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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: Sewer system for Ovid, Michigan
Creator: Sheldon, Alton F.
Date: 1925
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

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: DISCOVERING THE LANGUAGE OF MEANINGFUL WORK
Creator: Morrison, Michael Aubrey
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This study introduces a series of language signals that indicate whether a person finds their work meaningful (or meaningless). These signals are then integrated into a new, natural language measure of work meaningfulness. This algorithm can analyze a worker’s written description of their work, and using features of their writing determine whether they find their work meaningful with an average classification accuracy of 85%. As an additional, theoretical contribution, this study tests the...
Show moreThis study introduces a series of language signals that indicate whether a person finds their work meaningful (or meaningless). These signals are then integrated into a new, natural language measure of work meaningfulness. This algorithm can analyze a worker’s written description of their work, and using features of their writing determine whether they find their work meaningful with an average classification accuracy of 85%. As an additional, theoretical contribution, this study tests the relationship between work meaningfulness and construal level theory. Results indicate that personal pronouns and action verbs are most related to creating an impression of meaningfulness, but that identity statements and positive sentiment are more related to actual, self-reported meaningfulness. Additionally, construal level showed a significant, positive relationship with several measures of work meaningfulness.
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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: Expanding the plant palette for green roofs
Creator: Vandegrift, Drew Anthony
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Fifty-four percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas and this number continues to grow (United Nations, 2014). Dense development along with the accompanying increase in impervious surfaces can have harmful effects on humans, wildlife, and the earth. Green infrastructure such as green roofs can improve urban areas by introducing plant life to otherwise barren rooftops, thus reducing the negative impact humans may have on the environment. While green roofs are a historically old...
Show moreFifty-four percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas and this number continues to grow (United Nations, 2014). Dense development along with the accompanying increase in impervious surfaces can have harmful effects on humans, wildlife, and the earth. Green infrastructure such as green roofs can improve urban areas by introducing plant life to otherwise barren rooftops, thus reducing the negative impact humans may have on the environment. While green roofs are a historically old practice, they are relatively new to North America. Because of their novelty, we are still developing best management practices and discovering what plants are best suited to rooftop environments. If the green roof industry is to grow, the list of suitable plant species must be expanded and this information must be disseminated to green roof practitioners and the general public. Because climate differs from one region to the next, data on plant performance for each climatic region is needed to properly specify green roofs within that region. A rooftop experiment was conducted on the Molecular Plant Sciences Building at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, USA, to test the suitability of several succulents, herbaceous perennials, and grasses in varying depths of green roof substrate over a seven-year period. Forty-five percent of the species were no longer preset on the roof by the end of the study. Still, several species emerged as successful, as defined by their ability to establish themselves on a green roof and long term survival. A reference guide to green roof plants was also compiled based on research from 11 studies conducted in the Great Lakes Region that tested plant performance. The result is a database of 80 plant species that have been successfully grown on green roofs in the region and lists traits such as plant growth habit, size, hardiness, drought tolerance, wildlife attractiveness, and other attributes. The reference guide is mostly composed of herbaceous perennials (65%) and succulents (17%). Based on the 11 studies used to compile the plant database, the average minimum depth required for survival of all species tested was 13 cm. Required minimum depth was less for succulent species alone. In addition to plant performance, I also explain why certain groups of plants performed well and how plant selection influences the desired benefits of the green roof. This reference guide can be used by green roof professionals in the Great Lakes region and in other parts of the world with a similar climate (Köppen climate types ‘Dfa’ (hot summer humid continental) or ‘Dfb’ (warm summer humid continental)).
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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: Software tool for performing the calibration of the AT-TPC electronics channels
Creator: Ndayisabye, Felix
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "The Active Target Time Projection Chamber (AT-TPC), developed at the National Superconducting CyclotronLaboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University, is a gas-based system that serves a dual role of a target and detector medium for nuclear physics experiments. Active target devices have gained much attention within the past dedicate due to their high resolution and efficiency to study reactions with very exotic nuclei. With the use of incident beam energy ranging from low (1-10 MeV/u) to...
Show more"The Active Target Time Projection Chamber (AT-TPC), developed at the National Superconducting CyclotronLaboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University, is a gas-based system that serves a dual role of a target and detector medium for nuclear physics experiments. Active target devices have gained much attention within the past dedicate due to their high resolution and efficiency to study reactions with very exotic nuclei. With the use of incident beam energy ranging from low (1-10 MeV/u) to medium (10-100 MeV/u) to extract the physical properties of nuclei far from stability, the AT-TPC is contributing significantly to experimental nuclear science, thanks to its high luminosity working capability without loss of resolution and low-energy detection thresholds that enable experiments with beam intensities as low as 102 pps. Because of its unique features, a dedicated python based data analysis tool was developed to extract information from this detector. This software tool allows to calibrate the electronic baselines, amplitudes and times of the signals recorded by each of the AT-TPC pads relative to each other. The statistical analysis of the aforementioned calibrated parameters shows the coefficient of the fluctuations of the order of 9.1 % and 8.8 % for the baselines , 3.43 % and 4.8 % for the amplitudes and 45 ns and 34 ns for the time from the big and small pads respectively from all 24 events taken during the pulse run."--Page ii.
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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: How mods empower co-creation and remix
Creator: Small, Rebekah
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The field of user experience design (UX) has much to offer the process of video game development but is only lightly present in current games research. This paper argues that the current understanding of games through a critical theoretical lens or human computer interaction (HCI) approach does not address many important game interactions and experiences. Collaborative experiences and participatory design such as fan-made video game modifications go unexplored; therefore, developers miss out...
Show moreThe field of user experience design (UX) has much to offer the process of video game development but is only lightly present in current games research. This paper argues that the current understanding of games through a critical theoretical lens or human computer interaction (HCI) approach does not address many important game interactions and experiences. Collaborative experiences and participatory design such as fan-made video game modifications go unexplored; therefore, developers miss out on key insights regarding the wants and needs of their users. By examining user data, usage statistics, and interface analysis about modifications for the game Skyrim, this paper details the type of fan-driven innovation and design that could be beneficial to both researchers and developers.
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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: A study of the catalytic effect of aluminum chloride in the condensation of acetic anhydride with benzine and phenol
Creator: Angela, Frances
Date: 1924
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

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: Enhancing motivation to exercise for obese participants in exergames : testing partner characteristics as a moderator of the Kohler effect
Creator: Beckles, Joelle A.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: ABSTRACTENHANCING MOTIVATION TO EXERCISE FOR OBESE PARTICIPANTS IN EXERGAMES: TESTING PARTNER CHARACTERISTICS AS A MODERATOR OF THE KÖHLER EFFECTByJoelle A Beckles This thesis examined the effects of playing an exergame that involved abdominal strength exercises (with a virtually-presented partner) on exercise motivational effort. Specifically, this research explored whether exercise duration could be increased using the Köhler motivation gain principles (based on the group dynamics...
Show moreABSTRACTENHANCING MOTIVATION TO EXERCISE FOR OBESE PARTICIPANTS IN EXERGAMES: TESTING PARTNER CHARACTERISTICS AS A MODERATOR OF THE KÖHLER EFFECTByJoelle A Beckles This thesis examined the effects of playing an exergame that involved abdominal strength exercises (with a virtually-presented partner) on exercise motivational effort. Specifically, this research explored whether exercise duration could be increased using the Köhler motivation gain principles (based on the group dynamics principles of upward social comparison and indispensability) with a lighter versus same weight virtually-presented partner in an obese community sample (BMI > 30). Participants were community adults (N = 35; Mage = 46; SD = 17.34 years) who completed the first block of three isometric abdominal exercises alone. After resting, participants completed the second block either alone (Control), with a lighter weight, or with a same weight partner. Partners were actually confederates recorded earlier and presented virtually as live, from another lab. Exercise persistence, self-efficacy beliefs, enjoyment, and perceived exertion were recorded. Results showed that mean persistence was greater for participants in the lighter weight condition (24.45 sec) than for those in the control condition (-9.92 sec), but not for participants in the similar weight condition (15.64 sec). There were no differences across conditions in self-efficacy, enjoyment, or perceived exertion.
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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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