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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
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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
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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
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"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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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"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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- Title
- The growth of organic small molecule and inorganic halide perovskite crystalline thin films
- Creator
- Chen, Pei (Graduate of Michigan State University)
- Date
- 2019
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
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Organic semiconductors have shown exceptional opportunities for manipulating energy in a range of structures in light-emitting diodes, lasers, transistors, transparent photovoltaics, etc. with the presence of excitons at room temperature that distinguishes them from traditional semiconductors. The control over the crystalline order, orientation, layer-coupling as well as defect formation are the key to the fabrication and optimization for improving the performance of organic electronics. In...
Show moreOrganic semiconductors have shown exceptional opportunities for manipulating energy in a range of structures in light-emitting diodes, lasers, transistors, transparent photovoltaics, etc. with the presence of excitons at room temperature that distinguishes them from traditional semiconductors. The control over the crystalline order, orientation, layer-coupling as well as defect formation are the key to the fabrication and optimization for improving the performance of organic electronics. In the first part of this thesis, we focus on understanding organic crystalline growth. Organic homoepitaxy growth mode is mapped as a function of vapor phase growth conditions on high quality organic crystalline substrates. Organic-organic hetero-quasiepitaxy is then studied to explore the design rules for ordered alternating organic growth similar to inorganic quantum well structure. A unique organic edge driven case is demonstrated providing new routes to controlling molecular orientation and multilayer ordering. These results could enable entirely new opportunities for enhancing unique excitonic tunability and could also be used as a platform to study organic exciton confinement and strong coupling.The second part of the thesis is focused on inorganic halide perovskite growth. Hybrid halide perovskites have attracted tremendous attention as an exceptional new class of semiconductors for solar harvesting, light emission, lasing, quantum dots, thin-film electronics, etc. However, the toxicity of lead devices and lead manufacturing combined with the instability of organic components have been two key barriers to widespread applications. In this work, we demonstrate the first single-domain epitaxial growth of halide perovskites. This in situ growth study is enabled by the study of homoepitaxy and mixed-homoepitaxy of metal halide crystals that demonstrates the capability of performing reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) on insulating surfaces. We then focus on tin-based inorganic halide perovskites, CsSnX3 (X = Cl, Br, and I), on lattice-matched metal halide crystals via reactive vapor growth route that leads to single-domain epitaxial films with excellent crystalline order lacking in solution processing. Exploiting this highly controllable epitaxial growth we demonstrate the first halide perovskite quantum wells that creates photoluminescent tunability with different well width. These demonstrations could spark the exploration of a full range of epitaxial halide perovskites and lead to novel applications for metal-halide-perovskite based single-crystal epitaxial optoelectronics.
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- Title
- Evaluating blue courage : a national evaluation of the blue courage training program
- Creator
- Drake, Gregory M.
- Date
- 2019
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
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The impact of stress on police officers has profound implications for both the wellness of individual officers and the legitimacy of policing as field. Stress produces a litany of negative impacts on officer health, including direct impacts like a higher risk of heart disease and a shorter life expectancy as well as indirect effects like an increased risk of the development of harmful coping mechanisms like substance abuse. More recently, the impacts of stress on individual officers have been...
Show moreThe impact of stress on police officers has profound implications for both the wellness of individual officers and the legitimacy of policing as field. Stress produces a litany of negative impacts on officer health, including direct impacts like a higher risk of heart disease and a shorter life expectancy as well as indirect effects like an increased risk of the development of harmful coping mechanisms like substance abuse. More recently, the impacts of stress on individual officers have been observed to spill over and negatively affect community-police relations as officers struggle to contain emotional responses when under stress or withdraw from critical functions of police work, like community engagement, as a way to manage stress.This study performed an evaluation of a holistic police training program called Blue Courage, which is designed to educate officers about the impact of stress and provide them with tools to improve the health and wellness of themselves and the profession writ large. This study was a mixed-methods process and outcome evaluation of the training program, and consisted of observations of the training, interviews with key program staff, and the use of a case study model to elucidate aspects of the Blue Courage train-the-trainer model of delivery. Additional, data from 681 training participants, collected between June of 2017 and September of 2018 was used to determine the impact of the training on a number of attitudes central to officer health and wellness. At the conclusion of this dissertation, discussions of the findings and future directions for research are discussed. Additionally, several policy recommendations for the Blue Courage organization are provided.
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- Title
- The effect of vocal fry on speech intelligibility
- Creator
- Cammenga, Kaleigh Susan
- Date
- 2018
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
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Speech intelligibility is a measurement of the interaction between three components: the speech signal, the transmission channel, and the listener. Anything that interferes with any of these components can affect intelligibility. Vocal fry, though sometimes associated with vocal pathology, is commonly used in non-disordered speech. Speech produced with vocal fry differs from typical (modal) voicing in terms of pitch, volume, and quality. These differences may negatively impact intelligibility...
Show moreSpeech intelligibility is a measurement of the interaction between three components: the speech signal, the transmission channel, and the listener. Anything that interferes with any of these components can affect intelligibility. Vocal fry, though sometimes associated with vocal pathology, is commonly used in non-disordered speech. Speech produced with vocal fry differs from typical (modal) voicing in terms of pitch, volume, and quality. These differences may negatively impact intelligibility. Currently, no direct evidence exists regarding the impact of vocal fry on speech intelligibility. The purpose of the current study was to answer the research question: Does vocal fry affect the intelligibility of spoken words? We hypothesized that single words produced with vocal fry would be less intelligible than single words spoken in modal voice due to the acoustic characteristics and perceptions of vocal fry. To test this hypothesis, words spoken in both vocal fry and modal voice were collected and compiled to produce a standard intelligibility test procedure. Data from 26 listeners who completed the intelligibility test were analyzed in terms of intelligibility score and listening difficulty rating. The mean intelligibility score as a percentage of words correctly identified was 62.08% for words spoken with fry and 64.56% for words spoken with no fry. This difference was statistically significant. The mean listening difficulty rating was 4.98 for words spoken with fry and 4.56 for words spoken with no fry. This difference was also statistically significant. These results suggest that vocal fry does negatively impact speech intelligibility at the single word level. Decreased speech intelligibility may have numerous possible linguistic, social, and economic implications.
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- Title
- Connecting chemistry and biology : exploring students' perceptions of college courses
- Creator
- Kohn, Kathryn Paris
- Date
- 2018
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
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"This dissertation explores students' perceptions of their chemistry and biology courses through the lens of two crosscutting concepts, energy and the relationship between structure, properties, and function. Energy underlies all scientific phenomena. Structure-property and structure-function relationships have long been considered important explanatory concepts in the disciplines of chemistry and biology, respectively. As such, these crosscutting concepts provide an interesting context in...
Show more"This dissertation explores students' perceptions of their chemistry and biology courses through the lens of two crosscutting concepts, energy and the relationship between structure, properties, and function. Energy underlies all scientific phenomena. Structure-property and structure-function relationships have long been considered important explanatory concepts in the disciplines of chemistry and biology, respectively. As such, these crosscutting concepts provide an interesting context in which to investigate student connections and misconnections across disciplines."--from abstract.
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- Title
- The patriot and the traitor : defending your collective face in front of co-nationals and foreigners
- Creator
- Zhu, Yi (College teacher)
- Date
- 2019
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
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The current between-subjects study investigated how participants from two cultural groups (100 American domestic students and 115 Chinese international students) deal with threats to their collective face elicited from a critic who is either an ingroup member, an outgroup member, or an identity-unspecified member in an intercultural-communication context with a laboratory experimental design. Chinese students reported higher collective face concerns and lower liking towards a person who...
Show moreThe current between-subjects study investigated how participants from two cultural groups (100 American domestic students and 115 Chinese international students) deal with threats to their collective face elicited from a critic who is either an ingroup member, an outgroup member, or an identity-unspecified member in an intercultural-communication context with a laboratory experimental design. Chinese students reported higher collective face concerns and lower liking towards a person who criticized their collective face compared with Americans. While encountering criticism targeting their countries, Chinese felt higher discomfort feelings compared with Americans. Chinese participants' discomfort feelings in the ingroup-critic condition were more influenced by their collective face concerns compared with Americans in the same condition. The practical and methodological implications of this study were also discussed.
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- Title
- Design of a sewage disposal plant for Charlotte, Michigan
- Creator
- Kitto, Clyde A.
- Date
- 1926
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Title
- I don't get mad, I get even : emotions & betrayal responses in close relationships
- Creator
- Nelson, Joshua Charles
- Date
- 2019
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
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This study investigated the revenge process by identifying predictors of engagement in revenge behaviors within close relationships. Consisting of two parts, this study first used social exchange theory as a basis to test whether emotion management, feelings of anger and hurt, or tendency to forgive are associated with general revenge or relational restoration following a betrayal by a close relational partner. Findings suggested the only significant association with revenge is feelings of...
Show moreThis study investigated the revenge process by identifying predictors of engagement in revenge behaviors within close relationships. Consisting of two parts, this study first used social exchange theory as a basis to test whether emotion management, feelings of anger and hurt, or tendency to forgive are associated with general revenge or relational restoration following a betrayal by a close relational partner. Findings suggested the only significant association with revenge is feelings of anger. No variable showed a relationship with relational restoration. The second part of the study refined the first part by drawing from the theory of revenge process to test whether emotion management or tendency to forgive was associated with covert, overt, avoidant, and approaching revenge behaviors. No relationships were found between emotion management or tendency to forgive with any of the revenge behaviors described in the theory of revenge process. New directions for the study of revenge engagement are suggested.
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- Title
- Electrometric titration of oxidizing and reducing substances
- Creator
- Spurway, Charles Henry, 1883-
- Date
- 1926
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Title
- Ferroelectret nanogenerator (FENG) for mechanical energy harvesting and self-powered flexible electronics
- Creator
- Li, Wei (Mechanical engineer)
- Date
- 2017
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
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Harvesting energy from our natural environment has been the focus of multiple research efforts in the past decades. Progress in this field has far-reaching implications for the growing environment problems resulting from greenhouse gas emission of fossil fuels. Furthermore, advances in portable energy scavenging devices will shed light on the development of self-powered and autonomous electronics; which will impact a broad range of applications in wireless sensors, biomedical implants,...
Show moreHarvesting energy from our natural environment has been the focus of multiple research efforts in the past decades. Progress in this field has far-reaching implications for the growing environment problems resulting from greenhouse gas emission of fossil fuels. Furthermore, advances in portable energy scavenging devices will shed light on the development of self-powered and autonomous electronics; which will impact a broad range of applications in wireless sensors, biomedical implants, infrastructure monitoring, and portable/wearable electronics. This thesis research explores the designs, fabrications, simulations, characterizations and applications of flexible thin film nanogenerator based energy harvesting technologies. Materials and designs for flexible nanogenerator based on nanocrystalline aluminum nitride (AlN) thin film are reported. AlN nanoparticles were grown on aluminum layer by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at room temperature. Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) indicates that their electromechanical energy conversion metrics are as high as highly c-axis oriented AlN or ZnO thin film. Polyimide thin film encapsulated the entire structure of flexible nanogenerator to further improve mechanical robustness, protecting the device from invasive chemicals and enhance its potential biocompaibility. Besides, this thesis research introduces polypropylene ferroelectret (PPFE) as the active material in an efficient, flexible, and biocompatible ferroelectret nanogenerator (FENG) device. PPFE is a type of charged polymers with empty voids and inorganic particles that create giant dipoles across the material's thickness. The mechanical-electrical energy conversion mechanism in PPFE films is verified by finite element method (FEM). Investigation of the developed device shows that the magnitudes of the generated voltage and current signals are doubled each time the device is folded, and an increase with magnitude or frequency of the mechanical input is observed. The developed FENGs is sufficient to light twenty commercial green and blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and realize a self-powered liquid-crystal display (LCD) that harvests energy from user's touch. A self-powered flexible/foldable keyboard is also demonstrated. Furthermore, this thesis reports the device's intrinsic properties which allow for the bi-directional conversion of energy between electrical and mechanical domains; thus extending its potential use in wearable electronics beyond the power generation realm. This electromechanical coupling, combined with their flexibility and thin film-like form, bestows dual-functional transducing capabilities to the device that are used in this research to demonstrate its use as a thin, wearable, and self-powered loudspeaker or microphone patch. To determine the device's performance and applicability, sound pressure level is characterized in both space and frequency domains for three different configurations. The confirmed device's high performance is further validated through its integration in three proposed systems: a music-playing flag, a sound recording film, and a flexible microphone for security applications.
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- Title
- Model-based estimation of AMT vehicle clutch kinetic friction coefficient
- Creator
- He, Yu (Graduate of Michigan State University)
- Date
- 2018
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
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Driving performance and fuel economy are two important factors that attracts customers choosing certain type of vehicles. Those two factors can be improved largely by adopting optimized transmission gear-shifting strategy. The kinetic clutch friction coefficient is important to know to develop an optimized gear-shifting algorithm.This thesis focus on estimating dynamic kinetic friction coefficient between two clutch plats of an automated manual transmission (AMT) vehicle when speed and...
Show moreDriving performance and fuel economy are two important factors that attracts customers choosing certain type of vehicles. Those two factors can be improved largely by adopting optimized transmission gear-shifting strategy. The kinetic clutch friction coefficient is important to know to develop an optimized gear-shifting algorithm.This thesis focus on estimating dynamic kinetic friction coefficient between two clutch plats of an automated manual transmission (AMT) vehicle when speed and temperature effects are involved. A Simulink model of an AMT vehicle was developed first, and a new friction coefficient estimation algorithm was then proposed and validated based on the developed Simulink model. Several case studies are completed for the proposed estimation algorithm and fairly good simulation results are presented at the end of thesis.
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- Title
- Assessment of equation-of-motion coupled-cluster methods with approximate treatments of higher-order excitations and development of novel schemes for accurate calculations of diradical electronic spectra and bond breaking
- Creator
- Ajala, Adeayo Olayinka
- Date
- 2017
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
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The development and implementation of electronic structure methods based on the exponential wave function ansatz of the single-reference coupled-cluster (CC) theory and its extensions to excited states exploiting the equation-of-motion (EOM) and linear responseframeworks have witnessed great success in a wide range of applications, but there are areas of chemistry, especially studies of chemical reaction pathways and photochemistry, where further improvements in the existing CC and EOMCC...
Show moreThe development and implementation of electronic structure methods based on the exponential wave function ansatz of the single-reference coupled-cluster (CC) theory and its extensions to excited states exploiting the equation-of-motion (EOM) and linear responseframeworks have witnessed great success in a wide range of applications, but there are areas of chemistry, especially studies of chemical reaction pathways and photochemistry, where further improvements in the existing CC and EOMCC methodologies are needed. In order to make progress in this area, it is important to evaluate the quality of the results that the existing CC/EOMCC methods provide, particularly in applications involving the interpretation and prediction of photochemical phenomena and electronic excitations spectra involving closed- and open-shell molecules. Thus, in the rst part of this PhD project we use a database set of 28 organic molecules ranging from linear polyenes, unsaturated cyclic hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, and heterocycles to aldehydes, ketones, amides, and nucleobases to examine the performance of the completely renormalized (CR) EOMCC approaches forexcited electronic states, in which the relatively inexpensive non-iterative corrections due to triple excitations are added to the energies obtained with the standard EOMCC approach with singles and doubles, abbreviated as EOMCCSD. We focus on two variants of the approximately size-intensive CR-EOMCC methodology with singles, doubles, and noniterative triples, abbreviated as delta-CR-EOMCCSD(T), and the analogous two variants of the newer, rigorously size-intensive, left-eigenstate delta-CR-EOMCC(2,3) approach based on the biorthogonal formulation of the method of moments of CC equations.In the second part of this dissertation, we focus on the development of new EOMCC methods that are particularly well-suited for accurate calculations of diradical electronic spectra and single bond breaking. They are the cost-effective variants of the doubly electron-attached (DEA) EOMCC methodologies with up to 3-particle---hole (3p-1h) or 4-particle--2-hole (4p-2h) excitations, abbreviated as DEA-EOMCC(3p-1h)fNug and DEA-EOMCC(3p-1h,4p-2h){Nu}, respectively, which utilize the idea of applying a linear electron-attaching operator to the correlated CC ground state of an (N -2)-electron closed-shell reference system in order to generate the ground and excited states of the N-electron open-shell species of interest, while using Nu active unoccupied orbitals to select the dominant 3p-1h and 4p-2h terms. We demonstrate that the relatively inexpensive DEA-EOMCC(3p-1h,4p-2h){Nu} method signicantly reduces the computational costs of the parent active-space DEA-EOMCC(4p-2h){Nu} and full DEA-EOMCC(4p-2h) approaches, which are needed to obtain highly accurate results for open-shell systems having two electrons outside the closed-shell cores, such as diradicals, with virtually no loss in accuracy of the resulting excitation and dissociation energies. We also show that the active-space DEA-EOMCC(3p-1h){Nu} method accurately reproduces the results of the parent DEA-EOMCC(3p-1h) calculations at the small fraction of the cost. In addition to a series of benchmark examples that illustrate the performance of the DEA-EOMCC(3p-1h){Nu}, DEA-EOMCC(3p-1h,4p-2h){Nu}, and other DEA-EOMCC approaches with 3p-1h and 4p-2h excitations, including singlet{triplet gaps in methylene, trimethylenemethane, and several antiaromatic diradicals and bond breaking in the fluorine molecule, we provide the most essential details of DEA-EOMCC equations with an active-space treatment of 3p-1h and 4p-2h terms, as implemented in the compactcodes developed in this work and interfaced with the GAMESS package.
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