Postlingually deafened cochlear implant (CI) adults have large variability in speech perception abilities. While CIs are one of the most successful neural prosthetic devices, they are not able to adequately provide fine structure cues which results in a degraded signal for the listener to interpret. While behavioral measures remain the gold standard for determining speech perception abilities, an objective measure is needed for patients who are unable to provide reliable behavioral responses. Behavioral, cognitive, and neural measures were collected in this study to identify potential neural biomarkers that correlate with speech perception performance. Behavioral experiments evaluated participants' abilities to identify, discriminate, and recognize words as well as sentences in quiet and in noise. Cognitive measures were assessed to determine the roles of attention, impulse control, memory, and cognitive flexibility on speech recognition. Auditory event-related potentials (ERP) were obtained with a double oddball paradigm to produce the mismatch negativity (MMN) response, which has been shown to have associations with phonetic categorical perception at the group level. The results indicated that executive function is highly predictive of speech performance and that the MMN is associated with categorical perception at the individual level. These findings are clinically relevant to determining appropriate follow-up care …

One basic assumption of the celebrated Black-Scholes-Merton PDE model for pricing derivatives is that the volatility is a constant. However, the implied volatility plot based on real data is not constant, but curved exhibiting patterns of volatility skews or smiles. Since the volatility is not observable, various stochastic volatility models have been proposed to overcome the problem of non-constant volatility. Although these methods are fairly successful in modeling volatilities, they still rely on the implied volatility approach for model implementation. To avoid such circular reasoning, we propose a new class of stochastic volatility models based on directly observable volatility proxies and derive the corresponding option pricing formulas. In addition, we propose a new GARCH (1,1) model, and show that this discrete-time stochastic volatility process converges weakly to Heston's continuous-time stochastic volatility model. Some Monte Carlo simulations and real data analysis are also conducted to demonstrate the performance of our methods.

The most useful feature used in finance of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) stochastic process is its mean-reverting property: the OU process tends to drift towards its long- term mean (its equilibrium state) over time. This important feature makes the OU process arguably the most popular statistical model for developing best pair-trading strategies. However, optimal strategies depend crucially on the first passage time (FPT) of the OU process to a suitably chosen boundary and its probability density is not analytically available in general. Even for crossing a simple constant boundary, the FPT of the OU process would lead to crossing a square root boundary by a Brownian motion process whose FPT density involves the complicated parabolic cylinder function. To overcome the limitations of the existing methods, we propose a novel class of non-linear boundaries for obtaining optimal decision thresholds. We prove the existence and uniqueness of the maximizer of our decision rules. We also derive simple formulas for some FPT moments without analytical expressions of its density functions. We conduct some Monte Carlo simulations and analyze several pairs of stocks including Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Target and Walmart, Chevron and Exxon Mobil. The results demonstrate that our method outperforms the existing procedures.

Digital language archives are used for the preservation of documented language data, such as video and voice recordings, transcriptions, survey data, and ethnographic fieldnotes. This data is most often used for research and linguists and anthropologists are generally heavily involved in the creation of language archives. Ideally, Indigenous communities that are represented in the archives are also able to access their data, but this is not always the case, especially if poor internet access and lack of technological know-how prevent archive use. In addition, western epistemologies are embedded in archival logics, exacerbating the issues surrounding Indigenous access and pointing to the need for a decolonizing archival design that centers the needs of its users. Using ethnographic research methods and a decolonizing framework, I conducted a usability study on the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA) to uncover the cultural-based meanings that inform AILLA use. Using linguistics and anthropology listservs, I recruited research participants for a Qualtrics survey and conducted semi-structured interviews that explore the user perspective on AILLA. I analyzed AILLA's Google Analytics data and used qualitative and quantitative research methods to build upon the previous literature in user-centered design approaches to language archives. As one of …

Increasing ubiquity of computational resources has enabled simulation of complex electronic systems and modern materials. The PAOFLOW software package is a tool designed to construct and analyze tight binding Hamiltonians from the solutions of DFT calculations. PAOFLOW leverages localized basis sets to greatly reduce computational costs of post-processing QE simulation results, enabling efficient determination of properties such as electronic density, band structures in the presence of electric or magnetic fields, magnetic or spin circular dichroism, spin-texture, Fermi surfaces, spin or anomalous Hall conductivity (SHC or AHC), electronic transport, and more. PAOFLOW's broad functionality is detailed in this work, and several independent studies where PAOFLOW's capabilities directly enabled research on promising candidates for ferroelectric and spintronic based technologies are described. Today, Quantum computers are at the forefront of computational information science. Materials scientists and quantum chemists can use quantum computers to simulate interacting systems of fermions, without having to perform the iterative methods of classical computing. This dissertation also describes a study where the band structure for silicon is simulated for the first time on quantum hardware and broadens this concept for simulating band structures of generic crystalline structures on quantum machines.

The single-mother college student population has quietly grown to over two million undergraduate students over the last two decades, but most of them will not attain a degree. What has been missing is a better understanding of the lived experiences of successfully persisting single-mother college students as told by the women themselves. This phenomenological case study interviewed 11 students from a regional university in the southwestern portion of the United States. Four themes emerged as expressed by the participants themselves: "Just because you have a baby doesn't mean your life is over" (Rebekah); "In the middle of a test, my kid throws up" (Sarah); "They're building me to be independent" (Anna Maria); and "I'm really doing this" (Juno). Their synthesized lived experiences were expressed through the simile of a seasoned gymnast. Overall, they shared adeptness at resource management and problem solving, strategically using support while building resiliency and self-efficacy. This study of successfully persisting single-mother college students can aid institutions in improving their support mechanisms for these students.

This mixed methods study examined teacher attitudes towards technology and their relationship to the integration of technology in technology-rich learning environments.

Yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is a polymorph with possible phase transformation toughening occurring during impact. The fractography and mechanical properties of laminated alumina and YSZ were studied in this thesis. Five sample types were studied in this thesis: (5:5) Al2O3/YSZ (a sequence of 5 alumina tapes stacked on 5 YSZ tapes), (5:5) Al2O3/YSZ (1 wt.% Pure ZrO2), (7:3) Al2O3/YSZ, Al2O3, and YSZ. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray microscopy (XRM) were used to study morphology and crack propagation with three-point tests performed to study the flexural strength. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra of all samples pre and post three-point tests were examined to determine if a change in monoclinic zirconia occurred. The combination of SEM and XRM data found microcracks in the YSZ layers of Al2O3/YSZ laminates with none present on YSZ laminates, leading to the conclusion tensile stress was performed on YSZ during sintering with Al2O3. Fracture patterns show a curving of cracks in Al2O3 layers and abrupt, jagged breaks in YSZ layers with crack forking at major YSZ microcrack regions. YSZ laminates were found to have the highest average flexural strength, but a very high standard deviation and low sample count and Al2O3 laminates having the second highest flexural …

The corrosion resistance under elevated temperature of additively manufactured 316L stainless steel made by directed energy deposition was studied. Test samples were prepared in a hybrid additive manufacturing machine using standard deposition parameters recommended by the manufacturer. Control samples were cut from wrought material to compare the results. The test was performed under a corrosive atmosphere with a solution of water with 3.5 % in weight of salt (NaCl). The total duration of the test was 635 hours, divided in five stages of 12, 24, 48, 226, and 325 hours to analyze the samples between each stage. The samples were analyzed quantitatively measuring weight loss and surface topography, and qualitatively by macroscopic inspection with digital photography, and microscopic inspection with optical and scanning electron microscopy. The results show a higher corrosion rate for the additively manufactured samples compared to the control samples. An evident increase in the size of pits initially present on the samples was observed and quantified on the additively manufactured. Although the additively manufactured samples were more aggressively attacked by corrosion, they still presented a shiny surface finish at the end of the test, reinforcing the idea of the formation of a passive oxide layer and suggesting …

The FeCo-V alloy, commercially referred to as Hiperco, is known for its great soft magnetic properties. However, the high cost of production has limited the usage of this alloy to small-scale applications, where the small volume and high magnetic performance are critical. Additive manufacturing (AM) has the potential to solve the production problems that exist in Hiperco manufacturing. The present research has focused on selective laser melting (SLM) based AM processing of Hiperco. The goal was to perform a detailed examination of SLM processed Hiperco and determine how the process parameters affect the microstructure, mechanical and magnetic properties. While a systematic set of SLM process parameters were employed, the results indicate that the energy density was quite similar for this set of process parameters, resulting in similar properties. Overall, the saturation magnetization (Ms) values were very good, but the coercivity (Hc) values were very high, in the case of all as SLM processed conditions. Additionally, a large variation in porosity was observed in the as SLM processed samples, as a function of process parameters. Interestingly, long-term heat-treatments of these samples in an Ar+H2 atmosphere resulted in substantial decreases in the Hc values. These results are presented and discussed.

This dissertation is a study of supernatural doubles in Victorian literature. It argues that these doubles expand our understanding of gender variance in the Victorian period. The texts in this dissertation privilege gender non-binarism through their depictions of materiality, gender embodiment, and temporality.

This study examined professional identity of biology faculty at four-year colleges and universities and the relationship between their perceived identity, as a scientist or a teacher, and their participation in activities related to evidence-based teaching practices. This study drew upon online survey results of 328 college and university biology faculty from across the country. Results from ordinary least squares regression indicated faculty who work at very high, high, and Master's institutions had higher perceptions of science identity. Nontenure track faculty showed higher perceptions of teaching identity. Additionally, the results of this study indicated a strong teaching identity and favorable views on evidence-based teaching related to greater participation in evidence-based teaching practices. Science identity, though positively relate to the outcome, was not a statistically significant predictor of participation in activities related to evidence-based teaching practices. An implication for practice is to recognize biology faculty members' use of newer teaching methods, such as demonstrations of student-centered teaching in lectures in promotion and tenure review. An important implication for future research would be to explore if recognition for outstanding teaching through promotion and tenure cause an increase in the number of faculty who gravitate toward more education-based scholarly activities and, in turn, develop …

‘Richte mich, Gott' exemplifies Jaakko Mäntyjärvi's pluralistic compositional approach through an interlaced organization of tonal and non-tonal pitch content. The development of ideas in the text of Psalm 43 and the concluding doxology is depicted across both layers of pitch organization and governed by specific structural pitch collections: (0145) and (0257). Moreover, the organic transformation of these structural pitch collections' intervallic content emerges as a fundamental means of progression throughout the work, in turn influencing the intervallic content of surrounding tonal material. This process of transformation and its relationship to the text is revealed through tonal and pitch-class analysis; a flexible approach to segmentation; and an exploration of two-way and three-way symmetry, and the disruption thereof, in pitch space and pitch-class space. An understanding of the interrelationship between pitch material from the tonal and non-tonal layers of pitch organization can aid singers, conductors, and analysts in the efficacy of their study, preparation, and performance of the psalm. The accompanying appendix of targeted choral warm-ups in this document offers choirs a practical method for studying, internalizing, and performing the non-tonal pitch content in the work.

Researchers of historic voice pedagogy texts have generally focused their objectives towards reviewing the recommendations of historic voice teachers pertaining to the physiological, acoustical, and musical elements of training singers; however, researchers have given less attention to the evidence of humanistic pedagogical elements presented by historic teachers of voice. This study aims to examine historic resources of vocal pedagogy for qualitative data representing exemplification of or advocacy for character strengths for voice teachers. Additionally, this study explores practical applications of character strengths within the context of the modern applied voice studio. In this context, character strengths are defined as the positive attributes of a personality that influence how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. In this document, historic pedagogical resources (N = 80) represent works published between 1811 and 1975. Using the scientifically validated VIA (Values-in-Action) Classification of Strengths, the relevant data extracted from these resources were categorized first into six virtues – wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. These data were further divided into the subcategories of character strengths based on descriptions located in seminal resources in character strengths research.

Synthetic biology is a rapidly growing field that aims to treat cellular biological networks in an analogous way to electrical circuits. However, the field of plant synthetic biology has not grown at the same pace as bacterial and yeast synthetic biology, leaving a dearth of characterized tools for the community. Due to the need for tools for the synthetic plant biologist, I have endeavored to create a library of well-characterized TATA box variants in the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter using the standardized assembly method Golden Braid 2.0. I introduced single nucleotide changes in the TATA box of the CaMV 35S promoter, a genetic part widely used in plant gene expression studies and agricultural biotechnology. Using a dual-luciferase reporter system, I quantified the transcriptional strength of the altered TATA box sequences and compared to the wild-type sequence, both in transient protoplast assays and stable transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants. The library of TATA-box modified CaMV 35S promoters with varying transcriptional strengths created here can provide the plant synthetic biology community with a series of modular Golden Braid-adapted genetic parts that can be used dependably and reproducibly by researchers to fine-tune gene expression levels in complex, yet predictable, synthetic genetic circuits.

In this study, I examined the use of mouse (Mus musculus) Fat Specific Protein 27 (FSP27) ectopically expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana benthamiana as a means to increase lipid droplet (LD) presence in plant tissues. In mammalian cells, this protein induces cytoplasmic LD clustering and fusion and helps prevent breakdown of LDs contributing to the large, single LD that dominates adipocytes. When expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana benthamiana, FSP27 retained its functionality and supported the accumulation of numerous and large cytoplasmic LDs, although it failed to produce the large, single LD that typifies adipose cells. FSP27 has no obvious homologs in plants, but a search for possible distant homologs in Arabidopsis returned a Tudor/PWWP/MBT protein coded for by the gene AT1G80810 which for the purposes of this study, we have called LIPID REGULATORY TUDOR DOMAIN CONTAINING GENE 1 (LRT1). As a possible homolog of FSP27, LRT1 was expected to have a positive regulatory effect on LDs in cells. Instead, a negative regulatory effect was observed in which disruption of the gene induced an accumulation of cytoplasmic LDs in non-seed tissue. A study of lrt1 mutants demonstrated that disruption this gene is the causal factor of the cytoplasmic LD …

Establishing effective language intervention for those who struggle to acquire it early on has received significant attention from researchers within the field of behavior analysis. The procedures of the present study were adapted from Spurgin' thesis research from 2021, in which a stimulus specific consequence was used during teaching after participants made correct responses. In this case, the stimulus specific consequence was a label for a picture that participants were required to point to during teaching trials. When participants pointed to the correct card, the researcher would label the card and deliver a small wooden block which the participants were told they were working for. In the hear-say procedures, participants were taught one set of cards and instructed to echo the researchers' labels. In the see-say participants were taught a second set of cards and instructed to "beat' the researcher to saying the word. After all cards were taught, were tested with a non-vocal receptive identification test. Immediately following this, participants were tested with a vocal expressive identification test. An extended teaching was included to determine the effects of additional practice within each condition. Results indicated that the participants were able to require some receptive and expressive language but targets …

Networks that self-organize in response to information are one of the most central studies in complex systems theory. A new time series analysis tool for studying self-organizing systems is developed and demonstrated. This method is applied to interacting complex swarms to explore the connection between information transport and group size, providing evidence for Dunbar's numbers having a foundation in network dynamics. A complex network model of information spread is developed. This network infodemic model uses reinforcement learning to simulate connection and opinion adaptation resulting from interaction between units. The model is applied to study polarized populations and echo chamber formation, exploring strategies for network resilience and weakening. The model is straightforward to extend to multilayer networks and networks generated from real world data. By unifying explanation and prediction, the network infodemic model offers a timely step toward understanding global collective behavior.

Use and effectiveness of the quiet eye (QE) technique has been a topic of interest in sport, exercise, and performance psychology. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of QE self-training on college students' internal processes associated with performing a novel task. Specifically, college students' internal processes were examined to understand how QE self-training influenced performance on a novel aiming task. College students (N = 106; M = 21.84 ± 1.79) voluntarily participated in QE self-training intervention. Participants' self-efficacy, self-regulation, and mindfulness was examined before and after QE self-training intervention over a 7-week period, with performance being measured weekly. Following intervention, interviews and follow-up survey were used to gather information about perceptions of using QE self-training instruction. Results indicated outcome performance improved from pre- to post-intervention. Additionally, participants mindfulness acting with awareness and non-judging of inner experiences was influenced by QET self-training. Findings from this study may help sport coaches and performance psychology professionals provide attentional focus training instruction to individuals with diverse levels of skills while also providing future directions for applied practice and research.

The Choral Music of Elaine Hagenberg explores the oeuvre of composer Elaine Hagenberg through a musicological, qualitative, and performance-based analysis of her compositional style that has led to her increasing acclaim. This study serves as the first primary source of scholarly output on her. Through an examination of her musical background as a pianist and choral educator, one can identify her principal sources of musical inspiration: text, nature, and her faith. Shaped by these experiences, her compositional philosophy encapsulates five elements of text, form, rhythm, melody, and harmony as she strives to produce singer-centric, authentic, and socially relevant compositions that unite people together. What begins as a consideration of her background and compositional process culminates in practical musical analysis and conducting and vocal considerations to aid future conductors in creating compelling performances of her works. The compositions discussed are As The Rain Hides The Stars (2015), O Love (2016), Song of Miriam (2019), My Companion (2019), and Alleluia (2020).

CPU-memory bottleneck is a widely recognized problem. It is known that majority of high performance computing (HPC) database systems are configured with large memories and dedicated to process specific workloads like weather prediction, molecular dynamic simulations etc. My research on optimal address mapping improves the memory performance by increasing the channel and bank level parallelism. In an another research direction, I proposed and evaluated adaptive page migration techniques that obviates the need for offline analysis of an application to determine page migration strategies. Furthermore, I explored different migration strategies like reverse migration, sub page migration that I found to be beneficial depending on the application behavior. Ideally, page migration strategies redirect the demand memory traffic to faster memory to improve the memory performance. In my third contribution, I worked and evaluated a memory-side accelerator to assist the main computational core in locating the non-zero elements of a sparse matrix that are typically used in scientific, machine learning workloads on a low-power embedded system configuration. Thus my contributions narrow the speed-gap by improving the latency and/or bandwidth between CPU and memory.

Mother nature has laid out a beautiful blueprint to capture sunlight and convert to usable form of energy. Inspired by nature, donor-acceptor systems are predominantly studied for their light harvesting applications. This dissertation explores new donor-acceptor systems by studying their photochemical properties useful in building artificial photosynthetic systems. The systems studied are divided into phthalocyanine-porphyrin-fullerene-based, perylenediimide-based, and aluminum porphyrin-based donor-acceptor systems. Further effect of solvents in determining the energy or electron transfer was studied in chapter 6. Such complex photosynthetic analogues are designed and characterized using UV-vis, fluorescence spectroscopy, differential pulse voltammetry and cyclic voltammetry. Using ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy, the excited state properties are explored. The information obtained from the current study is critical in getting one step closer to building affordable and sustainable solar energy harvesting devices which could easily unravel the current energy demands.

The objective of this study was to locate and describe the learning affordances used within research studies on instructional design. Allowing an instructional designer to see what was used and how applicable it might be for future design would assist with better course creation. Current and past literature supported the importance of this concept after examination of how course creation has evolved within the field of instructional design. Further, the findings elucidated how to help the field evolve in the future by expanding knowledge about learning affordances and providing the broadest set of conceptual definitions by the academics working in the field to include them in their research and instructional designs.

In this paper, I sought to identify and develop a protocol on electrode arrays as a result of rapid aging by applying rapid current over time. We, however, apply a different approach by using phosphate buffer solution (PBS) to mimic the conditions of the body. Here we have established an in vitro protocol for accelerated aging, a process that involves testing in extreme conditions such as oxygen, heat, sunlight, humidity, and vibration aimed at speeding the normal aging process of items; on commercially available shape memory polymer electrode arrays from Qualia over a period of 30 days in PBS. Two electrode arrays were placed in 37°C and 2 were placed in 57°C. Open lead electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was conducted on the electrode arrays. Overall, the results showed there were differences in average impedance during this accelerated aging protocol. At 37°C we see that the average impedance values increased as the electrodes were aged at 1kHz from an average of 4.15E6 to 9.14E6 Ohms. At 57°C electrode arrays 4 and 5 showed strong P values well above 0.05, but average impedance increased drastically from 3.27E6 to 9.97E6 and P value of 0.04 from measurement day 24 to day 30. This …