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The ganglionated plexuses (GP) are dense epicardial nerves that are implicated in atrial fibrillation (AF). They can be functionally located from the endocardium using high frequency stimulation (HFS) which can locate distinct GP that trigger atrial ectopy/AF (ET-GP) or atrioventricular (AV) dissociating (AVD-GP). Our aim was to map and understand the histological, anatomical and functional properties of the different types of GP and ablate them with or without pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) in patients with AF. We hypothesised that ablating these specific GP sites is feasible, and prevents AF. Firstly, to investigate this, we mapped for AVD-GP and ET-GP using HFS in the left atrium of patients with AF. An automated process was used to merge and transform all patient maps onto one reference left atrial shell. A probability density function was applied at each tested site, including GP and negative HFS response sites, to create a probability distribution atlas of AVD-GP and ET-GP. There were distinct anatomical regions according to each GP sub-type, and ET-GP had preponderance to the PV ostia, roof, and mid-anterior wall. These are the areas that would usually be targeted with circumferential PVI. Therefore, a prospective, randomised, controlled study was performed (GANGLIA-AF) which assessed ET-GP ablation without PVI and PVI alone in patients with paroxysmal AF. Patients were followed-up for 12 months with multiple 48hr Holter monitors. The primary endpoint was any documented atrial arrhythmia >30s, and the secondary endpoints included complications and redo ablations. This showed that there was no statistically significant difference in AF prevention between the two arms, however the GP ablation arm required less ablation on average than the PVI arm. We also performed a smaller pilot study of redo AF ablation patients, assessing for feasibility and safety of GP ablation in addition to redo PVI. The same follow-up and endpoint criteria were used as in the GANGLIA-AF study. Some patients had permanent PVI, and non-PV triggers of AF were identifiable with HFS. We also developed a custom-built high frequency stimulator (Tau-20) that was used to identify ectopy-triggering (ET) sites in Langendorff-perfused porcine hearts. We were able to replicate the HFS responses used in the clinical setting in the porcine atria. Transmural cross-sectional dissections were taken from ET and non-ET sites, and the tissues were stained for parasympathetic and sympathetic nerves using immunohistochemistry methods. This showed that the mean density of nerves was greater in ET sites compare to non-ET sites. The Tau-20 has been successfully trialled in humans in the clinical setting, and with further improvements, it may replace the old Grass S88 stimulator for future GP ablation cases. In conclusion, ET-GP are upstream triggers of AF that can be ablated without PVI to prevent paroxysmal AF. GP ablation can be achieved with less RF energy than PVI implying a more specific technique on mechanistic grounds. The cross-over rate and clinical outcomes for GP ablation needs further improvement but GANGLIA-AF provides evidence that GP ablation may be an alternative or an adjunct technique to PVI. In addition, our ex-vivo evidence of increased nerve density at ET sites may account for the differential functional response of ET-GP stimulation in the clinical setting.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a major debilitating disease with both cognition and independence gradually lost over time. AD can be diagnosed post-mortem when the accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides and tau proteins in the brain are visible. The best diagnostic markers at present are cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) Aβ and tau levels. However, the diagnostic accuracies of CSF markers are limited and all clinical trials targeting Aβ and tau pathologies have failed to show promising results. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new molecular leads associated with AD which can potentially be utilised as disease-modifying therapy agents and as AD biomarkers. This thesis investigates the possibility of using metabolomics to discover AD associated metabolites. Initially in chapter two, CSF samples (20 AD, 20 age-matched healthy controls) were analysed by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). Results showed that metabolic fingerprints were non-differentiable between the two cohorts. One metabolite was found decreased, pyruvate, suggesting energetic hypometabolism in AD (p < 0.05). Acetate levels were increased in the AD group (p < 0.05), suggesting acetate being used as an alternative energy source to pyruvate. In the next chapter, in order to scan for more metabolites, Liquid Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) was applied on the same cohorts. The experiments allowed for the detection of 4426 metabolic features. Although the fingerprints were non-differentiable between the cohorts, 2 unidentified metabolic features were found to be able to discriminate AD from age-matched controls with a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Area Under the Curve (AUC) value of 70%. After this, work focused in blood metabolites because they are easily accessible. In chapter four we wanted to test whether lipids that had been previously implicated with AD would reproduce with similar trends. Semi-targeted analysis of 9 lipids was carried out (3 phosphatidylcholines (PC) and 6 ceramides) in AD (n=205) and Controls (n=207). Elevated levels of three ceramides and diminished levels of 2 PC molecules were found in AD blood (p < 0.05), one PC associated with hippocampal atrophy. In the following chapter, these 9 lipids along with cholesterol and absolute cholesteryl esters levels were measured on pre-conversion serum samples (112 eventual AD participants and 113 Control participants at 3 time-points). At timepoints 1 and 2 (pre-clinical stage), no lipids showed significant differences between the pre-converters and the stable cohorts. One PC and total cholesteryl ester levels were diminished at the symptomatic stage, time point 3 (p < 0.01). When using lipidomics, the whole fingerprints and 1207 metabolic features, one feature (annotated as a PC) was found to be significantly different at symptomatic stage (q < 0.05). Finally in chapter six, untargeted lipidomic analysis was performed on 148 AD and 152 control plasma samples in search of AD blood biomarkers. Application of random forest showed a combination of 24 lipid features consisting of cholesteryl ester, triglycerides and phosphatdiylcholines being able to discriminate the cohorts with AD classification accuracy of > 70%. In addition, other lipid signatures were found to predict disease progression (R2=0.10) and brain atrophy in all brain regions except for left entorhinal cortex (R2 > 0.14).

No theory of social change can circumvent the task of specifying the process that transforms the existent order into a different order, and determining that which accounts for the difference between those two orders. This thesis examines whether the theories of social change found in the works of Alain Badiou and Ernesto Laclau succeed in fulfilling this task. Badiou contends that a political process transforms the situation in which it unfolds in so far as what it produces is a ‘truth’. Certain implications of the set-theoretical ontological discourse through which Badiou conceptualizes truths, however, prevents an unambiguous appraisal of their socially transformative character. Although Badiou stipulates that the transformative potential of a truth lies in its ‘generic’ universality, this universality becomes indistinguishable from particularity when its transformative effects are limited to a situation—but it is precisely the interplay between situations, in the plural, that is not adequately reflected in set-theoretical ontology. Whilst Laclau’s theory of hegemony can be interpreted as providing an account of this interplay between pluralities of situations, it has its own shortcoming: the transition between different social orders cannot be thought under hegemony theory as anything other than a transition wherein the to-come is conditioned by the present to an extent that is theoretically underdetermined, resulting in the blurring of the distinction between social transformation and social reproduction. The final part of this thesis explores the possibility of bringing together the Laclauian notion of the ‘simplification’ of the social space through hegemonic articulation and Badiou’s theorization of truth procedure, in an attempt to conceive the particular kind of situation in which a political process would potentially have far-reaching socially transformative consequences.

The chief aims of this practice-based research are to investigate the nature of attachment between person and object in respect to transformation; to find ways in which objects (jewellery) can be transformed to engender a wearer’s emotional attachment; and to demonstrate the different ways of applying such transformations that are pertinent to jewellery. This research has developed a certain type of transformation, which slowly makes traces on the surface of jewellery over time, and is used as an effective way to engender a wearer’s emotional response. The research is situated in the field of contemporary jewellery, and is specifically related to emotion and sentiment; a category of jewellery that relates to the wearer’s emotional feeling. The scope of the study extends to research on emotional design since this research focuses on user experiences in developing emotional relationships with the object and on how the designer/maker can promote the formation of such an attachment to the object. Two practical experiments have been conducted in this research to determine and construct appropriate and effective characteristics of transformation that engender an emotional relationship between the jewellery and its wearer, through the examination of the transformational character of emotional objects and the interactions that people have with transformational jewellery. These two experiments involve the process of making in order to provide a way of thinking through the hand manipulating a material. The use of this material thinking, develops a more broader understanding of the relationship between the transformational object and emotional attachment. Towards the end of the research, a definition of transformational jewellery is constructed that identifies its four important elements. It also provides two sets of practice work that demonstrate the findings and that facilitate the communication of the author’s tacit knowledge gained from the experiential knowledge. This research expands the field of contemporary jewellery by involving studies of emotional design and applying the element of transformation to create an emotional relationship between jewellery and its wearer. This specific transformation, which has been identified in both text and practical works, constitute the main contribution to knowledge in the field of contemporary jewellery.

This dissertation study aims to theorize an instructional practice which I labeled languaging thinking. Languaging thinking is conceptualized as a social practice in which teachers and students make visible and discuss how to think about a particular task, topic, or activity, through the use of spoken and written language and related semiotic systems. Reporting findings from microethnographic and discourse analytic research, this study explicates languaging thinking, its key theoretical constructs, and what implications and affordances the construct offers in understanding students'; literacy practices in classrooms. Using the social-constructionist approach, microethnographic approach, a social practice view of literacy, and the sociocultural approach to learning as a framework, this year-long microethnographic study presents two key events (one whole-class setting and one small group discussion) from an 8th-grade English Language Arts classroom to theorize the construct of languaging thinking. The analysis of the key events suggests that languaging thinking practices are socially constructed between the teacher and students and reveals how languaging thinking involves four key constructs: modeling, holding accountable for engaging, articulating, and acknowledging. The analysis also demonstrates that both the teacher and the students deploy various facets of languaging as they are engaged in languaging thinking practices. Those languaging practices include the use of metadiscourse, labeling ways of thinking, narrativizing ways of thinking, arguing ways of thinking and signaling relationships. The microethnographic study also suggests that the teacher's dialogic stance mediates the languaging thinking practice and the contexts in which the practices are enacted. Finally, the dissertation discusses the theoretical and empirical implications of the construct of languaging thinking as they pertain to reading and literacy education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Differential expression analysis of scRNA-seq data is central for characterizing how experimental factors affect the distribution of gene expression. However, it remains challenging to distinguish between biological and technical sources of cell-cell variability and to assess the statistical significance of quantitative comparisons between cell groups. In this thesis, we introduce memento to address these limitations and enable statistically robust and computationally efficient differential expression analysis of the mean, variability, and gene correlation from scRNA-seq. We used memento to analyze 70,000 tracheal epithelial cells to identify interferon response genes with distinct variability and correlation patterns, 160,000 T cells perturbed with CRISPR-Cas9 to reconstruct gene-regulatory networks that control T cell activation, 1.2 million PMBCs to map cell-type-specific cis expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs), and arbitrary cell groups within the entire 50 million cell CELLxGENE Discover data corpus. In all cases, memento identified more significant and reproducible differences in mean expression but also identified differences in variability and gene correlation that suggest distinct transcriptional regulation mechanisms imparted by cytokines, genetic perturbations, and natural genetic variation. These results demonstrate memento as a first-in-class method for the quantitative analysis of scRNA-seq data, scalable to millions of cells and thousands of samples.

The recent mathematics curriculum reforms in the United States resulted in various classroom initiatives and research on cultivating students’ mathematical identity. Among many dimensions of mathematical identity (Fellus, 2019), mathematical authorial identity is connected to how students leverage the interactional space and communicate their ideas about mathematical concepts while invoking authority, especially during students’ peer discussion in mathematics classrooms (Povey & Burton, 2003; Schoenfeld & Sloan, 2016). Despite the emerging importance of students’ mathematical authorial identity, most research on authorship and authority in mathematics classrooms has focused on the relationship between teachers and students, and not on the relationships of students with one another in small groups (Amid & Fried, 2005; Cobb et al., 2009; Wagner & Herbel-Eisenmann, 2014). More attention is needed to understand how the notions of authorship and authority work in students’ interactions with others, and what interactional patterns occur as students construct mathematical authorial identity through classroom discourses (Langer-Osuna, 2016, 2017, 2018; Langer-Osuna et al., 2020). The current study used an applied conversation analysis to investigate students’ interactional patterns of seven small group discussions. These students met virtually four times over one school year to exchange feedback on each other’s mathematical arguments. After transcribing students’ small group discussions, I focused on the occurrences of accounts, which are statements “made by a social actor to explain unanticipated or untoward behavior” (Scott & Lyman, 1968, p. 46). They are typically used by interactants when they offer additional explanation or elaboration in situations when they are accomplishing a dispreferred action. The results indicate that mathematical authorial identity was manifested in three different types of account turns. The first type of account turns was ‘missing accounts,’ which were expected to occur but were missing due to students accomplishing other interactional work. Students deployed this type of accounts as they accomplished various forms of disagreement. The second type of account turns invoked external authority. Students typically deployed this type of account turns towards the end of a sequence, and they were likely to use strong expressions of disagreement. The third type was account turns that invoked shared/internal authority. These account turns usually occurred at the beginning of a new sequence and when students expressed weaker disagreement. The various types of account turns and interactional environments suggest that students actively conceptualize and manage interactional work, such as facework and preference organization, when navigating mathematics classroom discourse. Based on the findings, this dissertation offers pedagogical implications for mathematics educators to actively cultivate group norms that could occasion more interactional affordances for students and be aware of interactional features and sequences that foster students’ construction of mathematical authorial identity.

From the first year of life, children represent others’ actions as goal-directed, and can reason about the causes and motivations behind others’ observable movements. While the majority of developmental literature has focused on early instrumental goals (e.g., interacting with objects), less attention has been devoted to characterizing children’s production and reasoning about non-instrumental movements and non-object-directed goals. However, these kinds of actions have the potential to play a large role in young children’s lives in the form of everyday movements such as dance and gesture. In this dissertation, I explore the extent to which children readily produce and comprehend meaningful movements with a rich spectrum of abstract goals. Specifically, I focus on dance-like movement to music, movements that produce musical sounds, and communicative movements that accompany speech (gestures). In Chapter 1, I ask whether infants readily demonstrate dance-like movement to music at home and whether early development of these behaviors has been underestimated by in-lab studies. I show that children produce dance-like behavior earlier than previously believed, and that infant dance shows developmental change with both maturation and learning. I argue that children’s dance behavior provides a window into early social, cognitive, and motor development. In Chapter 2, I explore children’s reasoning about movements that produce musical sounds. I present evidence that from childhood (6 years of age) onward, rational causal inference plays a role in linking music with agents and movements. I also find evidence of developmental change, such that preschool age children may not engage in causal reasoning about music as older children do. In Chapter 3, I shift to explore the relationship between movement and analogical reasoning. Through both correlational and experimental methods observing children’s gesture production, I suggest that children’s spontaneous gestures provide a window to their analogical reasoning performance and that enabling them to freely use their hands while thinking helps children actively schematize important structural information over superficial features. Overall, this work shows that children readily produce and reason about socially meaningful movements from early in life and that music, dance, and gesture can serve as unique windows into children’s developing cognition.

Extreme surface to volume ratio of graphene makes graphene widely open to various reactions; chemistry of graphene is of great interest to fine-tune electronic, chemical, and mechanical properties of graphene, and a better understanding of the factors that impact its chemical reactivity is an invaluable part of graphene chemistry. In this dissertation, dynamic modulation of graphene properties and their effects on the chemical reactivity of graphene are investigated. A brief background on the history, synthesis, and characterization methods of graphene is summarized in chapter 1. In chapter 2, how graphene interacts with ambient-found species under electrical doping was studied. Electrical doping has significant advantage over chemical doping with in-situ controllability. Static back gating resulted doping hysteresis, which we explained using a charge trapping/de-trapping mechanism. Efficient electrical doping method was developed to further investigate its effects on the reactivity of graphene in chapter 3. Graphene was heated photothermally in air to ca. 240 ºC and monitored using Raman spectroscopy. Electrically doped graphene showed increased rate in the oxidation reaction. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that the activation barriers for O2 insertion and CO2 desorption decrease with an electric field. This is the first example of charge-doping induced reactivity enhancement in macroscopic-sized solid-state material. In chapter 4, the mechanical modulation of graphene and its effects were investigated. Preliminary results suggested an enhanced electrochemical catalytic activity of graphene as well as the electrochemical oxidation itself. The catalytic role of graphene was further investigated and found that applied tensile strain of 0.2 % on a graphene electrode led to a 1~3 % increase of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) current. Tensile strain increases HER activity while compressive strain decreases it. DFT calculations show increasing H atom adsorption energy with growing tensile strain, leading to a corresponding enhancement of current density in HER.

This dissertation examines why Hallyu (the global consumption of Korean popular culture in the New Millennium) operates as a class-based and gendered phenomenon in Latin America. With a fanbase predominately comprised of women and LGBTQ+ communities from lower-middle classes and non-White populations, young Latin Americans adopt Korean popular culture to (re)imagine and fashion their identities beyond the social constraints of the nation-state. Drawing on ethnographic and qualitative research methods (in-depth interviews, participant observation, grounded theory) and data collected in Mexico City and Lima, Peru, between 2016 and 2019, I analyze, reconceptualize, and recontextualize less visible layers of Hallyu fandom demographics in Latin America in relation to questions of social belonging. My research reveals that Hallyu fans in Mexico City and Lima are culturally hybrid, technologically savvy, and socially nonconforming young people who resist the normative impositions of a binary gender system and hegemonic social inequality for upward mobility. Hallyu, as a vital point of reference to study the intersectionality of local and global forces, enables us to interpret recent class, racial, gender, and age dynamics in a digitally connected Latin American youth culture in new, still underexplored ways.

Unlike most other musicians, pianists need to play by memory during their recitals, juries, etc. Doing so can greatly influence the intensity and frequency of anxiety due to potential memory slips when performing. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between memory strategies, experiences with memory lapses, and performance anxiety among classical pianists. The specific aims of the study are to: (1) characterize demographics, performance practices, and memorization strategies used by college-level pianists; (2) assess experiences of performance anxiety and the influence of performance anxiety on memory lapses; (3) examine the relationships between demographics, performance practices, and memorization strategies; and (4) suggest various memorization strategies that might be useful intervention to overcome memory lapses. To examine participants' awareness and perception, a survey was conducted via invitation of participation from music schools and piano groups on social media, and the useable collected data came from 162 respondents. The results disclosed that pianists' awareness of memory strategies and performance anxiety were significantly correlated. It showed a relationship between knowledge of memory strategies and frequency of performance anxiety within their musical experiences.

This dissertation research is a study of subjectivity. That is, the purpose of this dissertation research is to better understand how South Korean local government officials perceive the current practice, future prospects, and potential avenues for development of multi-lateral cross-boundary collaboration among the governments that they work for. To this purpose, I first conduct literature review on cross-boundary intergovernmental organizations, both in the United States and in other countries. Then, I conduct literature review on regional intergovernmental organizations (RIGOs). The literature review is followed by a historical review of South Korea’s local autonomy and regionalism, and a systemic analysis of the current South Korean literature on regional governance. Based on the comprehensive review of the extant literature, I propose that the RIGO framework is exportable beyond the United States boundaries and I use the South Korean case to test this. Then, I provide a description of the methodology used in this study to conduct research and analysis: I first present research questions and hypotheses; describe how the concourse and the Q-set of this study are created as well as how the study participants are selected, and Q-sort administered; describe how the data analysis is conducted; and provide a list of the Q statements used for the study. I then report the findings: there are five factor groups, which are agenda-broadening, agenda-narrowing, membership-expanding, equality-promoting, and local-government-centric. I present an interpretation of the factors in relation to Miller and Nelles’ identification of RIGOs and also discuss consensus and disagreement that exist among the factor groups identified. Then, I evaluate the hypotheses of this research in relation to the factors elicited. Furthermore, based on the factor profiles, I evaluate the revealed perceptual and attitudinal similarities and differences among South Korean local government officials with regard to their experience and view on the current practice, future prospects, and potential avenues for development of the RIGOs in South Korea. Lastly, I conclude the research with a summary of the findings, the research implications, both theoretical and practical, and some limitations of this research and recommendations for future research agenda.

This dissertation zooms in an underexplored phenomenon that I refer to as the temporal dynamics of industry clusters: concentration levels of industry activity in a region change over time and patterns of growth do not necessarily follow life cycle stages or larger industry- or region-wide trends. Despite extensive work on cluster size (or “mass”), there has been little attention paid to their temporal dynamics (or “motion”). I propose that understanding cluster dynamics is important, because clusters are seldom stable, and cluster dynamics may have strategic implications not accounted for in existing approaches. In the first essay of my dissertation (Chapter 2), I build a framework for characterizing cluster temporal dynamics, develop a novel empirical technique that characterizes the dynamics, and document the prevalence of the phenomenon. The second essay (Chapter 3) builds on the first chapter framework and examines how cluster dynamics influence the nature of technology creation. I find evidence that innovation by firms in clusters experiencing greater sustained growth is likely to be more disruptive relative to innovation by firms in clusters of comparable size that are experiencing stable or declining periods. I also find that cluster dynamics influence innovation, at least in part, because of cross-cluster employee mobility, which has rarely been discussed as a key mechanism by which clusters influence firm innovation. In the third essay (Chapter 4), I conduct a qualitative study on cluster temporal dynamics based on interviews and historical case studies, unpacking the phenomenon of the temporal dynamics of the medical device industry in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region.

The breakthroughs in multi-layer convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have caused significant progress in the applications of image classification and recognition. The size of CNNs has continuously increased to improve their prediction capabilities on various applications, and it has become increasingly costly to perform the required computations. In particular, CNNs involve a large number of multiply-accumulate (MAC) operations, and it is important to minimize the cost of multiplication as it requires most computational resources.This dissertation proposes cost-efficient approximate log multipliers, optimized for performing CNN inferences. Approximate multipliers have reduced hardware costs compared to the conventional multipliers but produce products that are not exact. The proposed multipliers are based on Mitchell's Log Multiplication that converts multiplications to additions by taking approximate logarithm. Various design techniques are applied to Mitchell Log Multiplier, including fully-parallel LOD, efficient shift amount calculation, and exact zero computation. Additionally, the truncation of the operands is studied to create the customizable log multiplier that further reduces energy consumption. This dissertation also proposes using the one's complements to handle negative numbers to significantly reduce the associated costs while having minimal impact on CNN performances. The viability of the proposed designs is supported by the detailed formal analysis as well as the experimental results on CNNs. The proposed customizable design at w=8 saves up to 88% energy compared to the exact fixed-point multiplier at 32 bits with just a performance degradation of 0.2% on AlexNet for the ImageNet ILSVRC2012 dataset.The effects of approximate multiplication are analyzed when performing inferences on deep CNNs, to provide a deeper understanding of why CNN inferences are resilient against the errors in multiplication. The analysis identifies the critical factors in the convolution, fully-connected, and batch normalization layers that allow more accurate CNN predictions despite the errors from approximate multiplication. The same factors also provide an arithmetic explanation of why bfloat16 multiplication performs well on CNNs. The experiments with deep network architectures, such as ResNet and Inception-v4, show that the approximate multipliers can produce predictions that are nearly as accurate as the FP32 references, while saving significant amount of energy compared to the bfloat16 arithmetic.Lastly, a convolution core that utilizes the approximate log multiplier is designed to significantly reduce the power consumption of FPGA accelerators. The core also exploits FPGA reconfigurability as well as the parallelism and input sharing opportunities in convolution to minimize the hardware costs. The simulation results show reductions up to 78.19% of LUT usage and 60.54% of power consumption compared to the core that uses exact fixed-point multipliers, while maintaining comparable accuracy on the LeNet for MNIST dataset.

One apparent trend impacting spectator sports is the shift in sport fans’ consumption opportunities, having now gained many alternative formats to access sporting events. Sport fans are allowed intentionally and constantly to move from platform to platform and access content on demand. These substitute platforms, including home television, online streaming, social networking, sports bars, and movie cinema, are considered mediated sports consumption, alternative outlets to actual physical attendance of sporting events. As the phenomenon of mediated sports consumption has become a predominant means of spectating sports consumption practice, it is more important than ever to identify and understand how mediated sports consumption impacts sport fans behaviors. The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to explore what motives influence sport fans’ consumption practice regarding mediated sports consumption not only to extend our understanding of sport consumers but also to help explain sport fans’ decision making, (2) to develop a comprehensive motivation scale for mediated sports consumption (MSMSC); and (3) to provide initial validation for MSMSC. This study was composed of five stages, including face-to-face interviews, a panel of expert review, exploratory factor analyses, confirmatory factor analyses, and structural equation modeling, was used to determine the validity and reliability of the MSMSC. The developed MSMSC has seven key motives, including convenience, sociability, emotional hedge, programming, ownership, team identification, and security. The seven-factor model was confirmed and had achieved a good model fit, which suggested that this newly developed MSMSC was adequate to capture mediated sports consumption behavior.

While cultural district development as an urban redevelopment strategy has received much attention in urban neighborhoods and cities in the United States, the policy-making process for cultural district development has been less examined. To offer a detailed and deeper understanding of the policy-making process, this dissertation study examined policy design and governance for two different cultural district development practices in Cleveland, Ohio. This study employed the case study methodology with multiple-case design enabling both in-depth investigation of each case and cross-case analysis. The data was collected through document analysis, media coverage review and semi-structured interviews with people who participated in each cultural district development practice. The findings of this study show that governance matters in policy design process for cultural district development as an urban redevelopment strategy and suggest some policy implications which can be applied to supporting non-profit arts and cultural organizations and institutions who participated in cultural district development as cultural actors. As examples of the policy implications, encouraging and supporting the cultural actors to engage in governance establishment for cultural district development and employ formal governance tools may be applied to increase their capacity and opportunity that can improve their benefits from cultural district development. Also, in terms of supporting the cultural actors participating cultural district development, offering ongoing technical assistance together with project grants may be more efficient than offering project grants only.

The number of older adults using home and community-based services funded by federal and state governments has increased over the last two decades. This has occurred largely due to a growth in beneficiary preferences for home and community-based services (HCBS) over institution-based care, and U.S. Supreme Court's 1999 landmark decision in Olmstead v. L.C. (Olmstead), which found unjustified segregation of people with disabilities in institutions is a form of unlawful discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Previous research on HCBS users, or the community-dwelling long-term care population, have tended to focus on their service utilization and its consequences, rather than whether and how social and built environmental conditions influence their health and health care outcomes. Limited research on this topic stems in part from an underappreciation of the heterogeneity across places, difficulty of gaining access to data on both social and built environmental contexts and residents, and methodological challenges such as spatial correlation in the outcome variable of interest or attrition bias. My dissertation aims to address these gaps, using the case of the U.S. state of Michigan. First, I document the geographic distribution of aging and health-related resources, with a specific focus on social service organizations for older adults and persons with disability. Second, I examine the association between living in a neighborhood with dense social service organizations and two of the most prominent indicators of independent living for community-dwelling older adults: cognitive health and hospitalization. I leverage a US census and administrative data to provide new evidence on the association between aging and health-related resources and health and health care outcomes among urban community-dwelling older adults, who are using home and community-based services and are physically and/or cognitively impaired. Analyses offer several key findings. First, net of key predictors of formal care demands, socio-economically disadvantaged neighborhoods tend to have a high density of social service organizations. This counters previous findings suggesting that living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods was associated with a lack of formal resources supporting aging in place. Second, residing in an urban area with more restaurants, recreation centers, or social services for older adults and persons with disability, was associated with slower cognitive decline among older adults who were initially cognitively intact. This protective effect was not found in already cognitively impaired older adults, and this study is one of few that has uncovered such variation by initial cognitive status group. Finally, dense social service organizations in a neighborhood were associated with better health care management outcomes in this community-dwelling long-term care sample. Results from multinomial logistic regression models predicting hospitalization trajectories over a 15-month period show that living in a neighborhood with a higher number of social service organizations lowered the expected risk of being in a group whose hospitalization risk was consistently high over time, as compared to being in a group whose hospitalization risk significantly decreased over the same period. This study highlights the potential role social service infrastructure plays in post-hospitalization care management. My dissertation provides new evidence on neighborhood resources that could accommodate the needs of a growing population of community-dwelling older adults in the United States public long-term care system.

This dissertation study aims to theorize an instructional practice which I labeled languaging thinking. Languaging thinking is conceptualized as a social practice in which teachers and students make visible and discuss how to think about a particular task, topic, or activity, through the use of spoken and written language and related semiotic systems. Reporting findings from microethnographic and discourse analytic research, this study explicates languaging thinking, its key theoretical constructs, and what implications and affordances the construct offers in understanding students’ literacy practices in classrooms. Using the social-constructionist approach, microethnographic approach, a social practice view of literacy, and the sociocultural approach to learning as a framework, this year-long microethnographic study presents two key events (one whole-class setting and one small group discussion) from an 8th-grade English Language Arts classroom to theorize the construct of languaging thinking. The analysis of the key events suggests that languaging thinking practices are socially constructed between the teacher and students and reveals how languaging thinking involves four key constructs: modeling, holding accountable for engaging, articulating, and acknowledging. The analysis also demonstrates that both the teacher and the students deploy various facets of languaging as they are engaged in languaging thinking practices. Those languaging practices include the use of metadiscourse, labeling ways of thinking, narrativizing ways of thinking, arguing ways of thinking and signaling relationships. The microethnographic study also suggests that the teacher’s dialogic stance mediates the languaging thinking practice and the contexts in which the practices are enacted. Finally, the dissertation discusses the theoretical and empirical implications of the construct of languaging thinking as they pertain to reading and literacy education.

Due to the steadily increasing quantity of debris in orbit, active debris removal is widely considered to be a necessary technology; however, no such missions have yet been flown. This is largely down to the challenges faced by the guidance, navigation and control system for close-range rendezvous, and the risks involved. In this thesis, deep learning technologies are applied to the problem of autonomous visual guidance in space, with the aim of increasing the technology readiness level of active debris removal. The key difficulty involved with applying deep learning technologies to this problem is the lack of freely available training data. Therefore, a simulation framework is constructed to generate labelled image datasets for training deep learning models. Both the datasets and software are publicly released in order to facilitate further research in this domain. An approach for determining the attitude evolution of an unknown and uncooperative debris object is proposed, based upon a siamese convolutional neural network. The network detects and tracks inherently useful features from visual sensor data, from which the rotational state is inferred. The approach is fully end-to-end trainable, including an adapted outlier rejection algorithm, allowing for simple finetuning and application to different situations. The method is analysed numerically using simulated data, displaying improved performance compared with state-of-the-art algorithmic approaches. It is also shown to be capable of real-time performance while generalising well to unseen targets. This approach can therefore be considered a feasible solution for safely performing guidance and navigation in active debris removal, satellite servicing and other close proximity operations around a previously unknown object in space. Finally, this research is placed within the context of developing a fully autonomous, artificial intelligence-based on-board guidance and navigation system. Several potential further applications of deep learning to the problem are discussed, along with the remaining challenges faced by these technologies.

Atmospheric non-thermal plasma has gained increasing interest for various applications due to its unique physical and chemical properties. For example, reactive species produced by atmospheric non-thermal plasma can decontaminate spacecrafts featuring thermally sensitive materials. Although Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) systems have been demonstrated as one of the many promising methods to generate non-thermal plasma, the generation of non-thermal plasma over large and complex geometries, such as spacecraft or the human body, remains challenging to date. This thesis, therefore, aims to investigate and develop a scalable and flexible non-thermal plasma generation system, thus promoting further implementation of non-thermal plasma technology. Firstly, a new method using printed electronics techniques on thin materials is employed for the fabrication of electrodes of DBD systems to enhance their scalability and flexibility. An experimental study is carried out, where the DBD systems are assessed for varying system sizes to assess the capability of large scale plasma geometries. Moreover, the flexibility of the systems is quantified for varying curvatures to allow the generation of non-thermal plasma over complex geometries. A fully scalable and flexible plasma source can require a complex electrode geometry to be successfully used in an application. Therefore, in conjunction with the experimental study, a new electrical model is developed for complex electrode designs. This electrical model can play an important role in the characterization, design, and definition of optimal operating conditions for non-thermal plasma sources in a wide field of applications. The presented model focuses on the partitioning of the electrode surface into a plasma discharging and non-discharging area. Thus the electrical model accounts for the dynamic behaviour of the plasma generation over complex electrode geometries during operation. Lastly, the developed DBD systems are employed for three feasibility studies, where they successfully demonstrate their ability for applications within the aerospace sector and the biomedical field. In the aerospace sector, the DBD systems and their ability to produce a high electron density are used for a new "Cold Radio Blackout Testing" solution. This approach aims to model the spatial gradient of the electron density within a re-entry plasma sheath around space vehicles, causing a communication interruption, the Radio Blackout. Further, the DBD systems are used as a decontamination system for medical equipment, such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the COVID19 pandemic. The last feasibility study presents a new thin and narrow plasma source, the plasma yarn, which is successfully used for the sterilisation of biofilms in narrow spaces, such as endoscopes.

Small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) becomes covalently conjugated to many proteins regulating a variety of cellular and development processes. A previous study demonstrated that multiple components of the Ras/MAPK signaling pathway are directly conjugated to SUMO in the early Drosophila embryo, and that the Ras/MAPK signaling cascade requires SUMO for activation in insulin or Spitz-stimulated Drosophila S2 cells. SUMO knockdown leads to reduced MAPK phosphorylation in response to either signal. Here, we elucidate a mechanism by which SUMO positively regulates the Ras/MAPK signaling pathway by showing that the dephosphorylation of Raf at serine 346 to activate Ras/MAPK signaling requires SUMO. Furthermore, site-directed mutagenesis of serine 346 to alanine, preventing its phosphorylation, bypasses the requirement for SUMO in the activation of the Ras/MAPK pathway. Earlier studies have shown that serine 346 dephosphorylation is required for membrane localization of Raf, which is a pre-requisite for Raf activation. We show that fusing the Raf catalytic domain to the transmembrane and extracellular domains of Torso artificially tethering Raf to the plasma membrane restores Ras signaling in SUMO knockdown cells leading to SUMO independent Ras/MAPK signaling. We conclude that SUMO stimulates Ras/MAPK signaling by promoting the removal of an inhibitory phosphate group, which is a pre-requisite for Raf membrane localization and activation. While there is no evidence that Raf itself is sumoylated, several Raf interacting proteins, such as 14-3-3ζ and PP2A are members of the SUMO-ome suggesting an indirect role for SUMO in Raf localization.

Blue phases arise from self-assembly of short-pitch chiral nematic liquid crystals by three- dimensional topological defects in thermodynamic equilibria for periodic cubic-type blue phases and aperiodic amorphous blue phase. Although its structure has been theoretically predicted, the mysterious entanglement of disclinations in amorphous blue phase has not been thoroughly investigated because of its thermodynamic instability with narrow temperature range. This dissertation is focused on several aspects in the liquid crystalline amorphous blue phase such as three-dimensional self-assembled nanostructure consisting of tangled disclinations, wide temperature amorphous blue phase by help of photo-polymerized polymer network, and electro-optical properties after the stabilization. Furthermore, the polymer network manifests the imitation of internal defect structure of amorphous blue phase, which enables to observe the visualized structure of disclinations by breaking the paradox retaining the internal defect structure. Also, refilling achiral nematic liquid crystals to the fabricated polymer templates gives rise to induced stabilized blue phases. The author believes such studies will contribute to the fields of blue phase liquid crystal physics, electro-optical device application, and polymer template fabrication.

Ethanol production from lignocellulosic hydrolysates in an economically feasible process requires complete utilization of both glucose and xylose, the main components of cellulose and hemicellulose. Scheffersomyces stipitis (formerly known as Pichia stipitis) has promising potential for converting lignocellulosic biomass into ethanol since it can ferment both hexose and pentose sugars under microaerophillic conditions (a native yeast strain best capable of utilizing xylose to ethanol). However, this strain has several challenges for lignocellulosic ethanol production from xylose as it has a slower sugar consumption rate than S. cerevisiae (hexose fermenting microorganism) and requires oxygen for both growth and maximal ethanol production. In addition, diauxic kinetic is a practical problem associated with mixed sugar utilization by native strains of S. stipitis and even with engineered strains of S. cerevisiae (Kuyper et al. 2005). Although successful cycles of metabolic engineering have improved xylose utilization in recombinant strain of S. cerevisiae, the ethanol production from xylose is still inferior to those of xylose fermentation by native strain of S. stipitis (Jeffries and Jin, 2004; Jin et al. 2004). Since S. stipitis is a respiratory yeast strain, the xylose fermentation performance depends significantly on the oxygenation level of the culture. High aeration rate results in fast cell growth and acetic acid production, while very low aeration (oxygen-limited) often results in xylitol production, both at the expense of reduced ethanol production. Only optimized microaerobic condi-tion promotes ethanol production by maintaining cell viability and NAD+/NADH balance. Hence, it is critical to determine the optimal oxygen utilization rate (OUR) for ethanol production by S. stipitis. In order to quantitatively study the effect of OUR on the fermentation performance, accurate control of OUR is essential. Several studies have been reported on the optimum oxygenation conditions for ethanol fermentation by S. stipitis (Silva et al., 2012; Slininger et al., 2014; Su et al., 2014; Unrean and Nguyen, 2012). Among these studies, most of the experiments were carried out using batch cultures grown in flasks where the Oxygen Transfer Rate (OTR) and/or Dissolved Oxygen (DO) were not effectively controlled. Different OTR levels have been tested simply by changing volume of media, airflow rate, and agitation speed. However, our re-search shows that the inaccuracy and inconsistency of controlling OTR/OUR is problematic in these studies. In order to quantify the metabolic mechanism of OUR on xylose fermentation kinetics by S. stipitis, we have developed experimental protocol and equipment to carry out both single culture and co-culture systems under controlled chemostat. The xylose fermentation kinetics of S. stipitis data collected from single culture experiment was used to design the co-culture experiment to optimize ethanol yield. For the co-culture system, we have developed a novel co-culture bioreactor for the efficient and simultaneous conversion of mixed glucose and xylose to ethanol by S. cerevisiae and S. stipitis, which offers a promising alternative to overcome the difficulties of the existing co-culture systems and to study the dynamic properties of co-culture strains. In addition to this, we used a mathematical modeling tool to describe the kinetics of both single culture and co-culture systems, as well as to validate our results. Also, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was utilized to enable the extraction of correlations between different cellular physiology with respect to carbon uptake and OUR which helped us to understand and quantify the metabolic mechanism of OUR in continuous fermentation.

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the effectiveness of teacher-directed instruction (i.e., teacher-directed instruction without using an iPad, TDI) and iPad-assisted instruction (IAI) on the word identification and oral reading fluency of elementary school students with reading learning disabilities (RLD), who have reading goals on their individual education plans (IEPs). Four 5th grade students with RLD participated in the study. An alternating treatments design combined with a multiple baseline design across the participants was applied. Visual analysis indicated that a moderate experimental effect from TDI and IAI on word identification and oral reading fluency was present for all four students when the baseline and intervention phases were compared. Specifically, regarding word identification, the percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) and non-overlap of all pairs (NAP) indicated that TDI and IAI are effective reading instructional procedures according to single-case research design standards. The finding was also supported by a Tau-U analysis that suggests both TDI and IAI demonstrated a large effect on improving word identification. Regarding oral reading fluency, however, the results were mixed; Tau-U indicates there was a large and significant effect from TDI and IAI for three of the four students in terms of increasing their oral reading fluency. Although data analysis indicates that TDI and IAI demonstrate moderate evidence in improving word identification and oral reading fluency, there was no clear differentiation found between the two treatments. A social validity questionnaire that examined student perspectives about intervention showed the students' positive views on their intervention experience and revealed their perspectives that intervention was helpful in building their reading skills. The second social validity questionnaire that asked the students about their reading perspectives indicated that the intervention increased their positive attitudes toward their reading (e.g., reading is a source of excitement and interest, reading is fun).

This paper presents reduced-form estimates of the impact of prenatal shocks on adult outcomes. The widespread fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan is utilised as a natural experiment in order to estimate the impact of a relatively mild shock to individuals during gestation on socio-economic, education and health outcomes in adulthood. Previous literature shows that Ramadan observance during pregnancy is both common and detrimental to fetal health. Using the fourth-wave of the Indonesian Family Life Survey, individuals in adulthood are estimated to earn 11.4% less and have 3.8% less years of education if the month of Ramadan overlapped in full with the first trimester of gestation. The impact of the effect remains significant for the second and third trimester of gestation but declines in magnitude. Height and weight in adulthood are also found to be significantly lower for men, but this does not hold for women. The contrast in results between these biological indicators and economic outcomes suggests that there may be significant differences in compensating investment by gender. The channels of effect for the main results remains largely unknown, but there is little evidence to suggest that differing levels of physical health and/or mental cognition are the key channels of effect. Theese results suggest that the impacts of even a mild prenatal shock may be significant and persistent, but also relatively subtle in their expression.

Lecture]. Carl Vine's personal approach to established musical principle in "Anna Landa prelude" [i.e. Anne Landa preludes] -- [Performance]. Anne Landa preludes. Short story ; Filigree ; Thumper ; Ever after ever ; Two fifths ; Milk for Swami Li ; Divertissement ; Sweetsour ; Tarantella ; Romance ; Fughetta ; Chorale. / Carl Vine.

This dissertation is in two parts. In Chapter 1, I empirically quantify the consumer welfare gains created by free smartphone apps that have recently emerged as one of the most used digital goods. I use a unique dataset of smartphone apps and transform sales ranks into quantities to overcome a lack of data on quantity. In the process, I suggest a new methodology of utilizing Google search data, which can also be used in future research. The estimation results show that smartphone apps created $5.7~10.9 billion and $13.5~23.3 billion of annual consumer benefits in 2010 and 2011, respectively -- which can be translated into $134~260 in 2010 and $157~271 in 2011 per smartphone user on average -- and more than 90% of the welfare gain is from free apps. In Chapter 2, I examine how the contributing effects of mobile applications on smartphone adoption differ across smartphone operating systems and the extent to which this difference is explained by the role of platforms, focusing on the case of Apple vs. Google. I estimate a model of consumer demand for both smartphones and compatible apps where I specify the benefit provided by apps as the sum of individual app utilities. It is first shown that the selection of different types of consumers onto platforms should be accounted for in estimating app demand and thereby measuring the complementary effects. I take a novel approach to constructing geographically disaggregated sales panel by using Google web search data, as a way of addressing the selection issue. After controlling for the user heterogeneity, the results still suggest that Apple provided more app benefits to users and Android's stronger sales over the sample period come entirely from advantages in the price-adjusted quality of hardware. The overall quality of apps in Google Play was not inferior to that of the App Store, but Google is estimated to have delivered lower utility for a given set of apps possibly due to its open strategy.

Fantasy in C minor, K.475 / W. A. Mozart -- Etude fantasy / John Corigliano -- Fantasy in C major, op.17 / Robert Schumann.

Chromatin is a mixture of DNA and DNA binding proteins that control transcription. Dynamic chromatin structure modulates gene expression and is responsible for an extraordinary spectrum of developmental processes. An intricate interplay of DNA methylation, histone modifications, histone variants, small RNA accumulation, and ATPase chromatin remodelers defines chromatin re-configuration in a precise manner, locally within a cell and globally across different cell types. The development of high-throughput screening methods such as microarray and whole-genome sequencing has led to an explosion of chromatin studies in the past decade. Moreover, genetic and molecular studies resulted in identification of a number of proteins that may influence chromatin structure. However, the exact functions of individual proteins as well as their functional relationships to each other are less understood. Also, the role of chromatin components in establishing cell- and tissue-specific chromatin structure is largely unknown. To address these open questions in chromatin biology, I focused my dissertation work on 1) studying tissue-specific DNA demethylation in seed, and 2) determining the role of a ubiquitous DNA binding protein, linker histone H1, in regulating chromatin structure.Tissue specific DNA methylation in seed. In endosperm, the nutritive tissue that nourishes the embryo, parent-of-origin specific gene expression is regulated by DNA demethylation. However, the extent to which DNA demethylation occurs in a tissue-specific manner and regulates transcription in the endosperm of crop plants like rice remains unknown. To address these questions, my colleagues and I examined the DNA methylation patterns of two rice seed tissues, embryo and endosperm. We found that endosperm genome is globally hypomethylated at non-CG sites and locally hypomethylated at CG-sites compared to embryo. We also identified that small transposons near genes (euchromatic regions) are the primary targets of DNA demethylation. The loci near the genes preferentially expressed in endosperm (e.g. storage protein and starch synthesizing enzymes) are subjected to local hypomethylation, suggesting that DNA methylation plays a role in inducing tissue-specific genes in endosperm. The role of H1 in regulating chromatin structure. H1 is proposed to facilitate higher order chromatin structure, but its effects on individual chromatin components and transcription are less understood. To resolve this issue, we investigated the role of H1 in regulating DNA methylation, nucleosome positioning, and transcription. We identified that H1 was most enriched in transposons. H1 was also found in genes at a lower level compared to transposons, and the abundance of H1 was anticorrelated with gene expression. Moreover, H1 influences nucleosome positioning by increasing the distance between two nucleosomes. Lack of H1 resulted in increased DNA methylation of transposons with heterochromatic features. In contrast, an h1 mutant showed a reduction of DNA methylation in genes and transposons with euchromatic features. Our finding suggests that H1 has a dual function in regulating DNA methylation. That is, H1 inhibits both DNA methyltransferases and DNA demethylation-associated enzymes from binding heterochromatin and euchromatin, respectively. In addition, the hypermethylated loci in our h1 mutant almost perfectly overlapped with the hypomethylated loci in a ddm1 mutant in heterochromatin, suggesting a link between these two proteins. DDM1 is an Snf2 chromatin remodeler that can slide nucleosomes along DNA and has been proposed to provide DNA methyltransferase access to target sequences. We further determined their functional relationship by crossing h1 and ddm1 mutants, and generated a map of DNA methylation of the cross. We identified that loss of DNA methylation from ddm1 was partially recovered by removing H1. Also the mutant phenotype observed in ddm1 disappeared in h1ddm1. Based on our results, we proposed a model where DDM1-mediated chromatin destabilization releases H1 binding, which in turn increases DNA accessibility. It is noteworthy that DNA demethylation preferentially occurred in euchromatin in both the rice seed DNA methylation study and the H1 study. Based on this result, we proposed that the apparent target preference of DNA demethylation-associated proteins depends on the underlying chromatin structure. We think that this chromatin structure-mediated specificity also dictates other nucleoproteins to determine/recognize their targets. My dissertation work tackled multiple aspects of chromatin biology: tissue-specific chromatin regulation, and the interplay between chromatin components in chromatin organization. Together, the results from my work enhanced our knowledge of how chromatin components influence overall chromatin structure.

Sonata in C minor, D. 958 / Franz Schubert -- Sonata no.9, op.68 / Alexander Scriabin -- Iberia, Book IV/ Isaac Albeniz.

Considering women's increased levels of employment globally, this project addresses a crucial question: When, if ever, is women's increased employment linked to women getting good jobs? Extensive research shows that women-friendly policies at the national level and national integration into the global economy increase women's employment. However, it is unclear if either or both of these factors are linked to the quality of women's employment. This dissertation research argues that the way women are incorporated into the labor force is critical in determining if increased female labor force participation is linked to women's representation in higher status positions. This dissertation research integrates global and national policy theories to examine their implications on the quality of women's employment, utilizing quantitative pooled time-series analyses on women's relative chances to be employed in two higher-status occupational groups--managerial/administrative and professional/technical occupations. As key independent variables, original indicators of anti-discrimination and maternity leave policies that are comparable across developed and developing countries are created. This study not only provides a crucial test of those theories that suggest women's increased labor force participation leads to women's employment in high quality jobs and those that suggest the opposite, but also explains the factors that make one or the other outcome more likely. This research also advances sociological theories about the links between globalization, state policies, and actual employment outcomes on the ground by integrating state-centered and global theories of women's employment and testing the scope of theories in both developed and developing countries.This research finds that women's employment policies are important to the quality of women's employment, particularly in developing countries, as well as the levels of gender prejudice. Then, I discuss academic and policy implications of the main findings. The cross-national, historical research design makes findings from this project particularly applicable to diverse national contexts.

The etudes of Chopin are masterworks of the piano literature and are designed to go beyond mere technical exercises; moreover, each etude represents not only a technical study but also has a distinct musical character. Alarmingly, the current trend seems to be to assign the Chopin etudes at an increasingly young age to students who are not yet equipped either technically or musically to handle them. As Chopin’s pupil, Carl Mikuli, commented in the preface to his Chopin edition, the etudes were meant for “more advanced students.” If Chopin had intended his etudes for students at an intermediate level, he would have assigned them to most of his students; however, only a limited number of students had his permission to work on their master’s etudes. As a teacher, I have always felt the need to devise a systematic teaching plan to guide students to handle the challenges of these pieces both physically and musically. This study examines the repertoire which might help prepare a student to learn the etudes without overstraining his/her muscular and mental ability. Rooted in Chopin’s teaching and his recommendation of the pieces to learn before tackling the etudes themselves, this pedagogical study guide intends to help students and teachers to work progressively towards the study of these works. While pinpointing some exercises and simple pieces to assign to a student in preparation for studying the individual etudes, helpful works of later composers are also liberally incorporated, as well as some suggestions for practicing the etudes themselves. Finally, I shall provide my own “re-ordering” of the etudes, with a progressive degree of difficulty, as an additional aid to a young pianist who may eventually want to learn the entire opus 10 and opus 25.

Sonata in A major for violin and piano, op. 13 / Gabriel Faure -- Sonata in C major for cello and piano, op. 102, no. 1 / Ludwig van Beethoven -- Cafe music / Paul Schoenfield.

Ruminant animals obtain most of their nutrients from fermentation products produced by a ruminal microbiome. Since the 16S rRNA gene (rrs) was used as a phylogenetic marker in studies of ruminal microbiome, the ruminal microbiome that is not culturable has been identified. Recently microarray or pyrosequencing analysis has been greatly contributed to identifying numerous rrs sequences at the same time. However, few studies have used the microarray or pyrosequencing analysis to investigate the ruminal microbiome. The overall objective of my study was to examine ruminal microbial diversity as affected by dietary modification and to compare microbial diversity between the liquid and adherent fractions using the microarray and pyrosequencing analysis. In the first study (Chapter 3), a meta-analysis of all the rrs sequences of rumen origin deposited in the RDP database was performed. Collectively, 5,271 and 943 OTUs of bacteria and archaea, respectively, were identified at 0.03 phylogenetic distance. The predominant bacterial phyla were Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, while the largest archaeal phylum was Euryarchaeota. More than 50% of all the bacterial sequences could not be classified into any known genus. In the second study (Chapter 4), select cultured bacteria and uncultured bacteria were quantified using specific real-time PCR assay. The populations of some uncultured bacteria were as abundant as those of major cellulolytic cultured bacteria. In the third study (Chapter 5), the diversity of ruminal microbiome in cattle was examined using rrs clone libraries. Six known rrs clones were used to validate the phylogenetic microarray (Chapter 6). In the fourth study (Chapter 6), a phylogenetic microarray that detects 1,600 OTUs of ruminal bacteria was developed in a 6x5K format based on the OTUs identified in Chapter 3. The utility of the phylogenetic microarray (referred to as RumenArray) was tested in comparative analysis of fractionated bacterial microbiomes obtained from sheep fed two different diets. Species-level OTUs are commonly defined at 0.03 phylogenetic distance based on full-length rrs sequences. However, the current 454 pyrosequencing method is not able to produce full-length rrs sequences. To identify a region or phylogenetic distance that can support species richness estimate as reliably as full-length rrs sequences, in the fifth study I compared datasets of partial rrs sequences corresponding to different variable regions with a dataset of nearly full-length rrs sequences (Chapter 7). The results indicated that the V1-V3 and the V1-V4 regions at 0.04 distance provide more accurate estimates than other partial regions. Based on the results obtained in Chapter 7, pyrosequencing analysis was performed to investigate bacterial diversity in the rumen of cattle as affected by supplementation of monensin or fat in my sixth study (Chapter 8). Supplementary fat resulted in significant shift of bacterial populations when compared to the control diet, but supplementary monensin did not. The overall results of the above studies provided further insights into the microbial microbiome as affected by different diets and different fractions. Integration of RumenArray and pyrosequencing techniques will improve our understanding of the ruminal microbiome and its integration with nutritional studies.

The aim of this document is to provide a performance guide to selected violin works of Béla Bartók, in particular the Violin Rhapsodies Nos. 1 and 2, the Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2, and the Violin Concerto No. 2. This document will present thorough analyses of these works, because there has not been much written about them in terms of performance practice. This study will address folk characteristics, musical expressions, and technical issues present in these compositions, preparing the reader with the essential elements in understanding and preparing these works for a well-informed performance. I will also include background information on these compositions, complete with musical examples and appropriate pedagogical exercises, as well as a thorough description of the Hungarian folk style. Also included will be biographical information pertaining to Bartók and his compositional style. With my research, I hope to provide valuable information about Bartók and his selected compositions to all violinists, as well as to add an educational and artistic contribution to the violin literature.

There has been a growing interest in the field of optoelectronics for sub-wavelength lasers due to an increased interest in better integration between optoelectronic and electronic components. Although advances have been made in the field of nanolasers with novel structures, further scaling of optical cavities beyond a sub-wavelength scale has been challenging due to the optical diffraction limit on the order of an optical wavelength. In this regard, the use of metal has been proven promising because electromagnetic wave rapidly decreases to zero within metal. However, it comes at a high cost of metal loss. Therefore, it is critical to optimize the optical cavity structure such that the overlap between the cavity and the electromagnetic field is maximized, thereby allowing the highest possible modal gain. In addition, to make the integration of the two possible, a sub-wavelength laser must have the following features: site-controllability, fine-tunability and out-coupling capability. In this Thesis, the use of metal for obtaining sub-wavelength nanolasers with the above features has been investigated in two different ways: surface plasmon mode and hybrid dielectric-plasmonic mode. Surface plasmon-enabled sub-wavelength injection laser (SPESIL) uses a pure surface plasmon mode. Due to the location of electromagnetic field at the interface between metal and semiconductor, it suffers from tremendous amount of metal loss. Metal loss compensation by a gain medium nearby has been investigated and found to be true; however, it was shown to fall short of providing enough gain to reach lasing. In a metal-clad semiconductor nanoring laser, the surface plasmon mode is replaced with a hybrid dielectric-plasmonic mode, in which the peak of the electromagnetic field is moved away from the metal interface. Therefore, metal loss is reduced. Furthermore, optical confinement factor () is around 0.65, compared to 0.4 for SPESIL, providing a higher modal gain. Optically-pumped lasing in a metal-clad semiconductor nanoring laser was observed, and electrical injection was also investigated. Additionally, metal-clad nanoring laser is experimentally proven to possess fine-tuning capability with its two design parameters—ring width and ring diameter, which nanolasers often lack due to their high spectral range.

Chapter 1 is "Heteroskedasticity and Spatiotemporal Dependence Robust Inference for Linear Panel Models with Fixed Effects." This chapter studies robust inference for linear panel models with fixed effects in the presence of heteroskedasticity and spatiotemporal dependence of unknown forms. We propose a bivariate kernel covariance estimator, which is flexible to nest existing estimators as special cases with certain choices of bandwidths. For distributional approximations, we consider two different types of asymptotics. When the level of smoothing is assumed to increase with the sample size, the proposed estimator is consistent and the associated Wald statistic converges to a chi square distribution. We show that our covariance estimator improves upon existing estimators in terms of robustness and efficiency. When we assume the level of smoothing to be held fixed, the covariance estimator has a random limit and we show by asymptotic expansion that the limiting distribution of the test statistic depends on the bandwidth parameters, the kernel function, and the number of restrictions being tested. As this distribution is nonstandard, we establish the validity of an F-approximation to this distribution, which greatly facilitates the test. For optimal bandwidth selection, we propose a procedure based on the upper bound of asymptotic mean square error criterion. The flexibility of our estimator and proposed bandwidth selection procedure make our estimator adaptive to the dependence structure in data. This adaptiveness automates the selection of covariance estimator. That is, our estimator reduces to the existing estimators which are designed to cope with the particular dependence structures. Simulation results show that the F-approximation and the adaptiveness work reasonably well. Chapter 2 is "Spatial Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Estimation of Covariance Matrix". This chapter considers spatial heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent (spatial HAC) estimation of covariance matrices of parameter estimators. We generalize the spatial HAC estimators introduced by Kelejian and Prucha (2007) to apply to linear and nonlinear spatial models with moment conditions. We establish its consistency, rate of convergence and asymptotic truncated mean squared error (MSE). Based on the asymptotic truncated MSE criterion, we derive the optimal bandwidth parameter and suggest its data dependent estimation procedure using a parametric plug-in method. The finite sample performances of the spatial HAC estimator are evaluated via Monte Carlo simulation. Chapter 3 is "k-step Bootstrap Bias Correction for Fixed Effects Estimator in Nonlinear Panel Models." Fixed effects estimators in nonlinear panel models with fixed T usually suffer from inconsistency because of the incidental parameters problem first noted by Neyman and Scott (1948). Moreover, even though T grows at the same rate as n, they are asymptotically biased and therefore the associated confidence interval has a large coverage error. This chapter proposes a k-step parametric bootstrap bias corrected estimator. We prove that our estimator is asymptotically normal and is centered at the true parameter if T grows faster than n to a third power. In addition to bias correction, we construct a confidence interval with a double bootstrap procedure, and Monte Carlo experiments confirm that the error in coverage probability of our CI's is smaller than those of the alternatives. We also propose bias correction for average marginal effects

Korea's history spans over 5,000 years. A rich culture of Korean arts developed through the foresight and vision of Korean nobility and the artistic "underground" during periods of occupation. Korea was exposed to Western cultural influences beginning with the arrival of American Christian missionaries in the mid-19th century and the Japanese invasion and occupation (1910-1945). During the Japanese colonial period, the Korean people were forced to accept new cultural ideas including new forms and styles of music. After the emancipation from Japan, music in Korea was already becoming settled in the Western music system. Some composers who were active during the transitional period between Japanese occupation and Korean sovereignty (circa 1950s) believed that the Korean traditional music should be reintroduced to Korean culture. One composer/scholar who dedicated his professional life to the revival and progress of Korean traditional music was Un-Yeong Na (1922-1994). Na contributed to the perpetuation of Korean traditional music while also using Western musical idioms. Na believed that the most successful means of expressing traditional Korean musical idioms in a "modern" world was through the art song form. Un-Yeong Na's art songs are written in a recognizably Western musical style. This study of five of his art songs is intended to open this music to a wider, non-Korean audience by providing translations, IPA for the Korean language, and a detailed analysis of the elements of Korean traditional music present in these songs. The art songs of Un-Yeong Na are regularly performed in Korea. Many of his art songs are good teaching pieces and accessible to anyone willing to experiment with the Korean language.

Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology utilizes bacterial growth in carbon-containing solutions to generate electricity or hydrogen. For the direct production of electricity, an MFC operates aerobically at the cathode and anaerobically at the anodes. The same basic design can be used with minor changes to produce hydrogen at the cathode by applying an additional overpotential and omitting oxygen from the cathode. In this configuration, the device is called an MEC (Microbial Electrolysis Cell). However, the term “MFC” is frequently used to describe both devices. The primary objectives of this study were to determine optimal operating conditions and to minimize the internal resistance in the MFC in order to improve the reactor performance for power generation or hydrogen production using the organism Shewanella oneidesis MR-1. In this study, MFC performance was evaluated under various operating conditions with a modified MFC system architecture called a “Dual-Anode Chambered MFC” which incorporates two anode chambers flanking a single cathode chamber. This design leads to improvements in reactor performance and reduced internal resistance by minimizing electrode separation and providing parallel electrical connectivity, which increases the maximum current the MFC can supply for a given time (mA). These improvements lead to increased maximum specific power output (W/m3), volumetric hydrogen production rate (m3-H2/m3-substrate/day), and hydrogen yield on substrate (mol-H2/mol-substrate). An analysis of reactor performance using the new MFC reactor system included as system variables the size of the electrode surface area, substrate (lactate) concentration (5mM, 10mM, 20mM), substrate flow rate (1ml/min, 3ml/min, 5ml/min), and internal resistance (Ohms) for electricity production. The maximum volumetric power density of 23.6 W/m3 (standard deviation: 2.25, error: 1.3) and hydrogen yield of 0.438 mol-H2/mol-substrate were obtained under optimized conditions; these conditions were then used to compare the reactor performance to that of a single-anode chambered MFC. Results indicated that the dual-anode MFC produced power per unit anode volume of 23.6 W/m3, about 1.2 times the power of a single-anode MFC (20.2 W/m3). This was due to the reduction of internal resistance within the dual-anode MFCs. The internal resistance was reduced by 45 %, from 106 Ohms (single-anode) to 58.3 Ohms (dual-anode).

This thesis uses numerical simulation to study a new communication method for addressing radio blackout during hypersonic flight. The radio blackout problem is an important issue for hypersonic vehicles because of flight safety, catastrophe analysis, and mission success. During the last 50 years, several approaches have been proposed to solve radio blackout. However, from the Apollo reentry capsule to the Space shuttle, vehicles have experienced difficulties in communication and vehicle tracking due to this phenomenon. As a reentry mitigation scheme, this study suggests plasma manipulation methods using an electrostatic sheath and an electromagnetic (ExB) layer. The electrostatic sheath scheme is based on the formation of an electron-depleted sheath with a scale length comparable to the plasma layer. This study suggests two-dimensional shaped electrodes, one U-shaped and the other cylindrical. An electromagnetic, ExB layer mitigation scheme is also studied. The possibility of the scheme is analyzed using two suggested ExB layer models, a one-dimensional and a two-dimensional model. The results of the suggested models are assessed using an analytical solution and experimental results that were obtained at the University of Michigan. The possibility of the ExB layer mitigation scheme is evaluated in a realistic operating condition for a hypersonic flow. The major contributions of this work to the field include: the analysis of two possible blackout mitigation approaches, the electrostatic sheath and the electromagnetic layer mitigation schemes; the development of the one-dimensional and two-dimensional ExB layer models for optimizing the ExB layer configuration; simulations illustrating the effectiveness of the suggested mitigation schemes; the assessment of the suggested ExB layer model using an analytical solution and experimental measurement; and the illustration of the possibility of the ExB layer as a blackout mitigation scheme with the OREX reentry vehicle and the suggestion of a possible ExB layer configuration for L-band and GPS communication during reentry.

Methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) is a protein associated with transcriptional repression of other proteins and its various mutants are found in Rett syndrome patients, which is a severe neurodevelopmental disease found in 1/15,000 females. It has specific binding affinity to methyl-CpG domain but also bind to architectural DNA structure. Here, its binding dynamics to Holliday junction structure was investigated by using single molecular detections; scanning confocal fluorescence microscope and wide-field evanescent field fluorescence microscope. Through these studies, we could distinguish the difference of transitions of the substrate with and without MeCP2. The effect of this MeCP2 binding to 4WJ will be discussed in terms of the structures and transition times.

Marketing managers are often challenged to show, in the language of finance, that marketing expenditures enhance financial performances. Responding to this call, the first essay examines the impact of a firm's advertising and research and development (R&D) on the systematic risk of its stock, a key finance metric for publicly listed firms. Integrating developments in the accounting, finance, and marketing literatures, we propose that both a firm's advertising and R&D will create market-based assets that will insulate the firm from changes in the stock market, thereby lowering its systematic risk. After controlling for factors that accounting and finance researchers have shown to be associated with the systematic risk, we find that a firm's advertising and R&D lower its systematic risk. For theory, the findings extend prior research that has focused on the effect of marketing initiatives on performance metrics without consideration of the impact of those initiatives on the firm's systematic risk. For practice, the ability of advertising and R&D to reduce systematic risk highlights the multi-faceted financial implications of marketing programs. This study's findings may also surprise senior management and finance executives who are skeptical of the financial accountability of marketing programs. In the second essay, we extend the existing literature to identify a fundamental signal from advertising (S[subscript ADV]) which the stock market and financial analysts might recognize as value-relevant information. We find that increases in the proposed advertising signal increase the cumulative abnormal stock returns (CAR) after controlling for the accounting and finance variables known to affect CAR. However, surprisingly, we find that the value-relevant advertising signal (S[subscript ADV]) is not related to financial analysts' expectation of firm value and their earnings forecasts, and that S[subscript ADV] increases the errors in analysts' earnings forecasts. We thus provide empirical evidence that analysts under-react to the fundamental advertising signal, S[subscript ADV], despite the fact that the measure is impounded in firms' stock prices. With the findings, this study joins a growing literature that demonstrates a link between marketing and financial value of a firm, and furthermore encourages finance professionals' better understanding of marketing accountability.

In this dissertation, liquid feed–flame spray pyrolysis (LF-FSP) was used for the synthesis and characterization of mixed-metal oxide nanopowders in the Ce-Zr-Al-O system for potential catalytic, photonic, electronic and structural applications. The LFFSP process aerosolizes metalloorganic precursors dissolved in an alcohol solvent with oxygen, combusts the aerosol, and then rapidly quenches the gaseous species to produce nanosize oxide “soot” with the same compositions as those in the starting precursor solutions. The wide variety of potential metal oxide precursors allows the synthesis of multiple chemical compositions, phase and unique particle morphologies in the resulting nanopowders. Surprisingly, LF-FSP with the correct choice of metalloorganic precursors provides access to core-shell nanopowders in a single step. The (ZrOx)x(Al2O3)1-x system was explored first for potential structural applications as zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) composites. During the LF-FSP process, core-shell nanoparticles with