cometadata/datacite-titles-descriptions-related-identifiers huggingface dataset:
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-379163
title: Electrochromic glass thermal comfort: proposals for improving existing workflow

description: Windows, as one of the least energy efficient components of a building, are responsible for up to 40 percent of the total energy cost including heating, cooling and lighting, and over 30 percent of this energy is lost through poor efficient building components. Electrochromic glass (EC) is one of the state-of-art technologies and can substantially reduce the energy consumptions of buildings. Unlike traditional glass, EC glass dynamically changes its tinting states based on occupant needs. When the glass tint level changes, the glass properties (e.g. Tv, SHGC) change accordingly. Previous studies have been done on electrochromic glass energy simulations. However, most of the existing softwares don’t have the capability of adding the four tinting states to the EC glass or applying a specific tinting schedule, which makes the simulation result inaccurate and not reliable. ❧ The research objective is to find a better way to conduct thermal comfort simulations for EC glass windows. Occupant comfort is a critical condition that may eventually be a market driver for new energy-saving technologies. EC glass manufactures, designers and building owners can get a better understanding of how the occupants feel in a space with EC glass installed. Also by comparing the thermal comfort results with traditional glass installed in the same space, they can see how EC glass can help to improve occupants comfort level. ❧ Workflows have been developed in COMFEN, DesignBuilder, CBE Thermal Comfort Model, and Grasshopper (with Ladybug and Honeybee plugins). The 71T lab at National Lawrence Berkeley Lab (NLBL) was chosen to serve as the simulation prototype. The lab is modeled in software as two identical rooms with the same configurations except for window types: the test case with EC glass and the reference room with low-e glass. The EC control strategy used in the simulation process is automatic daylighting control. Simulation process and results are evaluated and compared, and the workflows in CBE Comfort Model and Grasshopper seem to indicate more reliable results than the workflows in COMFEN, DesignBuilder. ❧ As a supplementary part of the thesis, a full size unit with two pieces of electrochromic glass was assembled in the shop of Arcadia Inc. (an aluminum window and façade system manufacturer and re-seller). Learning the fabrication process is an important approach to understanding the glass system because it involves installation details and wire works which are all different from conventional glass.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-124484
title: Suicide among adolescents
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-316767
title: Administrative reflective practice through imposed Local Contral and Accountability Plan

description: A critical component of a successful administrator is the ability to make decisions that positively affect student learning and successfully navigate accountability mandates from stake-holders. This study addresses administrative accountability challenges imposed on administrators by the new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and its accompanying Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). LCFF instituted a change in the funding system provided to districts by eliminating most categorical funding and replacing it with funds based on the student demographic profile of each Local Educational Agency (LEA). LCFF incorporated accountability goals on services and achievement outcomes for all students. ❧ The purpose of this study was to explore the use of administrative reflective practice when making decisions to demonstrate progress on mandated accountability LCAP goals. This study addressed the research question, How do southern California K-12 administrators describe the use of reflective practice to meet the LCFF/LCAP? Five selected administrators from southern California participated in a qualitative case study. Inductive research methods were utilized through triangulation of data involving administrator surveys, interviews, and artifacts such as LEA LCAPs and site Single School Plans for Student Achievement (SPSA) to summarize findings on administrative reflective practice.  Empirical and theoretical research is highlighted as a foundation of reflective practice. The evidence highlights the impact of administrative reflective process on mandated accountability.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-329948
title: Leadership and implementation of a 1:1 technology initiative at a Southern California comprehensive high school: considering teacher self-efficacy in technology implementation

description: The purpose of this study was to identify and gain an understanding of how the district leaders who oversee Riverview High School (RHS) planned for and implemented a 1:1 computer laptop or tablet device program. The study focused on how education leaders took quality professional development into consideration, managed the change process, identified and secured adequate funding for a multi-year program, ensured the school’s technical infrastructure, instituted a monitoring and evaluation process and considered self-efficacy regarding the use of the computers. This study was also concerned with how the aforementioned elements ultimately affected teacher self-efficacy. The hypothesis of this dissertation, based on an extensive review of the literature, was that teachers’ self-efficacy in technology implementation is affected by the school and district’s technology infrastructure, a technology plan, professional development, an extended budget plan, and an evaluation process. ❧ Five major findings emerged that can serve as a template for other districts wishing to implement 1:1 technology devices at the high school level: (a) teachers at RHS were comfortable in saying that the technology infrastructure was a positive aspect in the implementation process and this promoted teacher self-efficacy. (b) teachers did not agree that administration took teacher self-efficacy into account with the planning of the 1:1 technology device initiative. Even though the district and site leadership attempted to create a culture that promotes teacher inclusiveness in the process of rolling out a 1:1 initiative and that the self-efficacy of teachers was considered throughout the process. (c) teachers felt their self-efficacy improved following professional development. The teachers believed that professional development allowed them to take chances and try new things when integrating technology into their lessons. (d) the district did not have a set way to fund the 1:1 technology initiative for the next 5 to 10 years. (e) the district down to the sites, there was not an understanding of the instructional expectations or evaluation of the 1:1 initiative.  Teachers were the ones who did not know what the expectations of this 1:1initiative were. These themes serve as a basis for action at the district that serves RHS and can be effectively applied to any type of district 1:1 technology device implementation.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-335487
title: Integrated large-scale monolithic electro-optical systems in standard SOI CMOS process

description: The thesis presents device level and system level integrated large-scale monolithic electro-optical solutions for wide range of applications, including: light detection and ranging (lidar), imaging, optical code division multiple access networks, optical pulse shaping and biomedical sensing. Silicon photonics technology is used to enable monolithic integration, designing novel devices and systems particularly in commercially available SOI CMOS process. Two system level examples are proposed and demonstrated: first, 8 × 8 optical phased array transceiver, the world’s first monolithically integrated 2-dimensional optical phased array in a commercial CMOS process, and second, 128-bit spectral light processor of sub-picosecond optical short pulses.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-358951
title: Role of H3K36me3 in regulating mismatch repair-mediated processing of hydrogen peroxide-induced DNA damage

description: Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are produced in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes by external and internal factors. The concentration of ROS is kept low by the action of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. Paradoxically, ROS, play contradictory roles in the cell; ROS are critical for fighting microbes, but especially at elevated concentrations, ROS generate severe damage to lipid membranes, cellular proteins, and nucleic acids. Several studies demonstrate that oxidative stress plays a significant role in neurodegenerative disorders, genetic and metabolic disorders, and cancer. Importantly, oxidative DNA lesions can be fixed in the somatic cell genome as mutations, leading to genome instability and ultimately, increased risk of one of the sporadic forms of cancer. Of the four DNA bases, guanine (in DNA and in the dNTP pool) is the most susceptible to damage by ROS. The primary product of guanine oxidation is 8-hydroxy-2’-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG), a lesion that mispairs with dA and can be highly mutagenic. This thesis was to determine whether the abundance of H3K36me3 influences or is related to MMR-mediated repair of 8-oxo-dG. The results confirm the involvement of H3K36me3 in recruiting MutSα to DNA containing 8-oxo-dG. To explore this question, we quantified H3K36me3, and examined the interaction between this epigenetic modification of histone H3 with MutSα.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-378406
title: Demographic bias correction for social media data

description: For generations people have been keeping records of their everyday lives. The web is now a popular place for people to document their personal lives, replacing journals and diaries popular decades ago. The popularity of weblogs and social media has provided an unique opportunity to study people at a massive scale. Social media researchers have seized this chance to use social media data to predict and measure social phenomena, such as elections, economic activity, and public health. While these researchers' work has shown promise, they frequently highlight a challenge with web data: web users, as a group, are dissimilar (e.g. younger, wealthier) from most offline populations, raising questions about the representativity of these users. Demographic representativity is an issue that economists and other social scientists deal with regularly. They have found that reweighting survey samples based on demographic variables like age and gender can improve the accuracy of survey results. They take advantage of this by asking survey respondents to provide their demographic background. In contrast, social media analysts do not have immediate access to these demographic variables and predictions are drawn without accounting for such disparities. To address this shortcoming, this dissertation proposes and evaluates a practical approach for making social predictions from social media data while contending with demographic representativity issues. It describes the collection and analysis of reliable data describing a population of web users. Social predictions are drawn from this population, with various bias correction approaches evaluated by comparing to gold standard data from traditionally collected surveys. Special attention is paid to important practical considerations, such as errors introduced by automated methods to characterize the demographic and other attributes of individual users and their impact on predictions for the broader population.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-104690
title: Art therapy a catalyst for communication in casework
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-119549
title: A follow-up study of eighteen participating and non-participating mothers with children enrolled in the Head Start program at Azusa Center
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-151609
title: A study of attitudes and knowledge among MSW's toward geriatric sexuality
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-154158
title: Divorced Jewish mothers a study of the effect divorce has upon Jewish identity, affiliation and life style
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-382740
title: Ambulatory assessment methods for capturing naturalistic couple interactions in daily life

description: With the increasing use of smartphone technologies and wearable biosensors, we are currently undergoing what many have termed a “data revolution,” where intensive, multichannel data are passively collected over long timeframes. Such procedures are transforming the way psychologists conceptualize research and have the potential to spur important advances in the study of close relationships. This proof-of-concept study from the Couple Mobile Sensing Project, a partnership between psychologists and engineers, combines big data and ambulatory assessment methodologies to study multi-modal, micro-processes in couples’ everyday lives. These data collection procedures are designed to test how characteristics of everyday behavioral, physiological, and vocal interactions are integrated within and across individuals. We present examples to show how these data can be synchronized across modalities and partners and can be linked to generalized relationship dimensions. Discussion highlights the potential and challenges of capturing multi-modal, multi-person, real-time, naturally-occurring social phenomena.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-49766
title: All in the family: A study of intra-familial violence in the Los Angeles Jewish community
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-118496
title: An exploratory study of ethnic identity of Black youths who have committed violent crimes
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-142676
title: Lesbian mothers
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-327769
title: Exploring the role of inhibition in visual thalamic circuits in vivo

description: Visual information encoded the retina must pass through the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus (LGN) before reaching the primary visual cortex. The LGN, however, is not a passive transfer station. Within the LGN, cortical projecting excitatory cells or relay cells receive inhibition from two sources: interneurons residing within the LGN and inhibitory cells located in the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRn). Thus, inhibition influences all visual information passing through the LGN. The research presented in this dissertation uses a comparative anatomical and physiological approach to understanding how inhibitory mechanisms in the LGN, common across species, help serve vision. ❧ In Chapter 2, I record intracellular responses from different types of murine relay cells during visual stimulation. The pattern of excitation and inhibition in these cells reveal that inhibition operated at different spatial scales in the rodent LGN; ranging from global forms of inhibition to a more localized, evolutionarily conserved form, referred to as ‘push-pull’ responses, where stimuli of the reverse contrast evoked response of the opposite sign. However, unlike murine retina where a fraction of RGCs show push-pull responses, I show that in the LGN, relay cells with push-pull responses constitute the largest group. Thus, the resurgence of push-pull in the LGN emphasizes the importance of this mechanism in the form vision pathway. ❧ In Chapter 3, I investigate the mechanisms underlying push-pull responses. The hypothetical push-pull circuit assumes that On and Off pairs of relay cells and interneurons connect with each other to produce push-pull responses. I utilize the ferret LGN to test this putative circuit. Unlike the LGN in most species, cells in the principal layers of the ferret LGN are separated leaflets, based on the (cells’) preference for bright or dark stimuli. Thus, the ferret offers an opportunity to tease apart the contribution of On and Off channels in the push-pull circuit. Using whole-cell recordings I show that relay cells but not interneurons show push-pull responses. Further, I demonstrate using simple regression analysis that interneurons of both polarities are required to create the pull in relay cells. ❧ Altogether the work in this thesis will provide new perspectives on the role of inhibition in retino-thalamic transformation and will contribute to our understanding of the interaction between On and Off circuits in the LGN.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-341187
title: Towards a novel optogenetic-based gene therapeutic for chronic corneal pain

description: Introduction: Chronic pain is an economically, physically and psychologically costly condition. Despite this, currently available therapeutics and interventional treatments are frequently ineffective. This is particularly true in patients with chronic pain of the cornea; a highly innervated tissue that is one of the most sensitive in the human body. Here we aim to develop and perfect an adenoassociated virus (AAV) and optogenetics based gene therapy to address chronic corneal pain. ❧ Methods and materials: The intact cornea is an AAV impermeant structure. Two methods were deployed to temporarily remove endogenous antiviral barriers, and allow safe transduction of target cells with gene therapeutic. The first approach consisted of a crude and clinically utilized corneal scrape, with an ophthalmic scalpel. The second involved sequential application of saline, N-acetyl cysteine and deglycosylase mixtures, to the corneal surface. Corneal surface disruption was confirmed via Rose Bengal dye staining. Surface disruption was followed by the invivo application, to mouse ocular surface, of AAVs with a transgene encoding enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein (eGFP), under the transcriptional control of one of several promoters. Subjects were sacrificed, eyes removed and corneas isolated. Antibody staining was performed and images were collected by confocal microscopy. ❧ Results: The corneal surface displayed profound disruption, irrespective of treatment or lack thereof. We were unable to confirm transduction of target nociceptors by AAV, with confocal microscopy. ❧ Discussion and Conclusion: Subjects displayed corneal surface disruption, regardless of treatment or lack thereof. This was unexpected. We are uncertain of why this may have occurred, but hypothesize that it could have resulted from the systemic delivery of xylaxine (general anesthetic component), and/or the local application of proparicaine (local anesthetic) to the ocular surface. The former agent is known to be capable of inducing corneal lesions. The latter agent has been reported to be cytotoxic to corneal epithelial cells. We failed to successfully antibody stain for eGFP. Thus we conclude AAV either failed to deliver transgene to target cells in the cornea, or our staining protocol failed. The later is unlikely as the same staining protocol with related agents was successful, in the author’s hands. Further study should to be performed to effect transgene delivery to targeted nocicpetors and confirm therapeutic response.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-380557
title: Transcriptional regulation of leukotriene C4 synthase in response to hemin in endothelial cell

description: Individuals with sickle cell disease have hemolytic anemia, inflammation, vaso-occlusive crises, acute chest syndrome and higher incidence of asthma/airway reactive disease (ARD). It is known asthma increases morbidity and mortality in children three times more than the normal population. However, the mechanism underlying the increased incidence of Air Hyper-responsiveness (AHR) in SCD is not known. Previous studies have shown, placenta growth factor elaborated from erythroid cells increases production of leukotrienes in vitro and in vivo. Since SCD patients are hemolytic anemic, they produce excessive amounts of hemin in circulation. Thus, we examined the effect of hemin on endothelium, the lining of blood vessels, and utilized transformed human brain endothelial cells (t-HBEC) as a model system. Our studies showed hemin did not alter the expression of 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) and 5-lipooxygenase activating protein (FLAP), but induced expression of Leukotriene C4 Synthase (LTC4S) at the mRNA and protein levels. In silico analysis of the promoter proximal region of LTC4S revealed the presence of consensus sequences for Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) and Krüppel-like factor 6 (KLF6). Thus, we examined the role of KLF4 and KLF6 in LTC4S transcription. Treatment of t-HBEC with hemin showed an increase in expression of KLF4 and KLF6 mRNA. Furthermore, transfection of t-HBEC with KLF4 and KLF6 expression plasmids increased LTC4S mRNA expression, in the absence of hemin. To substantiate these results, we transfected t-HBEC with siRNA for KLF4 followed by treatment with hemin. The data showed hemin induced LTC4S expression decreased substantially with KLF4 siRNA. Furthermore, we examined whether KLF4 and KLF6 increased LTC4S gene transcription. Additionally, we examined the knockdown effect of siRNAs for KLF4 and KLF6 on LTC4S reporter luciferase activity. The data showed knockdown of KLF4 and KLF6 decreased hemin induced LTC4S promoter reporter luciferase activities. Next, we examined the role of TLR4 and Nrf2-Keap1 in hemin induced signaling. A selective inhibitor of TLR4, TAK242, did not reduce hemin induced LTC4S mRNA expression indicating hemin induced signaling did not involve TLR4 but may occur through other pathways such as Nrf2-Keap1. Transfection of t-HBEC with Keap1 sh (small hairpin) RNA to release Nrf2 resulted in induction of LTC4S suggesting that hemin induced signaling involves activation of Nrf2-Keap1 pathway. Taken together, these studies showed hemin, produced in greater amount in SCD, caused activation of the Nrf2 pathway leading to activation of KLF4 and KLF6, which target the LTC4S promoter, to upregulate its expression.