cometadata/datacite-titles-descriptions-related-identifiers huggingface dataset:
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-394178
title: Low temperature physical adsorption
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160543
title: Page 25
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160573
title: Page 55
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-177086
title: Page 91
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-196012
title: An annotated database of a skilled behavior: Extraction of patterns that may underlie imitation

description: Imitation's been widely studied not only to understand how animals and humans learn novel actions and tasks by imitating actions performed by others but also for its application to robotics. This thesis offers a naturalistic study to address the following question: How can an observer, seeing the same task performed in different ways by different performers, nonetheless extract hierarchical parsing of shared features of the behaviors which links actions to goals and sub goals? In this study, 20 videos of the process of making tea were recorded, annotated in detail and analyzed in an attempt to isolate the strategies which an observer can use to organize the observation of diverse performances. The videos were annotated manually and several interesting behaviors were observed in the process. The result is a set of hypotheses about complex imitation, and a database which can be used in future to test parsing algorithms hypothesized to capture the learning process.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141465
title: Page 198
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141471
title: Page 204
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160551
title: Page 33
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-176801
title: Page 19
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-176809
title: Page 27
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-194160
title: Variation-aware circuit and chip level power optimization in digital VLSI systems

description: In today’s IC design, one of the key challenges is the increase in power consumption of the circuit which in turn shortens the service time of battery-powered electronics, and increases the cooling and packaging costs of server systems. On the other hand, with the increasing levels of variability in the characteristics of nanoscale CMOS devices and VLSI interconnects and continued uncertainty in the operating conditions of VLSI circuits, achieving power efficiency and high performance in electronic systems under process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations has become a daunting, yet vital, task. ❧ This dissertation investigates power optimization techniques in CMOS VLSI circuits both at circuit level and chip level, while considering the variations in fabrication process or operating conditions of such circuits and systems. First, at circuit level, we present and solve the problem of power-delay optimal design of linear pipeline utilizing soft-edge flip-flops which allow opportunistic time borrowing within the pipeline. We formulate this problem considering statistical delay models that characterize effect of process variation on gate and interconnect delays. To enable further optimization, the soft-edge flip flops are equipped with dynamic error detection (and correction) circuitry to detect and fix the errors that might arise from possible over-clocking. ❧ Second, we propose chip level solutions to the problem of low power design in Chip Multiprocessors (CMPs). We formulate this problem in the form of minimizing total power consumption of CMP while maintaining an average system-level throughput, or maximizing total CMP throughput subject to constraints on power dissipation or dietemperatures. ❧ We then propose mathematically rigorous and robust algorithms in the form of dynamic power (and thermal) management solutions to each of these problem formulations. Our proposed algorithms are hierarchical global power management approaches that aim to minimize CMP power consumption (or maximize throughput) by applying mainly dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) technique, task assignment and consolidation of processing cores. To tackle the inherent variation and uncertainty of manufacturing parameters and operating conditions in these problems, our solutions adopt a closed loop feedback controller. Additionally, in one problem formulation, we focus primarily on the variations and uncertainty of CMP optimization problem parameters and adopt an algorithm based on partially observable Markovian decision process (POMDP) that uses belief states to determine unobservable system parameters, and then stochastically minimize overall CMP power consumption. Overall, simulation results of our solutions demonstrate promising results for the CMP power/thermal optimization problem.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-249304
title: Reprogrammed skin fibroblasts as model systems for studying the pathophysiology of peroxisome biogenesis disorders

description: Inherited defects in peroxisome function are causally responsible for a diverse group of rare multi-systemic neurodegenerative disorders (e.g. peroxisome biogenesis -disorders, PBDs). The exact roles peroxisomes play in the pathophysiology of PBDs and effective treatments that can rescue peroxisome function are yet to be discovered. The inability to obtain the human neural and hepatic cell types that are most relevant to the disease phenotype in PBD patients has impeded drug discovery efforts. Thus far, diagnostic tests and mechanistic studies involving these disorders are performed using primary skin fibroblasts derived from patients even though these cells are not affected in the diseases. Therefore, it would be beneficial to develop more appropriate cell-based model system to elucidate the nature of peroxisome involvement in these diseases and to identify candidate treatments that can be translated into clinical trials. Here, we hypothesize that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients with PBDs will provide the basis for investigating peroxisome function in cell lineages most affected by disease. In this study, we first generated normal and PBD patient-specific iPSCs followed by their differentiation into hepatic cell lineages, in particular, hepatocytes because of their pivotal role in the development and clinical manifestation of PBDs. Biochemical analyses of peroxisome activities and hepatic functions on these novel cellular resources not only will enable us to gain insight into the vulnerability of different cell types, but also can increase the sensitivity of drug screens which could in turn accelerate therapeutic intervention.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160554
title: Page 36
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160601
title: Page 83
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160604
title: Page 86
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-177100
title: Page 105
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160552
title: Page 34
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160553
title: Page 35
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-177088
title: Page 93
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-510728
title: I love Paris
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141469
title: Page 202
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-160560
title: Page 42
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-176818
title: Page 36
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-177091
title: Page 96
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-199678
title: Euclidean extensions of dynamical systems

description: This thesis studies the special Euclidean group extension of discrete dynamical systems. Given a dynamical system (X, f), the extended dynamics is constructed as the pair (X×Γ, T) where Γ is the special Euclidean group and T is a map on this extended space. The special Euclidean  extension is viewed as an Rⁿ extension of a SO(n) extension of the base dynamics. ❧ After a review of dynamical systems theory, dynamical systems are classified based on whether they are periodic or chaotic. Chaos is defined as exponential mixing (equivalent to decay of correlations on observables). The behavior of typical trajectories in the extended dynamics are then analyzed for these classes of dynamical system. If the base dynamics is periodic, then typical trajectories on the extended space are bounded. For chaotic dynamics these trajectories are typically unbounded. ❧ Finally these results are numerically verified for various examples of dynamical systems. The plots of typical trajectories are shown for SE(2) extensions and the growth rates for various extensions are shown and the results discussed. Despite building a more complex map on a larger space (compared to the original dynamics) extensions of dynamical systems allow us to simplify detecting behavior that is difficult to show in the original dynamics.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-200366
title: Mass sensing with film bulk acoustic resonator

description: This thesis addresses the applications of radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in the area of film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) and its uses as a mass sensor in biological and chemical applications.  An abridged review of FBAR, its underlying physics, and its sensing mechanism are first introduced. ❧ In regards to FBAR itself, we introduced the MBVD model, with or without mass loading, and the Mason model for analyzing an FBAR, as well as the considerations that needs to be taken in designing such a device.  The fabrication process of the diaphragm supported FBAR that can be used for mass sensing applications is then presented.  The measurement setup, with a network analyzer and a LabVIEW program, used to characterize these FBARs is described, and the discussion on spurious mode suppression is also presented. ❧ The first application of FBAR for mass sensing is explosive trace detection with antibody coating.  Antibodies were immobilized on the backside of FBAR mass sensors using an antibody immobilization protocol.  When the specific explosive is exposed to the sensor, it binds to the antibody on the sensor, causing a shift in the resonant frequency of the FBAR sensor.  We demonstrate here selective detection of vapor traces of TNT (Trinitrotoluene, a common explosive) and RDX (Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine which has one of the lowest vapor pressures among various explosives) without any pre-concentrator.  Experimental results on the long-term reliability issue of the FBAR sensors are also presented. ❧ Another application presented here is real-time detection of DNA polymerase reaction with FBAR coated with self-assembled DNA sequences.  This label-free, real-time detection of DNA synthesis can potentially lead to detection of single nucleotide addition for DNA sequencing application, which can be developed into a low-cost, third-generation DNA sequencing system.  Though in our preliminary study, we observed only the difference before and after the completion of all the DNA bases, it is conceivable to observe addition of a single DNA base with improved FBAR sensors.  To achieve this ultimate goal, issues relevant to mass detection in liquid environment, including optimization of FBAR and noise reduction in experimental data acquisition, are addressed here. ❧ The last application presented here is real-time, label-free detection of PSA through mass sensing with FBAR coated with an oriented antibody layer.  The first prototype sensor is capable of detecting PSA concentration in hundreds of ng/ml range, and can be regenerated.  Also, preliminary testing shows the absence of cross-reaction with bovine serum albumin (BSA).  An improved version of the sensor utilizing DTSSP (3,3´-Dithiobis[sulfosuccinimidylpropionate]) crosslinker shows a better response, and increases the sensitivity to a level where PSA detection down to ng/ml range is possible.  Other relevant works in connection with the PSA sensing project is also presented to wrap up the thesis.
DOI: 10.23725/c7rb-ek97
title: NWD176325.recab.cram

description: TOPMed: NWD176325 <br>HapMap_1000G: NA19238 <br>Seq Ctr: Broad <br>File:  CRAM file
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-1787
title: An examination into the factors leading to superintedent longevity in urban, southern California school districts: a comparative case study

description: Superintendents in a modern context walk a fine line in todays reform minded, accountability centered, socio/political setting. To many the position of public school superintendent is perceived as a job where failure is inevitable. The purpose of this comparative case study was to understand the factors that contribute to superintendent longevity in large urban school districts. ❧ This qualitative study focused on examining the perceived factors of leadership that contribute to the longevity of two superintendents in Southern California whose tenure has outlasted the national average. Using detailed protocols these leadership factors were derived through extensive interviews with the superintendents, executive cabinet members, Board of Education members, principals, and surrounding area administrators. ❧ The factors found to contribute to superintendent longevity include an ability to build relationships that are authentic and strategic in nature, effective and thorough communication skills, a competent executive leadership team, personal leadership capacity, and a belief in the higher moral purpose of the daily work of a superintendent.
DOI: 10.23725/2cvm-9d22
title: NWD230091.recab.cram

description: TOPMed: NWD230091 <br>HapMap_1000G: HG01110 <br>Seq Ctr: Broad <br>File:  CRAM file
DOI: 10.23725/6a0t-gq54
title: NWD191048.recab.cram.crai

description: TOPMed: NWD191048 <br>HapMap_1000G: NA19238 <br>Seq Ctr: UW <br>File:  CRAI index file
DOI: 10.23725/7crh-ys70
title: NWD231092.recab.cram

description: TOPMed: NWD231092 <br>HapMap_1000G: HG01111 <br>Seq Ctr: UW <br>File:  CRAM file
DOI: 10.23725/d20y-6s61
title: NWD183321.recab.cram

description: TOPMed: NWD183321 <br>HapMap_1000G: NA19238 <br>Seq Ctr: Broad <br>File:  CRAM file
DOI: 10.23725/jxcp-yr24
title: NWD230091.recab.cram.crai

description: TOPMed: NWD230091 <br>HapMap_1000G: HG01110 <br>Seq Ctr: Broad <br>File:  CRAI index file
DOI: 10.23725/q3nf-wx88
title: NWD183321.recab.cram.crai

description: TOPMed: NWD183321 <br>HapMap_1000G: NA19238 <br>Seq Ctr: Broad <br>File:  CRAI index file
DOI: 10.23725/wsm2-te71
title: NWD191048.recab.cram

description: TOPMed: NWD191048 <br>HapMap_1000G: NA19238 <br>Seq Ctr: UW <br>File:  CRAM file
DOI: 10.23725/xfmp-hz61
title: NWD176325.recab.cram.crai

description: TOPMed: NWD176325 <br>HapMap_1000G: NA19238 <br>Seq Ctr: Broad <br>File:  CRAI index file
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-175429
title: Monocular human pose tracking and action recognition in dynamic environments

description: The objective of this work is to develop an efficient method to find human in videos captured from a single camera, and recognize the action being performed. Automatic detection of humans in a scene and understanding the ongoing activities has been extensively studied, as solution to this problem finds applications in diverse areas such as surveillance, video summarization, content mining and human computer interaction, among others. ❧ Though significant advances have made towards finding human in specific poses such as upright pose in cluttered scenes, the problem of finding a human in an arbitrary pose in an unknown environment is still a challenge. We address the problem of estimating human pose using a part based approach, that first finds body part candidates using part detectors and then enforce kinematic constraints using a tree-structured graphical model. For inference, we present a collaborative branch and bound algorithm that uses branch and bound method to search for each part and use kinematics from neighboring parts to guide the branching behavior and compute bounds on the best part estimate. We use multiple, heterogeneous part detectors with varying accuracy and computation requirements, ordered in a hierarchy, to achieve more accurate and efficient pose estimation. ❧ While the above approach deals well with pose articulations, it still fails to find human in poses with heavy self occlusion such as crouch, as it does not model inter part occlusion. Thus, recognizing actions from inferred poses would be unreliable. In order to deal with this issue, we propose a joint tracking and recognition approach which tracks the actor pose by sampling from 3D action models and localizing each pose sample; this also allows view-invariant action recognition. We model an action as a sequence of transformations between keyposes. These action models can be obtained by annotating only a few keyposes in 2D; this avoids large training data and MoCAP. For efficiently localizing a sampled pose, we generate a Pose-Specific Part Model (PSPM) which captures appropriate kinematic and occlusion constraints in a tree-structure. In addition, our approach also does not require pose silhouettes and thus also works well in presence of background motion. We show improvements to previous results on two publicly available datasets as well as on a novel, augmented dataset with dynamic backgrounds. ❧ Since the poses are sampled from action models, the above activity driven approach works well if the actor only performs actions for which models are available, and does not generalize well to unseen poses and actions. We address this by proposing an activity assisted tracking framework that combines the activity driven tracking with the bottom up pose estimation by using pose samples obtained using part models, in addition to those sampled from action models. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on long video sequences with hand gestures.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-204608
title: Pregnancies involving hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are associated with post-traumatic stress disorder

description: Background: Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy (HDP) are complications of pregnancy that can lead to adverse perinatal and maternal outcomes.  Our primary aim was to examine if HDP is associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  Methods:  We analyzed data collected through an online survey by the Preeclampsia Foundation on PTSD symptoms using the Breslau Short Screening Scale for DSM-IV.  We compared participant characteristics between women with and without PTSD using chi-square tests for discrete variables and t-tests for continuous variables.  Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine the outcome of PTSD and identify possible risk factors associated with HDP.  Results: We surveyed 1448 women (1,076 HDP, 372 controls).  After adjusting for psychiatric illness or mood disorder, parity, and age at affected pregnancy, we found that women with HDP were more than four times as likely to screen positive for PTSD (OR=4.64, 95% CI: 3.37-6.39) when compared to women without HDP.  Additionally, we found that PTSD symptoms increase with severity of HDP.  When stratifying by severity, we found that women with gestational hypertension and preeclampsia were three and a half times more likely (OR=3.45, 95% CI: 1.70-7.00 and OR=3.48, 95% CI: 2.45-4.96, respectively); women with hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelets (HELLP) syndrome were nearly six times as likely (OR=5.76, 95% CI: 3.97-8.36), and women with eclampsia were almost ten times as likely to screen positive for PTSD (OR=9.76, 95% CI: 5.45-17.49) when compared to women without HDP. Conclusion: Pregnancies complicated by HDP are associated with increased risk of PTSD, with risk of PTSD increasing as severity of HDP increases.  Medical practitioners should be aware of this association and consider screening women with HDP for signs of PTSD at their first postpartum visit.  Those who screen positive could then be referred for a confirmatory diagnosis and, if needed, subsequent supportive care.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-210907
title: How resource allocations are used to promote student learning: case studies of elementary schools in Hawai`i with rising academic achievement

description: This study used a purposeful sample of five public non-charter elementary schools in Hawai`i. The schools, located on two different islands, displayed evidence of improving academic performance and consistently outperformed the state average growth in scores on the Hawai`i State Assessment (HSA). These schools had mid to high percentages of disadvantaged students as well as a high percentage of minority students. Case studies, which included information collected from school documents as well as interview data, performance data and information on the use of resources at the school level, were conducted in all five schools. The findings were analyzed and compared with the Evidence-Based Model (EBM) of resource allocation, developed by Odden and Picus (2008). The Evidence-Based Model identifies the elements of a school-wide instructional program that research has shown to be effective in improving student performance. ❧ The findings highlight the importance of providing principals with enough autonomy to make data based decisions regarding the allocation and use of their limited resources to meet students’ specific learning needs. These principals also realized the value of working collaboratively with their staff toward a shared purpose of raising student achievement and providing students and staff with the support needed to achieve this goal. This study illustrates that, even within current fiscal constraints in the state of Hawai`i, resources focused on increasing student achievement through the ten strategies identified by Odden and Archibald (2010) to dramatically improve student performance can be effectively allocated by using data-driven decisions. As the State of Hawai`i and the nation recover from the current recession, the Evidence-Based Model offers a framework that provides guidance to focus the allocation of future investments in education to promote student achievement. Implications for practice and policy are discussed.
DOI: 10.23725/01w7-qt15
title: NWD234815.recab.cram.crai

description: TOPMed: NWD234815 <br>HapMap_1000G: HG01111 <br>Seq Ctr: WashU <br>File:  CRAI index file
DOI: 10.23725/2feb-5r08
title: NWD231092.recab.cram.crai

description: TOPMed: NWD231092 <br>HapMap_1000G: HG01111 <br>Seq Ctr: UW <br>File:  CRAI index file
DOI: 10.23725/5vdk-ng52
title: NWD263474.recab.cram.crai

description: TOPMed: NWD263474 <br>HapMap_1000G: NA19238 <br>Seq Ctr: NYGC <br>File:  CRAI index file
DOI: 10.23725/7af5-ra51
title: NWD259170.recab.cram

description: TOPMed: NWD259170 <br>HapMap_1000G: HG01110 <br>Seq Ctr: UW <br>File:  CRAM file
DOI: 10.23725/a7t0-fa63
title: NWD245311.recab.cram

description: TOPMed: NWD245311 <br>HapMap_1000G: NA12878 <br>Seq Ctr: Broad <br>File:  CRAM file
DOI: 10.23725/sh0b-0682
title: NWD234815.recab.cram

description: TOPMed: NWD234815 <br>HapMap_1000G: HG01111 <br>Seq Ctr: WashU <br>File:  CRAM file
DOI: 10.23725/wnk0-8h95
title: NWD259170.recab.cram.crai

description: TOPMed: NWD259170 <br>HapMap_1000G: HG01110 <br>Seq Ctr: UW <br>File:  CRAI index file
DOI: 10.23725/xqmq-am72
title: NWD245311.recab.cram.crai

description: TOPMed: NWD245311 <br>HapMap_1000G: NA12878 <br>Seq Ctr: Broad <br>File:  CRAI index file
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141464
title: Page 197
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c3-141474
title: Page 207