The aging experience of men and women in rural America is different than that of their urban counterparts. In this study, I identified key disparities in access to health care, mortality, and utilization of health care that result from geographic location. Foundational theories are discussed to illustrate that disparities can originate from historical societal behaviors. Secondary data and literary reviews create a combined qualitative and quantitative approach to explore the rural/urban divide, concluding that the potential for increased disparities as the aging population grows is very real and rural residents remain vulnerable to a poor(er) aging experience. Recommendations for policy and practice, as well as additional research, are made to address the conclusion.

Joint detection is vital for characterizing human pose and serves as a foundation for a wide range of computer vision applications such as physical training, health care, entertainment. This dissertation proposed two methods to detect joints in the human body for pose analysis. The first method detects joints by combining body model and automatic feature points detection together. The human body model maps the detected extreme points to the corresponding body parts of the model and detects the position of implicit joints. The dominant joints are detected after implicit joints and extreme points are located by a shortest path based methods. The main contribution of this work is a hybrid framework to detect joints on the human body to achieve robustness to different body shapes or proportions, pose variations and occlusions. Another contribution of this work is the idea of using geodesic features of the human body to build a model for guiding the human pose detection and estimation. The second proposed method detects joints by segmenting human body into parts first and then detect joints by making the detection algorithm focusing on each limb. The advantage of applying body part segmentation first is that the body segmentation method narrows …

NiTi-based shape memory alloys (SMAs) offer a good combination of high-strength, ductility, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility that has served them well and attracted the attention of many researchers and industries. The alloys unique thermo-mechanical ability to recover their initial shape after relatively large deformations by heating or upon unloading due to a characteristic reversible phase transformation makes them useful as damping devices, solid state actuators, couplings, etc. However, there is a need to increase the temperature of the characteristic phase transformation above 150 °C, especially in the aerospace industry where high temperatures are often seen. Prior researchers have shown that adding ternary elements (Pt, Pd, Au, Hf and Zr) to NiTi can increase transformation temperatures but most of these additions are extremely expensive, creating a need to produce cost-effective high temperature shape memory alloys (HTSMAs). Thus, the main objective of this research is to examine the relatively unstudied NiTiZr system for the ability to produce a cost effective and formable HTSMA. Transformation temperatures, precipitation paths, processability, and high-temperature oxidation are examined, specifically using high energy X-ray Diffraction (XRD) measurements, in NiTi-20 at.% Zr. This is followed by an in situ XRD study of the phase growth kinetics of the favorable …

Human body is a complex system organized at different levels such as cells, tissues and organs, which contributes to 11 important organ systems. The functional efficiency of this complex system is evaluated as health. Traditional healthcare is unable to accommodate everyone's need due to the ever-increasing population and medical costs. With advancements in technology and medical research, traditional healthcare applications are shaping into smart healthcare solutions. Smart healthcare helps in continuously monitoring our body parameters, which helps in keeping people health-aware. It provides the ability for remote assistance, which helps in utilizing the available resources to maximum potential. The backbone of smart healthcare solutions is Internet of Things (IoT) which increases the computing capacity of the real-world components by using cloud-based solutions. The basic elements of these IoT based smart healthcare solutions are called "things." Things are simple sensors or actuators, which have the capacity to wirelessly connect with each other and to the internet. The research for this dissertation aims in developing architectures for these things, focusing on IoT-based smart healthcare solutions. The core for this dissertation is to contribute to the research in smart healthcare by identifying applications which can be monitored remotely. For this, application-specific thing architectures …

An artificially structured boundary (ASB) produces a short-range, static electromagnetic field that can reflect charged particles. In the work presented, an ASB is considered to consist of a spatially periodic arrangement of electrostatically plugged magnetic cusps. When used to create an enclosed volume, an ASB may confine a non-neutral plasma that is effectively free of applied electromagnetic fields, provided the spatial period of the ASB-applied field is much smaller than any one dimension of the confinement volume. As envisioned, a non-neutral positron plasma could be confined by an ASB along its edge, and the space-charge of the positron plasma would serve to confine an antiproton plasma. If the conditions of the two-species plasma are suitable, production of antihydrogen via three-body recombination for antimatter gravity studies may be possible. A classical trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) simulation suite has been developed in C++ to efficiently simulate charged particle interactions with user defined electromagnetic fields. The code has been used to explore several ASB configurations, and a concept for a cylindrically symmetric ASB trap that employs a picket-fence magnetic field has been developed. Particle-in-cell (PIC) modeling has been utilized to investigate the confinement of non-neutral and partially neutralized positron plasmas in the trap.

This investigation was a post-hoc, quantitative analysis of secondary academic performance and participation choices of Hispanic students. Three years of longitudinal student-level data was collected to examine the likelihood of college enrollment based on college and career readiness (CCR) factors. At the time of the study, CCR was defined as qualifying exam scores, credit for at least two advanced/dual enrollment courses, or enrollment in a career and technology education (CTE) coherent sequence of courses. Research participants (N = 803) consisted solely of Hispanic high school graduates from the 2014 cohort. Frequency statistics indicate 45.5% (n = 365) attended an institute of higher education (IHE) within 2 years of high school graduation. Findings reveal Hispanic females were more likely than Hispanic males to meet CCR indicators as well as postsecondary resiliency outcomes. Analysis of chi-square tests of independence suggests a moderately strong association exists between CCR indicators and postsecondary participation among high school graduates. Differences were found in terms of gender and postsecondary enrollment, x^2(6) = 24.538, p < .001. Differences were also found in terms of type of IHE and postsecondary resiliency, x^2(3) = 34.373, p < .001. More Hispanic CCR graduates enrolled at 2-year and 4-year IHE than expected …

Through the use of natural history records, published literature, and personal sampling (2011-2016) a total of 454 caddisfly species represented by 24 families and 93 genera were documented from the south-central United States. Two Hydroptilidae species were collected during the 2011-2016 collection efforts that are new to the region: Hydroptilia scheringi and Mayatrichia tuscaloosa. Eightteen species are endemic and 30 are considered species of concern by either federal or state agencies. The majority of each of these groups is Hydroptilidae, or microcaddisflies. Trichoptera community structure, by minimum number of species, was analysed in conjunction with large-scale geographical factors to determine which factor illustrated caddisfly community structure across the region. Physiographic provinces compared to other geographic factors analyzed best-represented caddisfly communities with a minimum of 10 or more species. Statistically, Hydrologic Unit Code 4 (HUC 4) was the most significant geographical factor but low number of samples representing this variable rendered it less representative of caddisfly community structure for the study area.

According to a recent United Nations report, China's population of 1.4 billion represents 19% of the world's entire population of 7.6 billion. As the distance between east and west contracts in business, so too do the arts. This dissertation focuses on six selected contemporary Chinese art songs composed by Nan-Chang Chien. By providing the references of musical facts, synopsis of the poems, word-for-word translation, IPA transcription, poetic translation, and interpretive and performance guides, singers and pianists will have an overall understanding and detailed directions for learning the Chinese language and Chinese art songs. This dissertation also provides the foundation and model for further exploration and research into Chinese art sing literature by scholars in the west.

Trends in tuition and financial aid policy have increased the number of students who borrow for higher education and the aggregate debt students acquire. Most research on student borrowing over the years has analyzed the effects of borrowing and the prospects of indebtedness on individual students' choices and persistence. However, dynamics at the institutional level such as the need to ensure a stable flow of resources may accelerate or slow down student borrowing. Drawing on resource dependence theory, this study examined changes in student borrowing at private not for profit four year institutions in the US to identify trends and implications. A fixed effects regression analysis was applied to panel data from the Delta Cost project and the National Association of College and University Business Officers. Analytical focus was on the financial and enrollment characteristics of private not for profit four-year institutions, the relationship between these characteristics and student borrowing, and whether these relationships are stable or change over time. Findings revealed that the financial and enrollment characteristics of private not for profit institutions during the study period were characterized by gradual variation. The results also revealed that most of the financial characteristics were predictive of student borrowing and that …

Meta-analyses are conducted to synthesize the quantitative results of related studies. The random-effects meta-analysis model is based on the assumption that a distribution of true effects exists in the population. This distribution is often assumed to be normal with a mean and variance. The population variance, also called heterogeneity, can be estimated numerous ways. Accurate estimation of heterogeneity is necessary as a description of the distribution and for determining weights applied in the estimation of the summary effect when using inverse-variance weighting. To evaluate a wide range of estimators, we compared 16 estimators (Bayesian and non-Bayesian) of heterogeneity with regard to bias and mean square error over conditions based on reviews of educational and psychological meta-analyses. Three simulation conditions were varied: (a) sample size per meta-analysis, (b) true heterogeneity, and (c) sample size per effect size within each meta-analysis. Confidence or highest density intervals can be calculated for heterogeneity. The heterogeneity estimators that performed best over the widest range of conditions were paired with heterogeneity interval estimators. Interval estimators were evaluated based on coverage probability, interval width, and coverage of the estimated value. The combination of the Paule Manel estimator and Q-Profile interval method is recommended when synthesizing standardized mean …

The exponential growth in medical pharmaceuticals and related clinical trials have created a need to better understand the decision-making factors in the processes for developing hospital medication formularies. The purpose of the study was to identify, rank, and compare major factors impacting hospital formulary decision-making among three prescriber groups serving on a hospital's pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committee. Prescribers were selected from the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center which is a large, multi-facility, academic oncology hospital. Specifically, the prescriber groups studied were comprised of physicians, midlevel providers, and pharmacists. A self-administered online survey was disseminated to participants. Seven major hospital formulary decision-making factors were identified in the scientific literature. Study participants were asked to respond to questions about each of the hospital formulary decision-making factors and to rank the various formulary decision-making factors from the factor deemed most important to the factor deemed least important. There are five major conclusions drawn from the study including three similarities and two significant differences among the prescriber groups and factors. Similarities include: (1) the factor "pharmacy staff's evaluation of medical evidence including formulary recommendations" was ranked highest for all three prescriber groups; (2) "evaluation of medications by expert physicians" was ranked …

Online health communities (OHCs) have become a medium for patients to share their personal experiences and interact with peers on topics related to a disease, medication, side effects, and therapeutic processes. Many studies show that using OHCs regularly decreases mortality and improves patients mental health. As a result of their benefits, OHCs are a popular place for patients to refer to, especially patients with a severe disease, and to receive emotional and informational support. The main reasons for developing OHCs are to present valid and high-quality information and to understand the mechanism of social support in changing patients' mental health. Given the purpose of OHC moderators for developing OHCs applications and the purpose of patients for using OHCs, there is no facility, feature, or sub-application in OHCs to satisfy patient and moderator goals. OHCs are only equipped with a primary search engine that is a keyword-based search tool. In other words, if a patient wants to obtain information about a side-effect, he/she needs to browse many threads in the hope that he/she can find several related comments. In the same way, OHC moderators cannot browse all information which is exchanged among patients to validate their accuracy. Thus, it is critical …

Genomic integrity is important for living cells' correct functioning and propagation. Deoxyribonucleic acid as a molecule is a subject to chemical reactions with agents that can come from environment as well as from internal metabolism processes. These reactions can induce damage to DNA and thus compromise the genetic information, and result in disease and death of an organism. To mitigate the damage to DNA, cells have evolved to have multiple DNA repair pathways. Presented here is a computational study of DNA repair genes. The structure of the Homo sapiens direct DNA repair gene ALKBH1 is predicted utilizing homology modeling methods and using AlkB and DBL proteins as templates. Analysis of the obtained structure and molecular dynamics simulations give insights into potentially functionally important residues of the protein. In particular, zinc finger domains are predicted, and lysines that could perform catalytic activities are investigated. Subsequent mutagenesis experiments revealed the effect of the residues predicted to form zinc fingers on activity of ALKBH1. Structure and dynamics of AlkD, a Bascillus cereus base excision DNA repair protein is also studied. This protein has been shown to bind DNA with large alkyl adducts and perform excision catalysis without base flipping which is characteristic to …

This work discusses applications of computational simulations to enzymatic systems with a particular focus on the effects of various small perturbations on cancer and disease-related systems. First, we cover the development of carbohydrate-based PET imaging ligands for Galectin-3, which is a protein overexpressed in pancreatic cancer tumors. We uncover several structural features for the ligands that can be used to improve their binding and efficacy. Second, we discuss the AlkB family of enzymes. AlkB is the E. coli DNA repair protein for alkylation damage, and has human homologues with slightly different functions and substrates. Each has a conserved active site with a catalytic iron and a coordinating His...His...Asp triad. We have applied molecular dynamics (MD) to investigate the effect of a novel single nucleotide polymorphism for AlkBH7, which is correlated with prostate cancer and has an unknown function. We show that the mutation leads to active site distortion, which has been confirmed by experiments. Thirdly, we investigate the unfolding of hen egg white lysozyme in 90% ethanol solution and low pH, to show the initial steps of unfolding from a native-like state to the disease-associated beta-sheet structure. We compare to mass spectrometry experiments and also show differing pathways based on …

Is conducting from the piano "real conducting?" Does one need formal orchestral conducting training in order to conduct classical-era piano concertos from the piano? Do Mozart piano concertos need a conductor? These are all questions this paper attempts to answer.

This dissertation attempts to answer how social and economic mechanisms operate in individual, community and state levels to impact volunteering. Both social processes and economic factors significantly impact the amount of volunteering. However, researchers have a tendency to explain volunteering only by one of these factors. As both theories are equally important in explaining volunteerism, the development of a coherent theory is necessary to combine economic and social theories. This dissertation suggested that, when evaluated together, the influences of the economic factors on volunteering diminish as individuals get more connected with the other members of the society. The three-level analysis of the volunteering largely supports the primary hypothesis of the dissertation that economic concerns for volunteering are crowded out when individuals or the society is highly connected. This finding can help practitioners design better strategies to enhance volunteering such as creating opportunities for the members of the society to interact with each other.

Diverse practicing methods are evidence of the importance of applying creativity in our practice regimes. Regardless of a player's technique - traditional or modern - it must be regularly practiced and then applied. One of the most common ways to do that is through practicing technical exercises, which generally means the practice of scales, arpeggios and etudes. These exercises generally function as a warm-up regime for all musicians, but this regime doesn't necessarily provide enough reference for the player in the learning process of a new piece. Adapting exercises to address technical difficulties in a newly learned piece can provide the player with a wide range of practice methods to use, to be creative, to be more aware while practicing, and to build a solid technical foundation for the newly learned piece. Two well-known pedagogues who applied this approach are German bassist Ludwig Streicher and Czech violinist Otakar Ševčik. By implementing analytical studies and composing exercises based on the standard repertoire, Ševčik and Streicher became highly influential teachers in the 20th century. Their work serves as a model in achieving the purposes of this dissertation: the assessment of technical difficulties and compilation of a technique booklet based on six unaccompanied …

This exploratory, mixed-methods study investigated the relationship between information literacy and critical thinking. The research question guiding the first portion of the study was: How do information literacy and critical thinking relate in undergraduate students conducting academic research? Using two standardized assessments, the study assessed the information literacy and critical thinking skills of a small population of college students from a private, university in Texas. The correlational analysis of the scores from the two assessments showed a statistically significant, positive, moderate correlation. The study also explored the likelihood of gender differences in cognitive processing using information literacy and critical think skills assessments. The independent samples t-tests for both assessments demonstrated no statistically significant differences between female and male participants. Finally, a qualitative component comprised of a questionnaire provided context to the assessment scores through items requesting information on participant source selection priorities via the three middle stages of Kuhlthau's information search process model as well as their criteria for selecting sources of information. Though only a small number of the participants completed the questionnaire, the responses highlighted areas of interest for future research.

Supply chain resilience refers to the capability of a supply chain to both withstand and adapt to unexpected disturbances. In today's turbulent business environment, firms are continually seeking to create more resilience within their supply chain through increased information communication technology use and enhanced business-to-business relationships. The focus of this dissertation is the investigation of how information communication technology creates resilience at the differing process levels of supply chain operations. Past research into information communication technology use within supply chains has often been conducted at the macro-level of supply chain phenomena. As such, there is still much to understand about how decision-makers interact with information communication technology at the micro-level of supply chain decision-making. A more in-depth, broad coverage of this interaction will provide both practitioners and academics a better understanding of how to leverage information communication technology in achieving supply chain resilience. To meet this aim, this dissertation contains three essays that re-orient conceptual thinking about supply chain phenomenon, explore how advances in information communication technology influence business-to-business relationships, and identify how information communication technology effects the decision-making of supply chain managers.

This qualitative case study examined the recruitment and hiring practices of an urban district. Participants in this study included five district-level, human resource staff members and six campus principals. Data collected and analyzed including audio recordings of semi-structured interviews of each participant and documents at the district and campus levels used during the recruitment and hiring processes. The findings suggested that there is evidence of the district's use of the fit theory and culturally relevant pedagogy, and there is potential value in uniting and using both theories to identify and hire culturally responsive teachers. Findings also suggested that some tenets of both theories overlap, and some were more evident and more valued in the district processes than others. Since urban schools tend to experience significant staffing challenges and require teachers who are more culturally responsive, this study has the potential to help district and campus leaders examine their current hiring practices and establish stronger connections to the fit theory and culturally relevant pedagogy tenets.

Although early Venetian operas by composers such as Claudio Monteverdi and Francesco Cavalli offer today's listeners profound moments of emotion, the complex codes of meaning connecting emotion (or affect) with music in this repertoire are different from those of later seventeenth-century operatic repertoire. The specific textual and musical markers that librettists and composers used to indicate individual emotions in these operas were historically and culturally contingent, and many scholars thus consider them to be inaccessible to listeners today. This dissertation demonstrates a new analytical framework that is designed to identify the specific combinations of elements that communicate each lifelike emotion in this repertoire. Re-establishing the codes that govern the relationship between text, musical sound, and affect in this repertoire illuminates the nuanced emotional language of operas by composers such as Claudio Monteverdi, Francesco Cavalli, Antonio Cesti, and Francesco Lucio. The new analytical framework that underlies this study derives from analysis of seventeenth-century Venetian explanations and depictions of emotional processes, which reveal a basis in their society's underlying Aristotelian philosophy. Chapters III and IV examine extant documents from opera librettists, composers, audience members, and their associates to reveal how they understood emotions to work in the mind and body. These authors, …

The Divine Coming of the Light is a memoir-in-essays that covers an experience, from 2007 to 2010, when I lived in Kosuge Village (population 900), nestled in the mountains of central Japan. I was the only foreigner there. My memoir uses these three years as a frame to investigate how landscape affects identity. The book profiles who I was before Japan (an evangelical and then wilderness guide), why I became obsessed with mountains, and the fall-out from mountain obsession to a humanistic outlook. The path my narrator takes is one of a mountain hike. I was born in tabletop-flat West Texas to conservative, Christian parents in the second most Republican county by votes in America. At 19, I made my first backpacking trip to the San Juan Mountains of western Colorado and was awed by their outer-planetary-like massiveness. However, two friends and I became lost in the wilderness for three days without cell phones. During this time, an obsession possessed me as we found our way back through the peaks to safety, a realization that I could die out there, yes, but amid previously unknown splendor. I developed an addiction to mountains that weakened my religious faith. Like the Romantic …

This qualitative case study examined the effect of PLCs on teacher self-efficacy, and whether the type of PLC structure on each campus affected efficacy. The overarching research question that guided the study was, to what extent does perceived teacher self-efficacy change as a result of the practice of PLCs? Participants were selected using purposive and convenience sampling. Ten teachers and two principals on two different campuses participated in teacher focus groups and one-on-one principal interviews, respectively. The available literature on the topics of professional development, professional learning, teacher collaboration, and teacher self-efficacy yielded the discovery that collaborative practices can be used to improve a school and/or district or used to enhance positive practices that already occur. This study adds to the body of research as it develops the area of teacher efficacy and influence of PLCs. Using the coding software, NVivo, focus group data were coded into themes and further comparisons were made with categories derived and saturated until conclusions were drawn. The data show teacher self-efficacy increases as a result of PLCs when teachers are able to experience positive feedback from teammates, shared leadership, trust and honesty, and a freedom to fail. For those teachers who are not on …

Skeletal muscle satellite cells are important for muscle repairing and muscle mass growth. For a successful muscle regenerative process, satellite cells have to sequentially undergoing different stages of myogenic process, i.e. proliferative state and differentiation state. To support this process, the presence of different circulating factors, such as immune cells, cytokines, and hormones, at the appropriate time course is critical. Among these factors, hormones, such as testosterone, cortisol, and IGF-1, have shown to play an important role in satellite cell proliferation and differentiation. Studies investigated the effect of testosterone on satellite cell using a supraphysiological dose in human or in cell culture demonstrated that testosterone is critical in satellite cell myogenic process. Due to the anabolic effect of testosterone on muscle, studies had been focused on the physiological means to increase the circulating testosterone concentration in the body to maximize the muscle mass growth from resistance exercise. The acute and transient increase in testosterone has shown to be beneficial to muscle mass growth and strength gain; however, this change in physiological testosterone concentration on satellite cell myogenesis is not known. Therefore the purpose of this dissertation is to first determine the effect of acute change in exercise-induced hormones on satellite …