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Title: Investigating complexity in transcriptome expression, regulation, and evolution using mathematical modeling
Creator: Panchy, Nicholas Louis
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "To date, gene expression has been characterized in over one thousand species across more than a million experimental conditions. With this wealth of data, it is possible to investigate the role that differential expression has in key biological processes, such as development, stress response, and cell division. However, the complexity of the transcriptome makes the analysis of expression challenging, as a single genome can contain thousands of genes as well as millions of potential...
Show more"To date, gene expression has been characterized in over one thousand species across more than a million experimental conditions. With this wealth of data, it is possible to investigate the role that differential expression has in key biological processes, such as development, stress response, and cell division. However, the complexity of the transcriptome makes the analysis of expression challenging, as a single genome can contain thousands of genes as well as millions of potential regulatory interactions shaped by more than a billion years of evolution. To address this complexity, we can use the language of mathematics to create models of gene expression, regulation, and evolution that define the system in a testable format. In the following chapters, I will present research that applies mathematical modeling to the identification and regulation of cyclically expressed genes as well as the evolution of transcriptional regulators following whole genome duplication. Cyclically expressed genes were studied in two systems. First, I investigated day-night cycling or 'diel' genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Diel genes were identified de novo using two models of cyclic expression that jointly classified half of all genes in C. reinhardtii as diel expressed. To understand the regulation of diel expression, I clustered diel genes according their peak of expression, or 'phase', and searched for cis-regulatory elements enriched (CREs) in the promoters of each cluster. While I found putative CREs corresponding to each cluster, using these CREs to predict diel expression using machine learning performed poorly compared to previous models of expression regulation. Therefore, I changed systems to Saccharomyces cerevisiae and studied cyclic expression during the cell cycle. Here, I applied machine learning models to predict cell-cycle expression using regulatory interactions from four different data sets. These models out performed the previous model of cyclic expression when using regulatory interactions defined by chromatin-immunoprecipitation, transcription factor knockout experiments, and position weight matrices. Further gains in performance were obtained by combing interactions across data sets and using co-regulation by pairs of regulators involved in feed-forward loops. The most important interactions for predicting cell-cycle expression included not only known cell-cycle regulators but also two groups of transcription factors not previously identified as being involved in cell-cycle regulation. The evolution of transcriptional regulation was studied in Arabidopsis thaliana, which has undergone several rounds of whole genome duplication (WGD), after which transcriptions factors (TFs) are preferentially retained. Here, I applied maximum likelihood estimation to infer the most likely ancestral expression and regulatory state of pairs of duplicate TFs prior to WGD. Comparing this ancestral state to the existing TF duplicates, I found that one duplicate, the "ancestral' copy, tends to retain the majority of ancestral expression state and CREs, while the other 'non-ancestral' copy loses ancestral expression and CREs, but also gains novel CREs instead. Modeling the evolution of TFs pairs using as system of ordinary differential equations, I demonstrated that the partitioning of ancestral states amongst duplicates is not random, but occurs because the loss of ancestral expression occurs orders of magnitude faster in the first copy than in the second. This suggests that TFs duplicate pairs are preferentially maintained such that one copy is 'ancestral' and the other is not. Taken as a whole, the research in this dissertation demonstrates how mathematical modeling can be applied to studying the expression, regulation and evolution of the transcriptome."--Pages ii-iii.
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Title: Voices of Mayan Women in Plaza Comunitaria : poetica y educacion desde Yucatan
Creator: Ceballos Zapata, Abraham
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This study took place in a village in Yucatan, Mexico in the context of two adult education programs in Yucatan [Plaza Comunitaria and Preparatoria Abierta]. I interacted in convivencia with bilingual (Mayan-Spanish) Yucatec Mayan women who took on the challenge of completing their formal schooling through those adult education programs. Over 3 summers (2013, 2014, 2015) I immersed myself in the community and witnessed their educational efforts. Ethnographic and convivencia methodologies ...
Show moreThis study took place in a village in Yucatan, Mexico in the context of two adult education programs in Yucatan [Plaza Comunitaria and Preparatoria Abierta]. I interacted in convivencia with bilingual (Mayan-Spanish) Yucatec Mayan women who took on the challenge of completing their formal schooling through those adult education programs. Over 3 summers (2013, 2014, 2015) I immersed myself in the community and witnessed their educational efforts. Ethnographic and convivencia methodologies (Galvan, 2015) helped generate data. I analyzed data with methodologies stemming from the humanities, in narrative (Clandinin & Connelly, 2004) and poetic analysis (Görlich, 2016; Prendergast, Leggo, & Sameshima, 2009). Through my discussion, I explore how the efforts of Yucatec Mayan women prompt educators imagine possibilities for decolonial education and inform our pedagogical practices across multiple educational settings. By focusing on the voices of rural women as poetry, I evoke the rhythms and memories of their lives in indigenous communities and in educational settings. This emerging research has taught me life and professional lessons of education on the margins. I witnessed their ethos of familia, and solidaridad as they studied together. Most importantly, they showed me how studying and being in community are inseparable. -- Abstract.
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Title: Understanding the intersection of loneliness and recovery setting in older cardiac patients
Creator: Macomber, Catherine A.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "Loneliness has significant negative impact on health. Loneliness is the difference between the amount of social support you expect to receive and the amount you perceive you are getting. Age is one risk factor of loneliness, and life events such as a move to a nursing home or the need for professional care to provide assistance with Activities of Daily Living also increase the risk of loneliness. There is little evidence comparing the experience of loneliness between settings of nursing...
Show more"Loneliness has significant negative impact on health. Loneliness is the difference between the amount of social support you expect to receive and the amount you perceive you are getting. Age is one risk factor of loneliness, and life events such as a move to a nursing home or the need for professional care to provide assistance with Activities of Daily Living also increase the risk of loneliness. There is little evidence comparing the experience of loneliness between settings of nursing homes and at home with home care, and yet much current policy sees aging-in-place, staying in your own home, as the most appropriate setting for growing older. This mixed methods study compares the experience of loneliness in two settings, nursing home and at home, and the influence demographics and social support have on this relationship. The theoretical framework used is the Health Belief Model." -- Abstract.
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Title: Enrolling in early college : agency and circumstance in the lives of rural students
Creator: Erfourth, Stavroula S.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Most empirical work on dual enrollment has been quantitative and concerned with issues of demographic participation (minority, first-generation, etc.) and college persistence (Carey, 2015; Cowan, & Goldhaber, 2015; D'Amico, Morgan, Robertson, & Rivers, 2013; Habersham, 2013; McCormick, 2010). Less research, however, has focused on the perspective of the students and how they perceive both their experience in dual enrollment programs and in their schooling and lives leading to the decision to...
Show moreMost empirical work on dual enrollment has been quantitative and concerned with issues of demographic participation (minority, first-generation, etc.) and college persistence (Carey, 2015; Cowan, & Goldhaber, 2015; D'Amico, Morgan, Robertson, & Rivers, 2013; Habersham, 2013; McCormick, 2010). Less research, however, has focused on the perspective of the students and how they perceive both their experience in dual enrollment programs and in their schooling and lives leading to the decision to participate. Fewer studies have concentrated on discovering student motivations for participating and to better understand their experiences (Hudson, 2016; Kanny, 2015; Wallace, 2015; Smith, 2015). As a group, rural students from economically depressed regions have not had the same academic opportunities as their urban and even suburban counterparts (Wallace, 2015; Koricich, 2013; Berg, 2010). By offering early college options, a particular type of dual enrollment program, to these students, school districts and their postsecondary partners can increase the college-going of their communities’ children, and perhaps positively impact the trajectories of lives. However, success of these early college programs is influenced by many things including the foundational development–academic, personal, and social–of the students that attend. To situate my work in this space, using the portraiture method, I sought to expand the limited use of work images and extend it by intersecting the idea with secondary students’ postsecondary choices, specifically as they apply to early college program enrollment. To accomplish this, I employed Emirbayer and Mische’s (1998) theory on human agency and Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) social ecology as a framework to guide questions to students about their decisions to participate in an early college program. I made use of Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis’ (1997) approach to producing a portrait, which is the product of the aesthetic whole. They believe, In developing the aesthetic whole we come face to face with the tensions inherent in blending art and science, analysis and narrative, description and interpretation, structure and texture. We are reminded of the dual motivations guiding portraiture: to inform and inspire, to document and transform, to speak to the head and to the heart (p. 243). In this work, I offer the portraits of four early college students from a rural, economically disadvantaged area who made the decision to attend college while still in high school and why that decision is valuable for them and the institution they attend.
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Title: Rapid adaptation of floral phenotypes in weedy radish, R.r. Raphanistrum
Creator: Charbonneau, Amanda
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Agricultural weeds cause billions of dollars’ worth of damage worldwide as well as reducing yields, however we often know very little about where they came from, or how they adapt to farming techniques. Agricultural fields are human created environments quite unlike anything in nature and are relatively harsh environments that can exert strong selective pressures. Yearly tilling, for example, likely selects for plants that both quickly reproduce, and can survive in disturbed soils. While some...
Show moreAgricultural weeds cause billions of dollars’ worth of damage worldwide as well as reducing yields, however we often know very little about where they came from, or how they adapt to farming techniques. Agricultural fields are human created environments quite unlike anything in nature and are relatively harsh environments that can exert strong selective pressures. Yearly tilling, for example, likely selects for plants that both quickly reproduce, and can survive in disturbed soils. While some plants with generalist phenotypes might be well suited for thriving in these conditions, others, like Raphanus raphanistrum ssp. raphanistrum (weedy radish), have likely evolved to become weeds. To better understand how these agricultural weeds evolve, I have phenotypically and genotypically characterized weedy R.r. raphanistrum and it’s close relatives. In chapters one and two, I show that weedy R.r. raphanistrum is most closely related to native populations of R.r. raphanistrum, but that these two ecotypes have very different flowering phenotypes. Weedy R.r. raphanistrum flowers in approximately thirty days, while the native plants take fifty to one hundred and fifty days to flower. This demonstrates a likely adaptation to agriculture, and in chapter two I find several loci that may contribute to these phenotypic differences. In chapter three, I analyze differential expression patterns in two selection lines derived from weedy R.r. raphanistrum, to determine genes that underlie differences in floral morphology. These genes should contribute to differences in anther exsertion, which in turn controls how pollen is dispersed onto pollinators. Together, these studies answer basic questions about how evolution works on a short time scale and provide insights into the adaptations of one of the world’s most damaging agricultural weeds. More broadly, these studies demonstrate that weedy radish is a good system for studying rapid evolution in response to both natural and artificial selection and lay the groundwork for future work. In particular, chapters one and two will be useful for broad comparisons across agricultural weeds to determine whether weeds use similar strategies for invading croplands, which would tell us not only about the repeatability of evolution, but also be potentially useful in reducing agricultural losses due to weeds.
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Title: Exploring overlap between Michigan lawmakers and social studies policy enactors in the context of Public Act 4136
Creator: Miness, Andrew Scott
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: In a qualitative case study of Michigan Public Act 4136 – which mandates that high school students in Michigan must complete a one-semester civics course aligned with the the US Citizenship Exam in order to receive a diploma – I sought to determine to what extent lawmakers, social studies teachers and administrators, and resources related to the policy reveal shared or disparate positions in their orientations towards citizenship education. Through interviews with members of Michigan’s state...
Show moreIn a qualitative case study of Michigan Public Act 4136 – which mandates that high school students in Michigan must complete a one-semester civics course aligned with the the US Citizenship Exam in order to receive a diploma – I sought to determine to what extent lawmakers, social studies teachers and administrators, and resources related to the policy reveal shared or disparate positions in their orientations towards citizenship education. Through interviews with members of Michigan’s state legislature, social studies classroom teachers, and educational leaders at the local and state levels, I positioned how these individuals tended to view social studies education in the context of high stakes exams, mandates, and a polarized political climate. Additionally, I examined related newspaper coverage to analyze how the mainstream press structured social studies knowledge and encouraged particular conceptions of citizenship. The findings revealed that lawmaker and educator participants believed in the importance of civics education, especially given the partisan, highly polarized nature of today’s society. In fact, lawmaker and educator participants seemed to agree about the importance of the content knowledge associated with the US Citizenship Exam, yet expressed levels of disagreement related to the competing political and educational aims of legislation mandating its instruction. More specifically, while educators expressed different levels of comfort with powerfully integrating civics learning opportunities amidst the polarized political climate, they all talked about wanting their students to question and develop reasons for their thinking. Some lawmaker participants espoused similar beliefs about social studies teaching and learning related to critical thinking and student engagement. One lawmaker participant, who sponsored 4136, came at social studies education more from a rote delivery of information perspective, and argued for the need to learn certain content knowledge. Investigating the shared and disparate views of citizenship that existed among these domains could contribute to better coordinating social studies education policy and practice, especially as close to 20 other states implement similar legislation as Michigan’s Public Act 4136. By identifying patterns among lawmakers and social studies policy enactors’ representations of social studies education, policy could be strengthened by making it more flexible and responsive to these potentially diverse perspectives and contexts. Most importantly, my research could restructure some of the debate about what it means to prepare students for their civic lives by empowering more active, non-traditional interpretations of citizenship.
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Title: High power inductive wireless charger for PHEV and EV
Creator: Zeng, Hulong
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "Electric vehicles (EVs) are getting more attractive for the sake of reducing air pollutions in urban areas. Wireless power transfer (WPT), a key enabling technology, affects the acceptance of EVs in the market. For high power WPT, inductive power transfer (IPT) has been researched for decades and successfully used in several EV systems. However, higher efficiency and higher power density IPT systems are still in demand. The unique feature of this IPT system is that the coupling coefficient...
Show more"Electric vehicles (EVs) are getting more attractive for the sake of reducing air pollutions in urban areas. Wireless power transfer (WPT), a key enabling technology, affects the acceptance of EVs in the market. For high power WPT, inductive power transfer (IPT) has been researched for decades and successfully used in several EV systems. However, higher efficiency and higher power density IPT systems are still in demand. The unique feature of this IPT system is that the coupling coefficient of the primary side and secondary side windings is usually less than 0.1. Compensation networks are needed on both primary and secondary side to cancel the huge leakage inductances. Series resonant converter (SRC), with simply compensation networks, is widely adopted as a high efficiency topology for IPT system. Owing to the small coupling coefficient, the SRC acts like a band-pass filter, which only allows the resonant frequency component passing to the secondary side. The band-pass filter can be designed to match one harmonic frequency and only that frequency component carries the power. The passive components can shrink a lot if the resonant frequency is far higher than the switching frequency, and this leads to a more compact IPT system. A harmonic oriented IPT system is proposed. The design considerations of the proposed system and the comparison of different harmonic systems are presented in Chapter 2. Load regulation function is required for battery chargers. However, for the SRC, Small drift away from resonant frequency leads to huge drop on gain and huge increment on circulating current. Traditional frequency modulation control loses soft switching when doing load regulation, which is the main advantage of a resonant converter. A harmonic burst control is proposed to achieve soft switching at both turn-ons and turn-offs under all load conditions. It improves the system efficiency over 10% for light-load conditions. Chapter 3 illustrates this harmonic burst control in detail. IPT systems also includes a power factor correction (PFC) front end, which is usually a boost PFC converter, and an isolated DC-DC converter. In order to reduce the cost of two stage solution, a Z-source resonant converter is researched as a single stage solution that can perform PFC and load regulation at the same time. The mechanism of this Z-source resonant converter is presented in Chapter 4. And the high power factor control schemes are proposed for this Z-source resonant converter in Chapter 5."--Pages ii-iii.
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Title: Towards machine learning based source identification of encrypted video traffic
Creator: Shi, Yan (Of Michigan State University)
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The rapid growth of the Internet has helped to popularize video streaming services, which has now become the most dominant content on the Internet. The management of video streaming traffic is complicated by its enormous volume, diverse communication protocols and data formats, and the widespread adoption of encryption. In this thesis, the aim is to develop a novel firewall framework, named Soft-margined Firewall, for managing encrypted video streaming traffic while avoiding violation of user...
Show moreThe rapid growth of the Internet has helped to popularize video streaming services, which has now become the most dominant content on the Internet. The management of video streaming traffic is complicated by its enormous volume, diverse communication protocols and data formats, and the widespread adoption of encryption. In this thesis, the aim is to develop a novel firewall framework, named Soft-margined Firewall, for managing encrypted video streaming traffic while avoiding violation of user privacy. The system distinguishes itself from conventional firewall systems by incorporating machine learning and Traffic Analysis (TA) as a traffic detection and blocking mechanism. The goal is to detect unknown network traffic, including traffic that is encrypted, tunneled through Virtual Private Network, or obfuscated, in realistic application scenarios. Existing TA methods have limitations in that they can deal only with simple traffic patterns-usually, only a single source of traffic is allowed in a tunnel, and a trained classifier is not portable between network locations, requiring redundant training. This work aims to address these limitations with new techniques in machine learning. The three main contributions of this work are: 1) developing new statistical features around traffic surge periods that can better identify websites with dynamic contents; 2) a two-stage classifier architecture to solve the mixed-traffic problem with state-of-the-art TA features; and 3) leveraging a novel natural-language inspired feature to solve the mixed-traffic problem using Deep-Learning methods. A fully working Soft-margin Firewall with the above distinctive features have been designed, implemented, and verified for both conventional classifiers and the proposed deep-learning based classifiers. The efficacy of the proposed system is confirmed via experiments conducted on actual network setups with a custom-built prototype firewall and OpenVPN servers. The proposed feature-classifier combinations show superior performance compared to previous state-of-the-art results. The solution that combines natural-language inspired traffic feature and Deep-Learning is demonstrated to be able to solve the mixed-traffic problem, and capable of predicting multiple labels associated with one sample. Additionally, the classifier can classify traffic recorded from locations that are different from where the trained traffic was collected. These results are the first of their kind and are expected to lead the way of creating next-generation TA-based firewall systems.
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Title: Multilayer network relationships and culture contact in Mississippian West-Central Illinois, A.D. 1200 - 1450
Creator: Upton, Andrew James
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This dissertation explores the impact of migration on structure and change in human social networks. Prior scholarship on intercultural contacts emphasizes interaction spheres, hybridization, technological transfer, or models of exchange as indicators for constructing borders and defining societal membership. The current study assesses how network relationships among complex and smaller-scale societies structured, and were restructured by, migration. In particular, I address the role of...
Show moreThis dissertation explores the impact of migration on structure and change in human social networks. Prior scholarship on intercultural contacts emphasizes interaction spheres, hybridization, technological transfer, or models of exchange as indicators for constructing borders and defining societal membership. The current study assesses how network relationships among complex and smaller-scale societies structured, and were restructured by, migration. In particular, I address the role of ceramic industry in the transformation of communal-scale interaction and identification networks through culture contact across the middle to late Mississippian transition in the Late Prehistoric central Illinois River valley (ca. 1200 -- 1450 A.D.). In this study, I draw on a body of contemporary social theory focused on parsing social structure across multiple types of interrelationships to investigate how both indigenous societies and migrant peoples approach intercultural social and economic relations. This theoretical framework posits that specific types of relationships act as sensitive features in explanations of group contact, continuity, or change, but that understanding of the entire social system is only approachable through analysis of how individual network layers influence and co-construct each other. Building on a recent formalism, I refer to the superpositioning of individual network layers as a multilayer social network. Through multilayer network analysis, expectations are offered that seek to characterize communal behavioral strategies in the negotiation of a multicultural social and economic environment following cultural contact. This dissertation thus offers theoretical and methodological means to investigate social settings in which disparate material culture traditions coexist or intermix in time and space through the comparative modeling of various networks of relationships that connect individuals and communities. Ceramic industry is parsed into three relational dimensions in this study: A model for assessing social interaction via the cultural transmission of ceramic artifact attributes is applied to a database representing technological characterizations of over 1,300 vessels. Networks of social identification are modeled from a database of stylistic designs incised or trailed onto the outflaring rim of over 490 plates primarily used in the serving of food. Networks of economic interactions related to ceramic industry are modeled through the compositional analysis of over 580 ceramic vessels. Based on a comparative analysis of the structure of multiple network layers, I hypothesize that Oneota in-migration into the Mississippian central Illinois River valley resulted in a period of accommodative intercultural communal coexistence at the macro-regional scale. In social settings following culture contact characterized by accommodative coexistence, relational transaction costs are relatively moderate to low but heterogeneous or exclusive categorial identities delimit the extent of collective action or social movements. A breakdown of economic relationships and reduction in the social scale of shared categorical identities among communities are argued to be clear inflection points in delimiting social transformations to sub- groups of relational networks that did share common categorical identities, identities that may have cross-cut cultural boundaries.
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Title: Climate justice for the dead and the dying : weaving ethics of palliation and remembrance from story and practice
Creator: Gibson, Julia D. (Graduate of Michigan State University)
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This dissertation investigates how past-oriented environmentalism is ill-equipped to attend to the irreversible harms of global climate change. Having long placed heavy emphasis on strategies---e.g., preservation, restoration, and conservation---that seek to ensure the environment of today and the future roughly mirror that of the past, environmentalism's practical and conceptual tools for grappling with what is owed to the dead and dying victims of environmental injustice have been woefully...
Show moreThis dissertation investigates how past-oriented environmentalism is ill-equipped to attend to the irreversible harms of global climate change. Having long placed heavy emphasis on strategies---e.g., preservation, restoration, and conservation---that seek to ensure the environment of today and the future roughly mirror that of the past, environmentalism's practical and conceptual tools for grappling with what is owed to the dead and dying victims of environmental injustice have been woefully underdeveloped. Relying heavily upon the ethical/political contributions of Indigenous, Afrofuturist, and/or feminist science fiction fantasy, I explore the various dimensions of environmental palliation (for the dying of climate change) and remembrance (for the dead of climate change) and situate these---hypothetical and ongoing---practices in relation to the overlapping project of transformative environmental justice. Overall, the dissertation aims to aid in reorienting and expanding the scope of environmentalism in the hope that the unavoidable moral failures of climate injustice can be ameliorated as much as possible without enacting further violence upon either the living or dead.
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Title: Pathways to well-being during the cultural transition process : the daily experiences of Chinese international students
Creator: Wu, Ivan
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "The current study aims to increase knowledge and awareness of first-year Chinese international students' daily experiences of stress, coping, and psychological well-being. More specifically, the current study seeks to (1) gather data about the daily experiences of stress among Chinese international students at Michigan State University (MSU), (2) examine how appraisals of stress and coping affect their psychological well-being, and (3) investigate how trait mindfulness promotes their...
Show more"The current study aims to increase knowledge and awareness of first-year Chinese international students' daily experiences of stress, coping, and psychological well-being. More specifically, the current study seeks to (1) gather data about the daily experiences of stress among Chinese international students at Michigan State University (MSU), (2) examine how appraisals of stress and coping affect their psychological well-being, and (3) investigate how trait mindfulness promotes their psychological well-being by influencing appraisals of stress and coping. Research suggests that the cultural adjustment process can be particularly isolating and stressful experience for international students that hail from countries that are dissimilar to the U.S. (e.g., those from eastern cultures, such as China, compared to those from similar cultures, such as England). Despite the dramatic increase in Chinese international students at MSU and similar institutions, empirical information regarding Chinese international student experiences and needs is sparse, which hinders efforts to provide culturally sensitive and appropriate mental health counseling and student programming. Grounded in stress and coping theory (e.g., Berry, Kim, Minde, & Mok, 1987; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), the current study examines how perceived stress and coping strategies relate to psychological well-being. Specifically, the role of emotion- and problem-focused coping strategies was assessed. Building upon existing literature that underscores the psychological benefits of trait mindfulness, the current study also examine how trait mindfulness influences perceived stress, coping, and psychological well-being. Towards these goals, 30 Chinese international students from MSU completed an online survey on mindfulness, and psychological well-being, and then engage in a two-week daily diary about their experiences of stress and coping as well as their daily affect. A mixed methods approach was used to analyze the qualitative and quantitative data gathered from the study. Specifically, thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data in order to reveal themes related to reported stressors. Additionally, multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) was used to test hypotheses related to stress, coping, trait mindfulness, and psychological well-being in a cross-cultural context."--Pages ii-iii.
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Title: The evolution of neural plasticity in digital organisms
Creator: Sheneman, Leigh
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Learning is a phenomenon that organisms throughout nature demonstrate and that machinelearning aims to replicate. In nature, it is neural plasticity that allows an organismto integrate the outcomes of their past experiences into their selection of future actions.While neurobiology has identified some of the mechanisms used in this integration, how theprocess works is still a relatively unclear and highly researched topic in the cognitive sciencefield. Meanwhile in the field of machine...
Show moreLearning is a phenomenon that organisms throughout nature demonstrate and that machinelearning aims to replicate. In nature, it is neural plasticity that allows an organismto integrate the outcomes of their past experiences into their selection of future actions.While neurobiology has identified some of the mechanisms used in this integration, how theprocess works is still a relatively unclear and highly researched topic in the cognitive sciencefield. Meanwhile in the field of machine learning, researchers aim to create algorithms thatare also able to learn from past experiences; this endeavor is complicated by the lack ofunderstanding how this process takes place within natural organisms.In this dissertation, I extend the Markov Brain framework [1, 2] which consists of evolvablenetworks of probabilistic and deterministic logic gates to include a novel gate type{feedback gates. Feedback gates use internally generated feedback to learn how to navigatea complex task by learning in the same manner a natural organism would. The evolutionarypath the Markov Brains take to develop this ability provides insight into the evolutionof learning. I show that the feedback gates allow Markov Brains to evolve the ability tolearn how to navigate environments by relying solely on their experiences. In fact, the probabilisticlogic tables of these gates adapt to the point where the an input almost alwaysresults in a single output, to the point of almost being deterministic. Further, I show thatthe mechanism the gates use to adapt their probability table is robust enough to allow theagents to successfully complete the task in novel environments. This ability to generalizeto the environment means that the Markov Brains with feedback gates that emerge fromevolution are learning autonomously; that is without external feedback. In the context ofmachine learning, this allows algorithms to be trained based solely on how they interact withthe environment. Once a Markov Brain can generalize, it is able adapt to changing sets of stimuli, i.e. reversal learn. Machines that are able to reversal learn are no longer limited tosolving a single task. Lastly, I show that the neuro-correlate is increased through neuralplasticity using Markov Brains augmented with feedback gates. The measurement of isbased on Information Integration Theory[3, 4] and quanties the agent's ability to integrateinformation.
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Title: Observing the observer : an examination of preservice music teachers' initial field observations
Creator: Marsh, Becky
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: With the intent of informing music teacher educators in their work with and preparation of preservice music teachers, the purpose of this study was to examine the initial field-observation experiences of preservice music teachers enrolled in an introductory music education course. The "grand tour" question guiding this study was, how do preservice music teachers enrolled in an introductory music education course make meaning of their first observations of a music classroom in K-12 schools...
Show moreWith the intent of informing music teacher educators in their work with and preparation of preservice music teachers, the purpose of this study was to examine the initial field-observation experiences of preservice music teachers enrolled in an introductory music education course. The "grand tour" question guiding this study was, how do preservice music teachers enrolled in an introductory music education course make meaning of their first observations of a music classroom in K-12 schools within their teacher education program? From this overarching question, I sought to address the following subquestions: 1) What do preservice music teachers notice during their first field observation? 2) In what ways, if any, do preservice music teachers draw connections between their teacher identities and what they notice during an observation? 3) How do preservice music teachers negotiate the aspects of their observations that conflict with their teacher identities?
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Title: "Like a double, triple hate" : music education at the intersections of race, religion, and sexuality in the Bible belt
Creator: Thomas-Durrell, Latasha
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: With the purpose of better understanding how a population of multiply marginalized teachers navigate their professional and personal lives, this narrative study focused on the following research question: How do K-12 African American LGBQ music educators who teach in the Bible Belt describe their negotiation of various identity markers (race, sexual identity, religion, and other social norms that stem from religious beliefs)? In order to honor the voices and experiences of the three...
Show moreWith the purpose of better understanding how a population of multiply marginalized teachers navigate their professional and personal lives, this narrative study focused on the following research question: How do K-12 African American LGBQ music educators who teach in the Bible Belt describe their negotiation of various identity markers (race, sexual identity, religion, and other social norms that stem from religious beliefs)? In order to honor the voices and experiences of the three participants Andrew, Zion, and Alex (pseudonyms), this study embraced the emergent design of narrative inquiry and ethnographic techniques. The experiences of these three music educators revealed the importance of intersectionality in understanding complex and interlocking layers of identity. Four main categories of themes emerged related to participants' layers of identity considerations: family, race, music education, and resilience. The topics of each participant's interviews all centered around similar themes-the importance of faith in their lives or at least in their childhoods, battling with their families' conservative religious beliefs in general and in relation to sexual identity, the (assumed) closeness of family, racial microaggressions and stereotypes, music education advocacy and representation, and resilience through every tough experience. The theoretical lenses labeling theory and queer theory illuminated connections between how and why participants navigated their personal and professional lives in their respective ways. Labeling theory guided analysis of how people in dominant roles used labels to demean the character of participants who reflect identities incongruous with dominant identities. Queer theory aided in examining participants' experiences and choices in how they deconstruct labels attached to their interlocking identities. Based on participants' experiences and perceptions, implications emerge for how families and education personnel might provide support and mentorship for minoritized populations, and how music educators can help drive needed changes in music education. Education professionals can make policy changes that better support minoritized teachers and students alike. Better and more professional development that focuses on identity considerations is needed for all music educators.
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Title: The dynamic value of intermittent renewable energy
Creator: Castro, Miguel (Graduate of Michigan State University)
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Intermittent renewable energy sources have significant local air pollution reduction and climate change mitigation benefits. However, their irregular generation creates challenges for integrating these resources into the power grid. Valuing wind and solar power requires addressing both issues, especially in light of the policies and incentives aimed at promoting their large scale adoption. This dissertation values the environmental and economic benefits of wind and solar power by modelling...
Show moreIntermittent renewable energy sources have significant local air pollution reduction and climate change mitigation benefits. However, their irregular generation creates challenges for integrating these resources into the power grid. Valuing wind and solar power requires addressing both issues, especially in light of the policies and incentives aimed at promoting their large scale adoption. This dissertation values the environmental and economic benefits of wind and solar power by modelling their daily intermittency and interactions with hydropower in California and storage in Texas. In Chapter 2, I use random fluctuations in hourly wind and solar generation in California to estimate how much they reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. These offsets depend on the direct displacement of high-cost natural gas generators, and on the hydropower reallocation that occurs to the hours with the lowest increase in renewable generation. Solar power daily intermittency causes a shift in hydro from the afternoon to the evening, which increases its emissions offsets since the gas generators displaced in the evening are dirtier than those kept running in the afternoon. In contrast, wind offsets are less sensitive to hydropower reallocation, since wind leads to a substitution of generators with similar emissions intensities. This chapter highlights the importance of accounting for interactions between wind, solar, and hydro capacity in assessing their environmental benefits. While Chapter 2 uses time series econometrics to model the dynamics of hydropower storage and renewable energy, Chapter 3 simulates the interactions between projected utility-scale batteries and emissions regulations for assessing the value of wind and storage in Texas. Wind power can reduce grid-level electricity generation costs and emissions but its large-scale adoption will require electricity storage to deal with intermittency. I model the ERCOT daily electricity market to estimate the value of wind generation, the value of storage capacity (based on hourly arbitrage) and the impact of wind and storage on emissions (CO2, NOx, and SO2) under different policy scenarios combining storage availability and emissions taxes. Wind and storage capacities are complements since wind’s intermittency raises arbitrage benefits, which in turn enhances wind’s value by reallocating power based on wind cycles. Emissions taxes increase net welfare and the value of storage. Taxing emissions leads to a larger welfare gain than just installing the planned storage levels in ERCOT (324 MWh). Under current technology and cost trends, implementing a carbon pricing scheme that delivers stable prices larger than 40 USD/tCO2 can induce wind to supply 30% of the load in Texas.Finally in Chapter 4, I extend the daily model to a weekly planning horizon and find that interday arbitrage requires storage capacities larger than 11,000 MWh. For these large capacities, the value of storage increases since it arbitrages a larger gap between weekend off-peak and weekday peak demands and prices. However, half of the time the battery is filled with less than 50% of its capacity.
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Title: "A dog has four legs but walks in one direction" : multiple religious belonging and organic Africa-inspired religious traditions in Oriente Cuba
Creator: Zaid, Shanti Ali
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "If religion is about social cohesion and the coordination of meaning, values, and motivations of a community or society, how do communities meaningfully navigate the religious domain in an environment of multiple religious possibilities? Within the range of socio-cultural responses to such conditions, this dissertation empirically explores 'multiple religious belonging,' a concept referring to individuals or groups whose religious identity, commitments, or activities may extend beyond a...
Show more"If religion is about social cohesion and the coordination of meaning, values, and motivations of a community or society, how do communities meaningfully navigate the religious domain in an environment of multiple religious possibilities? Within the range of socio-cultural responses to such conditions, this dissertation empirically explores 'multiple religious belonging,' a concept referring to individuals or groups whose religious identity, commitments, or activities may extend beyond a single coherent religious tradition. The project evaluates expressions of this phenomenon in the eastern Cuban city of Santiago de Cuba with focused attention on practitioners of Regla Ocha/Ifa, Palo Monte, Espiritismo Cruzado, and Muerteria, four organic religious traditions historically evolved from the efforts of African descendants on the island. With concern for identifying patterns, limits, and variety of expression of multiple religious belonging, I employed qualitative research methods to explore how distinctions and relationships between religious traditions are articulated, navigated, and practiced. These methods included directed formal and informal personal interviews and participant observations of ritual spaces, events, and community gatherings in the four traditions. I demonstrate that religious practitioners in Santiago manage diverse religious options through multiple religious belonging and that practitioners have strategies for expressing their multiple religious belonging. The diverse expressions involve characteristics of centered and un-centered models of multiple religious belonging, as well as attributes of shared reality and complementarity between religious traditions. The research contributes to a more critical understanding of the complexities of eastern Cuban religious expressions and religious traditions of the African Diaspora. Moreover, the project aims to enhance the conceptual literature around multiple religious belonging with data from the Caribbean island of Cuba."--Pages ii-iii.
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Title: Dynamic behavior of liquid nanofoam and its functionalized materials and structures
Creator: Li, Mingzhe (Of Michigan State University)
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The use of energy absorption materials and structures for protection in collision, explosion, and impact attacks has long been recognized as one of the most effective approaches to reduce and prevent personnel injuries and infrastructure damages. These systems have been widely used in many industrial, medical, and military applications. Recently, an advanced energy absorption material, liquid nanofoam (LN), has been developed with high energy absorption capacity as well as high energy...
Show moreThe use of energy absorption materials and structures for protection in collision, explosion, and impact attacks has long been recognized as one of the most effective approaches to reduce and prevent personnel injuries and infrastructure damages. These systems have been widely used in many industrial, medical, and military applications. Recently, an advanced energy absorption material, liquid nanofoam (LN), has been developed with high energy absorption capacity as well as high energy mitigation rate. The LN system, composed of a liquid phase and a hydrophobic nanoporous media, employs the pressurized liquid flow in nano-channels as its energy absorption mechanism. However, previous studies of the LN mainly focused on the quasi-static behaviors. Only limited effort had been made to understand the working mechanism of the LN under dynamic impacts which are the practical loading condition in scenarios such as auto collisions, blunt impacts and blasts. This dissertation presents the first systematic experimental study on the dynamic behavior of the LN system and reveals the deformation mechanism of LN under high strain rates. These scientific findings open up new applications of the LN functionalized materials and structures.The intermediate and high strain rate responses of LN systems have been characterized by a lab-customized drop tower apparatus. The competition between liquid infiltration and porous structure deformation at high strain rates has been elucidated at nanoscale. Results show that liquid infiltration into nanopores is independent of the axial buckling stress of the nanopore, and thus is the dominating deformation mechanism of the LN. More importantly, the activation of liquid infiltration as well as liquid flow in nanopores are much faster than the nanoscale porous structure deformation. This much-enhanced liquid flow speed in nano-environment is experimentally quantified for the first time. It has been demonstrated that the liquid infiltration speed is adaptive to the impact energy level, which provides mechanistic explanation for the high energy absorption efficiency of LN at high strain rates. Results also suggest that LN in the liquid marble form performs better than the liquid form upon high strain rate impact due to the macroscopically homogenous structure in the liquid marble form.Based on the fundamental understanding of the deformation mechanism and the adaptive nanoscale liquid flow, LN has been integrated into other materials and structures to generate multifunctional materials and structures, e.g. LN-filled tube (LNFT), hybrid hydrogel, and advanced seat belt retractor system. In LNFT, LN is utilized as a novel filling material in thin-walled tube. The resulted LNFTs possess enhanced average post-buckling strength and energy absorption capacity due to the "perfect bonding" between the LN and the tube wall. Also, based on the adaptive nanoscale liquid flow, the LNFT is more efficient for energy mitigation at elevated strain rates. In LN-based hybrid hydrogels, LN is formulated and encapsulated in hydrogel by integrating nanoporous particles into the 3D polymer network. Liquid infiltration mechanism, combined with the chemical and physical cross-linking effects, leads to the improvement of both strength and toughness of the hybrid hydrogel, which is not seen in current hydrogels. In LN-based seat belt retractor system, LN is employed as the load-bearing component, which allows additional payout tunability, adaptability, and reusability in the system.The knowledge gained in this study will facilitate the design of next generation of advanced LN-functionalized materials and structures for extreme working conditions.
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Title: Gut feelings : human waste and signs of health in 20th- and 21st century literature
Creator: Sabo, Garth Jerome
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Gut Feelings: Human Waste and Signs of Health in 20th- and 21st-Century Literature reads narrative and scientific descriptions of the human intestinal tract alongside contemporary ecological interest in interdependent and vulnerable ecosystems. Situated between the advent of germ theory coming out of the Pasteur Institute at the end of the 19th century and the rethinking of gut flora as a source of health rather than disease at the beginning of the 21 st, I argue for the gut's increasing...
Show moreGut Feelings: Human Waste and Signs of Health in 20th- and 21st-Century Literature reads narrative and scientific descriptions of the human intestinal tract alongside contemporary ecological interest in interdependent and vulnerable ecosystems. Situated between the advent of germ theory coming out of the Pasteur Institute at the end of the 19th century and the rethinking of gut flora as a source of health rather than disease at the beginning of the 21 st, I argue for the gut's increasing importance as a site of symbiotic community. By pairing literary representations of excrement with contemporary gastroenterological and microbiological knowledge of the human microbiome, I present a symbiotic scatology attentive to the vibrancy of human waste. Chapter 1 begins in 1908 with the publication of The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic Studies by Elie Metchnikoff, an early microbiologist and sub-director of the Pasteur Institute. Metchnikoff presents his "just inference that the duration of life of mammals has been notably shortened as the result of chronic poisoning from an abundant intestinal flora" (72). I track how cultural narratives of human waste and the boundary-crossing promises of gut flora evolve out of and beyond this "just inference" over the course of the 20th century. I read Aldous Huxley's 1939 novel After Many a Summer Dies the Swan against Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man (1964) and Greg Egan's Permutation City (1994) to show how Metchnikoff's early theories of excrement as a source of bodily intimacy and infinity transform in cultural narratives of waste. My second chapter continues these fecal narratives to propose how the "fantastic voyage" genre of literature, particularly those that tout adventure on the alimentary canal, rewrite the human body as an ecosystem, a mode of embodiment that I dub the "fecological body." The texts under consideration for this chapter---Mark Twain's 3,000 Years Among the Microbes (1905), George Chappell's Through the Alimentary Canal With Gun and Camera (1930), Nathanael West's The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931), and Joe Orton's Head to Toe (1971)---use ecological terms and imagery to depict the body as a varied plane cohabited by human and non-human multitudes that are best revealed in waste. Chapter 3 considers how this excremental topology affects the way human bodies inhabit other spaces by joining the alimentary canal of individuals to the sewers of the body politic. I bridge eco- and anatomic materialism with public infrastructure analysis by close reading literary scenes where bodies escape through toilets. In particular, I read Slothrop's exodus through the toilet to save his harmonica in Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (1973), the dictator Sam flushing himself to elude the revolution against him in Ishmael Reed's The Free-Lance Pallbearers (1967), and Andy Dufresne's toilet-assisted escape from the titular prison in Stephen King's "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" (1982). I historicize these texts within a brief window in which ecological protests rendered the technologies of waste management hyper-visible in order to parse the cultural importance of travels through excremental spaces. In my final chapter, I develop these communal materialities of waste into a model of excremental kinship. I situate contemporary family narratives from A.M. Homes's May We Be Forgiven (2012), Katherine Dunn's Geek Love (1989) and Nicholson Baker's Room Temperature (1984) alongside new concepts of kinship and ecology emerging from the work of Donna Haraway, Eve Sedgwick, and Sarah Ensor. Focusing on the "common intestine" of Dunn's conjoined twins Iphy and Elly Binewski, I present shit in this final chapter as a kinship object grounded in a form of mutual relation that resembles and resists genealogical heredity.
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Title: Teaching meanings : imagination and the teacher in-becoming
Creator: Missias, Matthew T.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Imagination-broadly defined here as narratives individuals construct about experience and possibility-is integral to helping people understand their lived experiences. In the context of teacher education, imagination is an indispensable dimension of developing one's self-conception as a teacher, and of defining what is and is not acceptable practice. Using the theoretical lens of imagination and employing interpretive methodologies with pre-service teachers interning in urban contexts, this...
Show moreImagination-broadly defined here as narratives individuals construct about experience and possibility-is integral to helping people understand their lived experiences. In the context of teacher education, imagination is an indispensable dimension of developing one's self-conception as a teacher, and of defining what is and is not acceptable practice. Using the theoretical lens of imagination and employing interpretive methodologies with pre-service teachers interning in urban contexts, this study examines what it means for pre-service teachers to shift from pre-service to in-service teacher identities and the effects of those shifts on their practice. The study focuses on the role and effects of imagination with five participants who were learning to teach by focusing on the transition from student teacher to the self-identification as full-fledged teacher at the end of the internship, a phase of teacher development that I label "in-becoming." Two research questions frame this study: How do teachers in-becoming, as a function of imagination, form narratives around their experiences that constitute meaning for their practice? And, in what ways do teachers in-becoming use those meanings to imagine what is and is not possible in their practice as a consequence of how they understand themselves as teachers? Three primary conclusions are discussed in the context of the findings: first, the shaping of a self-conception as a teacher is an imaginative process drawn from narratives constructed in and about experiences. Second, imagination is essential in experiencing the effects of pre-service teaching and constructing boundaries of and possibilities for practice. And third, the becoming of a teacher is a unique phase of learning to teach wherein the pre-service teacher assumes an identity as a teacher and independently shapes his or her practice. The study concludes with a discussion about implications for teacher education and it advocates for the inclusion of imagination more holistically in learning to teach.
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Title: The role of inflammation and the kynurenine pathway in mood disorders and pregnancy
Creator: Keaton, Sarah A.
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "Inflammation and the kynurenine pathway are involved in multiple physiological and pathophysiological states, however their role in depression during and after pregnancy, suicidality, and pre-eclampsia remain to be understood. Here, we sought to understand how the kynurenine pathway and its metabolites as well as their interactions with inflammation may influence these conditions. First, we analyzed suicide warning in women with mood and anxiety disorders. We identified a distinct...
Show more"Inflammation and the kynurenine pathway are involved in multiple physiological and pathophysiological states, however their role in depression during and after pregnancy, suicidality, and pre-eclampsia remain to be understood. Here, we sought to understand how the kynurenine pathway and its metabolites as well as their interactions with inflammation may influence these conditions. First, we analyzed suicide warning in women with mood and anxiety disorders. We identified a distinct immunobiological profile linked to cross-diagnostic suicide risk in women with mood disorders, attending a psychiatric outpatient clinic. This consisted of a strong proinflammatory profile, containing white blood cell count and polymononuclear leukocyte cell count which may be associated with the underlying pathobiology of suicide warning.. Next, we analyzed inflammation and the kynurenine pathway in peripartum depression and postpartum depression and suicidality to understand how they could influence psychiatric health. We found plasma IL-6 predicted depression scores throughout the first, second, and third trimester. In the third trimester we found increased neurotoxic kynurenine metabolite quinolinic acid in the plasma of women with depression compared to health controls. Additionally, we found plasma IL-1beta and IL-6 correlated with placental tissue expression of indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO) connecting the placenta with peripheral inflammation in the plasma. There was a different inflammatory profile in postpartum depression and suicidality, with increased IL-8 and decreased IL-2, indicating the mechanisms causing peripartum depression and postpartum depression may be different. Finally, we looked at placentas from women with pre-eclampsia compared to healthy controls and found they had dysregulated tryptophan metabolism. There was a decrease of IDO, a compensatory increase in expression of tryptophan-2,3-dioxygenase, and this was associated with a decrease of serum amyloid A. Collectively, this dissertation highlights the importance of inflammation and the kynurenine pathway in the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders and pregnancy states in females. Further research of inflammation and the kynurenine pathway may lead to screening panels and treatments for suicide, peripartum depression, postpartum depression and suicidality, and pre-eclampsia."--Pages ii-iii.
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