in the U.S. I consider these works a form of deep mapping -- a constellation of pasts, presents, and futures that illuminate the roots and manifestations of slow violence in the U.S. through counter-cartographical strategies.
Spirit roads of Taraco : a geographic information systems approach to the archaeology and ethnography of the Andean Plateau
Authors:   , Burkett Justin Morgan
Published: September 2024

Despite long traditions of landscape and ethnoarchaeological research in the Andes, these two traditions are rarely combined into a landscape ethnoarchaeology. My thesis fills this gap by evaluating contemporary Aymara landscape knowledge obtained through interviews to interpret spatial patterns in archaeological data collected from the Andean Plateau. I derive relevant variables from 13 interviews with Aymara speakers and integrate them with a set of ArcGIS point features that represent the archaeological sites of Bolivia's Taraco Peninsula in a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework, all courtesy of the Taraco Archaeological Project (TAP). Theoretically, this thesis combines the landscape and memory theory of Basso (1996), Van Dyke (2008), and Zedeno (2008) with an archaeology of materiality (Meskell 2008) and utilizes a qualitative GIS method that provides a means of analyzing subjective data gathered from interviews in the quantitative space of a GIS. By combining Aymara knowledge and archaeological data in a GIS framework, I will correlate modern Aymara spatial understandings of the landscape with spatial distribution of archaeological sites, revealing how patterns align between Aymara knowledge of the landscape and previous landscape archaeological analysis in the Southern Titicaca Basin.
Palestinian musical resistance : from NAQBA to now
Authors:   , Chosy Mackenzie
Published: September 2024

Protest music or resistance music are cultural productions associated with a particular movement or ideology that seeks to bring about a desired change through collective action. In the case of Palestine, resistance music has been instrumental to the near century long struggle for independence from Israeli occupation and oppression since the British mandatory period. Through the impressive preservation of folk tradition and adaptations to technological advancements and cultural shifts initiated by the West, the resistance music of Palestine has maintained the embers of a movement for almost one hundred years that has been given every reason and opportunity to fail. In this thesis a body of selected examples from this genre are presented in the context of the sociopolitical conditions they were created in from different notable events of the conflict to trace the catalyst and subsequent development of the genre. The cultural productions of the Palestinian resistance movement have successfully preserved a folk tradition that actively opposes attempts to erase Palestinian identity. By creating audiotopias where listeners within the occupied territories and diaspora can have hope of a new future when heritage, freedom, and equality are valued and listeners removed from the conflict altogether are able to empathize more closely with the Palestinians, resistance music has galvanized such sentiments into collective action across the world in the forms of public protest, BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions), calling for legislation and the enforcement of international law, and mobilizing humanitarian aid efforts.
Market engagement among U.S. elderberry growers : unpacking influence on market participation decision and intensity
Authors:   , Khatiwada Dikshya
Published: September 2024

This study examines the marketing practices and attitudes of a sample of US elderberry producers, further exploring the determinants influencing their decision to engage in the elderberry market and the intensity of their participation. Findings show that a significant portion of the surveyed farmers (40 percent) refrained from marketing their elderberries. Active marketers predominantly sold berries, followed by propagules and other products, with on-farm sales being the primary outlet for about two-thirds of the respondents. Key challenges for elderberry operations included government regulations limiting medicinal promotion, a shortage of specialized equipment for mechanical harvesting, pests and diseases, and limited market access. Larger and more experienced farmers in the Southeast and Northeast were more likely to market elderberries. Higher income, experienced farmers, and those participating in farmers' markets, tended to market a higher number of elderberry products. The study concludes by suggesting policy directions for enhanced market participation among elderberry producers.
Triste Deleytacion : studies on authorship and intended audience
Authors:   , Munoz Muela Jose Luis
Published: September 2024

Triste Deleytacion is a sentimental romance of the late XIVth century written in what is now Spain. Not being published until the 1980s, it has raised many questions regarding its intention, authorship or connection to other books of the time. In this paper, there is an analysis of the sentimental romance and how Triste Deleytacion relates to it, adding as well a brief study of female literacy in the Middle Ages, which helps contextualize the intended audience of the book. Lastly, a study of Triste Deleytacion (as well as a transcription of the two adjacent manuscript) is presented, in which its literary context, date of composition and authorship are analyzed.
An investigation of the relationships between phytoplankton community composition, cyanotoxins, and water quality parameters in Missouri reservoirs
Authors:   , Olaleye Yusuf Olatunji
Published: September 2024

Cyanotoxins are potent toxins that are produced by specific cyanobacteria. They have become a significant concern for the water quality and human health in freshwater ecosystems, including reservoirs. In Missouri, where aquatic ecosystems encounter the dual challenge of agricultural nutrient runoff and climate change, the variability of cyanotoxins presents a major problem. Previous studies have investigated the relationship between phytoplankton and cyanotoxins in Missouri reservoirs but found no significant relationships. Microcystin (MIC) and cylindrospermopsin (CYL) are the most studied toxins, while very few studies are available on anatoxin (ANA) and saxitoxin (SAX). As a result, the objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between phytoplankton community composition, cyanotoxins, and water quality parameters in Missouri reservoirs. Specifically, we seek to determine if the abundance of potentially toxigenic (PTOX) cyanobacteria correlates with cyanotoxins and if the same factors influencing cyanobacterial abundance and MIC concentrations can predict other cyanotoxins such as CYL, ANA, and SAX. The research questions were: (1) Are there any significant correlations between PTOX cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in Missouri reservoirs? (2) Does this relationship differ by type of toxin (i.e., MIC, CYL, ANA, and SAX)? (3) What are the main drivers of cyanotoxins in Missouri reservoirs? The data for this study were collected for 6 years (2017 - 2022) from 16 reservoirs selected across a trophic gradient. We found significantly higher levels of CYL in oligotrophic reservoirs compared to more eutrophied reservoirs. We also observe significant relationships between cyanotoxins and PTOX cyanobacteria, but the relationship varies depending on the toxin type (i.e., MIC, CYL, ANA, SAX). Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) has a significantly positive relationship with MIC, ANA, and SAX whereas its relationship with CYL is significantly negative. Phytoplankton abundance is negatively related to CYL and positively related to SAX, and both MIC and SAX are positively correlated with phytoplankton biovolume. There are variations in cyanotoxin types across trophic gradients. This study represents a significant step forward in understanding cyanotoxin drivers in Midwest US reservoirs.
A cold fireplace
Authors:   , Pickering Sophia
Published: September 2024

Many notable photographs of my father and I were taken in our family home in Philadelphia, the one where my Grandma lives and everyone gathers. This house represents a stable continuity and inspires a feeling of timelessness in my family, as the years become uniform in a concrete setting. After my grandfather's and later my father's death, our family group became smaller, and yet the house remained exactly the same. Because of these changes and consistencies, my Grandma's house has become a place where I deeply feel both the living and absent presence of my Dad. In A Cold Fireplace, I dream of a version of this house, one of broken chronology, where it is impossible to distinguish one year from another and time no longer separates the living from the dead. The show and writing titled A Cold Fireplace is centered around the home's ability to exist outside of a linear timeline by holding disjointed emotions and memories in compressed space. Through pulp painted fragments of personal family photos taken within the rooms of my family home, I call attention to the ways in which these interiors both absorb and diminish tragedy. I identify the home as a setting in which chronological time is both broken and looped. I utilize handmade paper, wooden miniature furniture, and ceramic frames to create a materially-potent memory space of the home, one that is both swirling and unchanging.
Utilizing centrality measurement in bibliometric networks : an example from automation bias research
Authors:   , Rebstock Michael Rex
Published: September 2024

The risks associated with over-reliance on and over-compliance with automation become more relevant as machine learning and artificial intelligence expand into more aspects of our lives, including academic research. How faithfully do the relevant documents discovered through online research services represent the academic community within a domain, and how does an alternative approach focused on the connections between those documents compare? Using the topic of automation bias research as an example, a potential method of estimating pertinence and salience of documents using multiple centrality measures is described and used to rank items in a collection of documents (n=170,944) from the Scopus database. Documents were linked in a network based on bibliometric relationships. Betweenness, closeness, and degree centralities within the context of that network were measured for each. These measurements were combined to rank documents, and the resulting rankings were compared to the ranking of search results from Scopus and Google Scholar. Documents deemed most central by this method did appear to be more pertinent to the topic, including several that didn't appear in either list of search results. A random sample was manually rated for pertinence and salience, which ratings were found to correlate (p=0.0020) with the combined centrality measure. The effect was further improved when modularity-based community detection was used to tighten focus on the most pertinent portions of the network. Notable challenges are evident with this approach, but in all these findings suggest that bibliometric connections and centrality measures can contribute to research discovery as a supplement to content-based relevance rankings, offering up publications that are representative of or considered valuable by a given research community which have nevertheless failed to gain purchase in typical online research services, or which fall outside a researcher's search strategy.
Held in place
Authors:   , Saburi Farena
Published: September 2024

This body of work examines socio-political confinement and immobility through visual and material experimentation in painting. These concerns are influenced by my ongoing experience of immigration and the social constructs of gender that control and limit my social and physical mobility. In my work, I take on the task of understanding space by painting and stitching inside and outside the picture plane. I reference physical and social barriers in architecture that simultaneously serve as entrances and escapes. Cut-outs, tears, frays, and threads of canvas unravel and spill outward from the fixed and bounded picture plane. There is a constant fight for motion in the stasis, impermanence in the permanence, and release from the containment. This thesis does not discuss the issues within gender and migration separately, but instead fuses them into one conversation about spatial difference to show the ways they encourage, enforce, maintain, and/or reject one another. Looking at the relationship between place, space, gender and feminism through the lens of Feminist Geography provides a framework for understanding how social systems, place, space and mobility intersect. Contexts of race and gender are discussed through the histories and processes of (Tajik) Textiles, Immigration, and the art historical contexts of the mediums of painting and fibers. These contexts are considered in the discussion of works from my MFA exhibition, "held in place". Several works are analyzed through the repeated motifs of Doors and Dresses, the looooong black braid, Transparent Curtains and Veils, and the Victorian Walls of (Tajik) Homes. The analysis of works is then expanded upon though the discussion of installation and the ways hanging speaks to the placement and mobility of works and their representations of issues of gendered mobility. It should be specified, this thesis does not offer solutions in equalizing the access of place or its experience, but rather holds space where the discussion of its inequality and the complicated experience of social movements is of the utmost importance.
Thirty pieces of silver
Authors:   , Williams Sherell Janiah
Published: September 2024

This creative thesis utilizes history, theory, Christianity, music, and poetry to critically discuss and creatively engage with the intersections among each of these subjects. The critical introduction chronicles the history of Ham's Curse and its usage in white Christian thought in the antebellum period to justify the enslavement of Black Africans. This ideology created a reality and social location, or assigned position in society based on intersections of identity, for whites and Black Africans in the antebellum South. Using Louis Althusser's ideological state apparatuses (ISAs) and Raymond Williams' reciprocal confirmation terminology can help describe the mechanisms for how this ideology worked. Ham's Curse was disseminated and reciprocally confirmed through different ISAs by being presented as a natural order in God's creation and in Southern society. From their social location, Black Africans interpreted the Bible in such a way that rejected Ham's Curse and created an alternative grammar, what African Diaspora scholar Tiffany Lethabo King calls a shoal, to the white dominant hegemonic Christianity. This alternative grammar and Black African socially located interpretation can be observed in the spirituals, songs that shoaled white Christianity by expressing discontent, organizing resistance, declaring freedom and by maintaining distinctly African elements of worship. The creative work Thirty Pieces of Silver, is inspired by the slave price that Jesus was sold for and the powerful implication of what that would have meant for enslaved persons in the antebellum period, as well as the value that places on people of color today.
The Black Brigade of Cincinnati and the quest for African American citizenship in the Civil War era
Authors:   , Anderson Scott Michael
Published: September 2024

The Black Brigade of Cincinnati was immortalized by black activist Peter H. Clark in 1864 as the "first organization of the colored people of the North actually employed for military purposes." In the city, free African Americans wanted to volunteer for Union military service. Cincinnati officials, however, met that desire with vicious impressment and forced labor of African Americans in response to an impending Confederate invasion. Reacting quickly, the city's abolitionists petitioned the Union Army to supersede the order with one allowing the African Americans to organize for the city's defense. But from this most unlikely of beginnings developed an organization whose positive remembrance had lasting import for black recruitment and claims on American citizenship. Several forces worked in the eventual success of the Black Brigade: alliances with white abolitionists, vibrant African American political engagement, and a tradition of black martial volunteerism--even prior to the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Marathon
Authors:   , Borgard Mikey
Published: September 2024

Marathon is a work of historiographic metafiction that seeks to shed light on the social and psychological ramifications of traumatic events and the art of storytelling itself. It is an extension of the war and terrorism novels that came before it and, to borrow a phrase from Anthony Kubiak's "Narrative Typologies of Terror," an act of terrorism itself: an attempt to destabilize narrative. Marathon follows two protagonists through the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings as they navigate a difficult new reality. It considers the role of the media in the shaping of a victim hierarchy contingent on "marketable anguish," the notion of collective trauma and mourning triggered by the terrorist attack, and the heightened state of vigilance that often leads to anxious racial stereotyping. Told through a polyphonic lens, this creative dissertation explores the tapestry of voices that encapsulates one American city's resilience in the wake of unfathomable horrors.
Deep learning enabled materials design and characterization
Authors:   , Chen Zhenru
Published: September 2024

In this dissertation, deep learning methodologies are applied to innovative computational approaches for the development and characterization of materials in the material science field. The first part of the research focuses on a physics-informed machine learning workflow for virtual experimentation in the 3D printing of thermoplastics, where traditional methods are limited by complex chemical reactions and extensive design possibilities. Utilizing a dataset of 62 formulations and 216 Stress-Strain curves, this method employs dimension reduction and a novel machine learning model with physics-informed descriptors to simulate over 100,000 virtual experiment sets in under one minute, significantly enhancing the speed of material discovery. The second part improves the analysis of characterization data, specifically X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, by using Transformer-based models that surpass previous CNN-based models in training speed and accuracy. This segment introduces a novel data augmentation technique that simulates experimental errors and uses interpretability analysis to show how the model captures long-distance interactions between XRD peaks. It also explores the potential of transfer learning from XRD to Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) data, broadening the model's applicability and improving the efficiency and accuracy of material characterization. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates how deep learning can revolutionize material science research, providing faster, more accurate tools for material development and analysis.
Two essays in stock return predictability
Authors:   , Bai Yang
Published: September 2024

This dissertation consists of two essays on the stock return predictability. The first essay in Chapter 1 titled Machine Learning Classification and Portfolio Allocation examines machine learning predictability using classification models and investigates the relation between predictability and stock returns. The classifiers show significant and robust out-of-sample precision in placing stocks into the correct deciles, outperforming their counterpart machine learning regressions. The corresponding long-short portfolios deliver significant [alpha] economic gains. The classifiers invest more resources in return state transitions with lower information shortage--and excel in predicting return deciles in the center and edges of the transition probability matrix. The classifiers extract information from different firm characteristics. Following Easley and O'Hara (2004), I show that prediction success is negatively related to the future returns at the stock level, controlling for information shortage. Information shortage also reduces the probability of prediction success. Portfolios conditional on information shortage show enhanced performance. A mimicking portfolio based on the shock of prediction precision generates significant benchmarking against popular factor models. The second essay in Chapter 2 titled 150 Years of Return Predictability Around the World: A Holistic View Across Assets studies the time series predictability in bond, stock, and real estate market using payout-price ratios such as dividend-price ratio for stock return forecast. Campbell and Shiller (1988a, b) show that if payout growth is not predictable, the payout-price ratio decides returns and the returns must be predictable. Using 150-year data from 16 developed countries across bond, equity, and housing markets, I revisit this implication using the payout-price ratios and study the payout-price return predictability across assets and countries. None of the 48 country-asset combinations shows consistent in-sample and out-of-sample performance with positive utility gain for the mean-variance investor. Contrary to Cochrane's finding, the VAR simulation using data from all the countries in the past 150 years does not reject the null that the dividend growth is predictable, while 14 (5) countries have in-sample predictable payout growth in the equity (housing) markets. Overall, the joint hypothesis test provides weak support to return predictability based on payout-price ratios.
Soybean stem nutrient dynamics, water-use efficiency, and shoot hydraulic pathway changes along 90 years of breeding
Authors:   , Costa Netto Jose Ribamar
Published: September 2024

Soybean yield has improved due to genetic advancements and better agronomic practices, affecting various traits. This research investigates changes in soybean stem nutrient concentration and remobilization with the year of cultivar release. Modern cultivars showed increased stem N, P, and Cu concentration and reduced stem K concentration. Breeding also altered stem nutrient content, affecting nutrient remobilization from the stem to other tissues. The impact of breeding on soybean water-use efficiency (WUEp) is also being examined. WUEp, assessed using [delta]13C measurements, increased with the year of release (YoR). Canopy temperature during high transpirational demand time at seed filling was negatively correlated with YoR and WUEp suggesting that intrinsic WUE of more recently released cultivars is lower during high demand periods at seed filling. To better understand the aspects of the soybean hydraulic pathway in relation with yield and the effects of breeding for greater yields, we studied stomatal density and stem xylem vessel traits of field grown plants at seed filling. Soybean breeding has changed the plant's hydraulic pathway, affecting stomatal density and stem xylem vessel traits. Despite increased xylem vessel density in newer cultivars, hydraulic conductance has potentially reduced due to decreased stomatal densities and narrower vessels. The impact of these changes on hydraulic safety, seasonal water budget, and yield requires further research.
Complexation of rhenium-186 and technetium-99m tricarbonyl cores with 1,4,7-triazacyclononane based chelators for radiopharmaceutical applications
Authors:   , Hoerres Rebecca
Published: September 2024

Technetium-99m is widely used as a Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) imaging radionuclide in nuclear medicine due to its favorable decay characteristics (t1/2 = 6 h, [gamma] 140 keV (89 percent)) and the low cost and widespread availability of 99Mo/99mTc generators. Technetium-99m can be combined with beta-emitting rhenium radioisotopes 186Re (t1/2 = 89 h, E[beta]max = 1.07 MeV) or 188Re (t1/2 = 17 h, E[beta]max = 2.12 MeV) as a theranostic matched pair. Metal complexes of the general formula [MI(CO)3(k3-L)]+ (M = natRe, 99mTc, 186Re, 188Re) are of particular interest for radiopharmaceutical development because of the ease of synthesis of the [MI(CO)3(OH2)3]+ precursors in which the labile water ligands can be replaced by a suitable tridentate bifunctional chelator. In particular, cyclic chelators containing a 1,4,7-triazacyclononane (TACN) ring (e.g., NOTA and NODAGA) have proven to form exceptionally stable complexes with the [MI(CO)3]+ cores. In this work, we have investigated the role of the pendant arms on TACN-based chelators in complexation of the [M(CO)3]+ core through the synthesis of novel TACN-based chelators, (radio)labeling with the [MI(CO)3]+ cores, and evaluation of the stability and hydrophilicity of the resulting radiometal complexes.
Reversing perspectives : rebel diplomacy, external support, and civil war outcome
Authors:   , Kim Yu Bin
Published: September 2024

Similar to states in the international system, rebel groups--or nonstate armed groups--also conduct diplomacy, particularly during wartime. The practice of rebel diplomacy, in fact, is prevalent in contemporary civil wars. Despite such being the case, our current understanding on the phenomenon still remains quite limited. This is all the more the case when it comes to its effects. Therefore, for the specific purpose of filling in the apparent lacuna, I investigate in my dissertation not only whether rebel groups' wartime diplomacy helps them obtain external state sponsorship, but also whether rebel groups' wartime diplomacy helps them achieve favorable conflict outcomes. In doing so, I make novel contributions to scholarship both theoretically and empirically. Theoretically, I conceptualize rebel diplomacy as a triad that is constituted of conventional diplomacy, public diplomacy, and "advocacy building" for the first time, and then bring to the fore the agency of rebel groups by "reversing" what is known as principal-agent theory. Empirically, based on intensive data collection efforts, I create a new ordinal measure of rebel diplomacy that captures variation in its levels during wartime. Employing this new measure, I show that the diplomatic engagements of rebel groups during wartime matter for obtaining external state sponsorship, but do not matter for achieving favorable conflict outcomes. Simply put, while the practice of rebel diplomacy, at least to some degree, matters for rebel survival, it does not matter as much--if not at all--for rebel success. Indeed, my findings contribute to extant scholarship on rebel governance and, at the same time, provide important scholarly and policy implications.