Missing You -- A Student Short Film

After her fiance, Frankie's, death, Eleanor struggles to move on. She figures out that the only way she can move on is if she finds the vows he wrote before his death.B.A. (Bachelor of Arts

Sexual Harassment Bystander Intervention Program: Targeting Leaders to Enhance Organizational Culture

Sexual harassment has become a prominent issue in workplaces and society as a whole. However, to effectively address the issue of sexual harassment and identify methods to reduce it in the workplace, it needs to be clearly defined and understood. Sexual harassment manifests in three forms which often overlap and are antecedents of one another: gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion (The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, NASEM, 2018). Gender harassment is the most common form of sexual harassment and is characterized by crude behavior, hostility, objectification, and exclusion rooted in the basis of gender (NASEM, 2018). Examples of gender harassment include insults based on one’s gender and remarks about one’s physicality (NASEM, 2018). Unwanted sexual attention is sexual advances, either physical or verbal, that are unwanted, including sexual assault and pressure for a sexual or romantic relationship (NASEM, 2018). Finally, sexual coercion is when employment status or opportunities are conditional on engaging in sexual relations or activities (NASEM, 2018). I am creating a bystander intervention program to reduce the occurrences and prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace through establishing a community that takes responsibility of eliminating sexual harassment and an organizational culture of mutual respect and civility. Bystander intervention programs teach and empower individuals to interfere when observing behaviors and situations indicative of sexual harassment and discrimination (Orchowski & Gidycz, 2018). Specifically, this bystander intervention program will rely on a top-down approach and target organizational leaders to be the catalysts and models for organizational change. The more that an organization is perceived to be tolerant of sexual harassment, there is a higher likelihood for sexual harassment to occur (NASEM, 2018). Therefore, training leaders to confront harassment will hopefully establish organizational norms, beliefs, and expectations that sexual harassment will not be tolerated in the workplace. Additionally, research suggests that when leaders publicly confront sexism, there are higher perceptions that those behaviors will reduce sexist events in the future (Gervais & Hillard, 2014). Lastly, it has been shown that people are less likely to confront an individual with higher power than those possessing equal or lesser power (Ashburn-Nardo et al., 2014). Directing this training at leaders will increase the likelihood that people will take action in confronting because there will be a lower cost to benefit ratio than subordinates confronting superiors. Leaders will also serve as models for employees to base their future behaviors on

The Effect of Silicon Grade and Electrode Architecture on the Performance of Advanced Anodes for Next Generation Lithium-Ion Cells

To increase the specific capacity of anodes for lithium-ion cells, advanced active materials, such as silicon, can be utilized. Silicon has an order of magnitude higher specific capacity compared to the state-of-the-art anode material graphite; therefore, it is a promising candidate to achieve this target. In this study, different types of silicon nanopowders were introduced as active material for the manufacturing of composite silicon/graphite electrodes. The materials were selected from different suppliers providing different grades of purity and different grain sizes. The slurry preparation, including binder, additives, and active material, was established using a ball milling device and coating was performed via tape casting on a thin copper current collector foil. Composite electrodes with an areal capacity of approximately 1.70 mAh/cm² were deposited. Reference electrodes without silicon were prepared in the same manner, and they showed slightly lower areal capacities. High repetition rate, ultrafast laser ablation was applied to these high-power electrodes in order to introduce line structures with a periodicity of 200 µm. The electrochemical performance of the anodes was evaluated as rate capability and operational lifetime measurements including pouch cells with NMC 622 as counter electrodes. For the silicon/graphite composite electrodes with the best performance, up to 200 full cycles at a C-rate of 1C were achieved until end of life was reached at 80% relative capacity. Additionally, electrochemical impedance spectroscopies were conducted as a function of state of health to correlate the used silicon grade with solid electrolyte interface (SEI) formation and charge transfer resistance values

High repetition ultrafast laser ablation of graphite and silicon/graphite composite electrodes for lithium-ion batteries

Laser structuring can be applied to composite electrodes of lithium-ion cells to enhance wetting and to facilitate the usage of thick-film electrodes by reducing the lithium-ion diffusion overpotential and the tortuosity of the electrodes or the usage of electrodes containing silicon, where additional porosity is required to compensate the volume expansion during lithium de-/insertion. To integrate the additional laser processing step in the well-established electrode manufacturing route, the laser processing speed must be significantly increased to match with the belt speed, which is dependent on the electrode thickness and the type of manufacturing route. Upscaling can be realized by increasing the average laser power, laser intensity, and/or laser repetition rate. Here, an ultrashort pulsed laser source with an average power of 300 W and a pulse duration of 600 fs was applied. For the first time, the presented research provides detailed laser ablation processing data for thick-film composite anodes associated with high repetition rates ranging from 4.9 to 48.8 MHz. The patterning results are compared depending on the widths, depths, aspect ratios, the total appearance regarding debris and cracks, and the volume ablation rate. In high repetition rate laser patterning, the subsequent laser pulses interact with the material vapor plasma generated by the previous laser pulses, resulting in lower ablation depths and higher ablation widths. The increase in laser peak intensity leads to higher achievable ablation depths. Processing strategies are identified for two different ablation scenarios focusing on the pouch cells of a Volkswagen ID.3 and the Tesla 4680 cell

Parabolic optimal control problems with combinatorial switching constraints -- Part III: Branch-and-bound algorithm

We present a branch-and-bound algorithm for globally solving parabolic optimal control problems with binary switches that have bounded variation and possibly need to satisfy further combinatorial constraints. More precisely, for a given tolerance $\varepsilon>0$, we show how to compute in finite time an $\varepsilon$-optimal solution in function space, independently of any prior discretization. The main ingredients in our approach are an appropriate branching strategy in infinite dimension, an a posteriori error estimation in order to obtain safe dual bounds, and an adaptive refinement strategy in order to allow arbitrary switching points in the limit. The performance of our approach is demonstrated by extensive experimental results

Reducing Recidivism for Youth through an Integrated Residential and Community-Based Program

Purpose: Reportedly, 95% of youth in the juvenile justice system have had prior involvement with the juvenile justice system, suggesting that intervention does not adequately address the needs of these youth (Sedlack & Bruce, 2010; OJJDP, 2003). The purpose of this project was to address the problem of recidivism with an emphasis on preparing for transition from residential placements to community engagement. Methods: An extensive literature review was conducted in order to understand the occupational performance deficits that youth in the juvenile justice system face in transitioning to their community. The information obtained from the literature review was then analyzed using the Person Environment Occupation model (Law et al., 1996). Areas of need for youth were identified through completion of the systematic analysis and include: (a) vocation, (b) leisure, (c) education, (d) health management and maintenance, and (e) social participation, which are all important aspects of occupational performance within the youth’s community. In addition, the following key principles emerged from the systematic analysis: (a) self-determination, (b) engagement in meaningful occupations, (c) care through an interdisciplinary team, and (d) mentorship. Results: Based on the methodology described above, we developed An Occupation-Based Community Re-Integration Program: Residential Occupational Therapy Services and Aftercare for youth who are transitioning back to their community. Interventions were created to improve the youth’s occupational performance to integrate into the community after discharge from the residential treatment center. This program is intended for use while youth are in the residential treatment facility and as a guide for transition to the community with a community interdisciplinary. Within each area of occupation, phases build upon one another in order to facilitate successful performance in all areas of occupation once youth are in the community. Conclusion: Several barriers may limit the implementation of this program, such as limited funding and resources, dedication from the residential treatment facility staff, the youth’s family, and members of the youth’s community interdisciplinary team, and the effectiveness and validity of the program have not yet been researched. Several areas of strength include the program being based on literature and grounded in theory for development of the program, the program addresses a need for this population, and is able to be modified and adapted to fit the needs of the youth

Estimating Watershed Residence Times in Artificially-Drained Landscapes and Relation to Nutrient Concentrations

Nutrient runoff from agricultural lands feeds harmful algae blooms that create a variety of problems in freshwater ecosystems. In order to reduce the effects of this nutrient runoff, Best Management Practices (BMPs) are being put in place in agricultural lands. Most of these BMPs focus on slowing down the flow of water through the watershed to give nutrient concentrations time to deplete before the water flows to the stream or river. However, the effectiveness of these BMPs are highly unknown and the process of monitoring nutrient runoff is often complex and costly. The data in this study consists of 7 years of existing water stable isotope data and 9 years of nutrient concentrations collected by volunteers of the nonprofit Wabash River Enhancement Corporation (WREC). Samples are taken twice a year (spring and fall) across a fairly large area draining into the Wabash river. We use stable isotopes, deuterium and oxygen-18 as a proxy for residence times and correlate these residence times with land use and nutrient concentrations

Vascular β-amyloid and early astrocyte alterations impair cerebrovascular function and cerebral metabolism in transgenic arcAβ mice

Cerebrovascular lesions related to congophilic amyloid angiopathy (CAA) often accompany deposition of β-amyloid (Aβ) in Alzheimer's disease (AD), leading to disturbed cerebral blood flow and cognitive dysfunction, posing the question how cerebrovascular pathology contributes to the pathology of AD. To address this question, we characterised the morphology, biochemistry and functionality of brain blood vessels in transgenic arctic β-amyloid (arcAβ) mice expressing human amyloid precursor protein (APP) with both the familial AD-causing Swedish and Arctic mutations; these mice are characterised by strong CAA pathology. Mice were analysed at early, mid and late-stage pathology. Expression of the glucose transporter GLUT1 at the blood-brain barrier (BBB) was significantly decreased and paralleled by impaired in vivo blood-to-brain glucose transport and reduced cerebral lactate release during neuronal activation from mid-stage pathology onwards. Reductions in astrocytic GLUT1 and lactate transporters, as well as retraction of astrocyte endfeet and swelling consistent with neurovascular uncoupling, preceded wide-spread β-amyloid plaque pathology. We show that CAA at later disease stages is accompanied by severe morphological alterations of brain blood vessels including stenoses, BBB leakages and the loss of vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs). Together, our data establish that cerebrovascular and astrocytic pathology are paralleled by impaired cerebral metabolism in arcAβ mice, and that astrocyte alterations occur already at premature stages of pathology, suggesting that astrocyte dysfunction can contribute to early behavioural and cognitive impairments seen in these mic

Reconfiguration of plane trees in convex geometric graphs

A non-crossing spanning tree of a set of points in the plane is a spanning tree whose edges pairwise do not cross. Avis and Fukuda in 1996 proved that there always exists a flip sequence of length at most $2n-4$ between any pair of non-crossing spanning trees (where $n$ denotes the number of points). Hernando et al. proved that the length of a minimal flip sequence can be of length at least $\frac 32 n$. Two recent results of Aichholzer et al. and Bousquet et al. improved the Avis and Fukuda upper bound by proving that there always exists a flip sequence of length respectively at most $2n - \log n$ and $2n - \sqrt{n}$. We improve the upper bound by a linear factor for the first time in 25 years by proving that there always exists a flip sequence between any pair of non-crossing spanning trees $T_1,T_2$ of length at most $c n$ where $c \approx 1.95$. Our result is actually stronger since we prove that, for any two trees $T_1,T_2$, there exists a flip sequence from $T_1$ to $T_2$ of length at most $c |T_1 \setminus T_2|$. We also improve the best lower bound in terms of the symmetric difference by proving that there exists a pair of trees $T_1,T_2$ such that a minimal flip sequence has length $\frac 53 |T_1 \setminus T_2|$, improving the lower bound of Hernando et al. by considering the symmetric difference instead of the number of vertices. We generalize this lower bound construction to non-crossing flips (where we close the gap between upper and lower bounds) and rotations