Probing the Interfaces of Semiconducting Nanoparticles using Sum Frequency Generation: Instrumentation Development and Design

Since the inception and the development of high power lasers, nonlinear spectroscopy and microscopy have been pushing the boundaries for optical techniques. These techniques have changed how we understand emerging materials and revolutionized imaging capabilities. Herein is presented work which aimed to produce electronic sum frequency generation (eSFG) using a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) and Ti:Sapphire femtosecond laser as the light sources while using objective-based total internal reflectance within a microscope apparatus. The large aim of this work was to apply this instrument to study the surfaces of cadmium selenide (CdSe) quantum dots (QDs). Quantum dots have emerged as a flexible and useful material for light harvesting and light emitting applications, including television screens, lighting diodes, biomedical imaging probes, catalytic substrates, and solar panel application. Despite the current applications of these QDs, the material still exhibits deleterious flaws mostly due to the lack of control over their surface properties. While there are continuous strides in this field of research, the work here aimed to provide a better understanding of these surfaces in order to incubate further advances. The instrument described above observed electronic structure within the mid-band gap region which has previously proven difficult to study. Since the electronic properties of CdSe QDs are so intricately connected to the ligand or shell attached to the nanocrystal surface, the study the CdSe QD surfaces was furthered by vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy (vSFG) to better understand the ordering and presence of ligands at the QD interface. This instrument has not only been applied to CdSe QDs but other light harvesting materials, specifically inorganic-organic lead based perovskite films. A two-photon total internal reflectance based microscopy was able to reveal dipole orientations of the perovskite film and shows sensitivity to the films topography. Together these studies show the flexibility of this instrument to study important electronic properties effecting the application of light sensitive materials

Foucauldian Dynamics in the Formation of a Fifth Grade Writing Culture

This study looks at a student writing culture in a fifth grade English language arts classroom through the lens of Foucauldian power dynamics to examine the power relationships in the classroom and curriculum. The research questions were: 1) What is the nature of a writing culture in a fifth-grade writing classroom? 2) What are students’ perceptions of writing in a fifth grade ELA classroom? The methodology for the study was case study research. The research took place during the 2017-2018 school year at Southeast Elementary School in Lancaster County in the southeastern part of the United States. Data was collected from my English language arts classroom and included: student writing, student journals, student interviews, student questionnaire, anecdotal notes, teacher lesson plans, intervention plans, reflective journals, grant memos, faculty meeting memos, testing memos and documents, planning notes, and meeting notes. Triangulation of data, coding, and member checking determined themes and answered the research questions. Findings included power dynamics within the writing curriculum, student resistance and challenges in writing, and dissonance in student perceptions of writing

A Narrative of Successful Graduates Raised in Single-Parent Homes

Across the United States each year, schools implement national and state reforms dedicated to improving district personnel, district budgets, and district instructional resources for the improvement of student achievement and career readiness. In the last twenty years, Georgia schools failed to significantly improve student graduation performance, this is particularly true for students living in rural, single-parent households (County Health Rankings, 2019; Dalton, 2019 GADOE, 2019; KCDC, 2019. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of students who graduated from high school, came from single parent homes, and lived in an identified rural Georgia Title I school district. I incorporated an embedded, exploratory case study with a multiple-case design and investigated the social and academic experiences of six participants (Yin, 2018). Participants were identified from two rural, Title I school districts in central Georgia through the use of both snowball and purposive sampling procedures (Guetterman, 2015). After analyzing participant data, I concluded high school graduates who lived in single-parent households and attended rural Title I school districts established a secure attachment to overcome or eliminate associated risks. When the consequences were minimized or eliminated in a student’s home microsystem, the effects were noticeable in their school microsystem.CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 -- Overview 1 -- Problem Statement 3 -- Purpose Statement 6 -- Research Questions 6 -- Significance of Study 7 -- Conceptual Framework 8 -- Summary of Methodology 12 -- Limitations 13 -- Chapter Summary 14 -- Definition of Terms 14 -- CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 17 -- Introduction 17 -- Description and Critique of Literature 18 -- Risks 18 -- Statistics About Single-Parent Homes 18 -- Structure of Single-Parent Homes 19 -- How Children Are Separated from Parents 21 -- Differing Roles Between Single Fathers and Single Mothers 25 -- Challenges Facing Children from Single-Parent Homes 27 -- Socioeconomic Status 32 -- Stressors 36 -- Strategies 42 -- Secure Attachment 42 -- Positive Supportive Relationships 47 -- Conceptual Framework 50 -- Chapter Summary 52 -- CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 54 -- Introduction 54 -- Research Questions 55 -- Rationale 56 -- Research Design 57 -- Setting 58 -- Population and Sample 58 -- Data Collection and Methods 60 -- Documentation 60 -- Interviews 61 -- Interview Protocol 61 -- Non-Participant Observation 62 -- Data Analysis Procedures 63 -- Data Analysis Strategies and Techniques 63 -- Validity 65 -- Ethical Issues 65 -- Chapter Summary 67 -- CHAPTER IV: PARTICIPANT PROFILES 68 -- Introduction 68 -- Participant Profiles 69 -- Macon 77 -- Alexandria 84 -- Jackson 95 -- Charlotte 105 -- York 117 -- CHAPTER V: FINDINGS 128 -- Introduction 128 -- Data Analysis 129 -- Perceived Barriers 133 -- Attachment Styles in Early Adolescence 141 -- Long-Term Strategies 149 -- Breaking the Cycle 160 -- Chapter Summary 164 -- CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION 165 -- Research Questions: Summary Discussion 167 -- Study Limitations 179 -- Implications 182 -- Recommendations 184 -- Recommendations for Future Studies 185 -- Conclusion 186 -- APPENDIX A: DOCUMENT OBSERVATION MATRIX 205 -- APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL 207 -- APPENDIX C: IRB APPROVAL FORM 211Truby, William F.Lairsey, John D.Bochenko, Michael J.Ed.D.Education in Leadershi

ABOVE WATER: Extending the Play Space for Health

© Lennart Nacke, 2016. This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in ISS '16 Proceedings of the 2016 ACM on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces, https://doi.org/10.1145/2992154.2996882ABOVE WATER is a game that disseminates information about Clinical Anxiety Disorders, particularly Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder. This game focuses on teaching players about treatments as well as providing a safe space for discussion of personal experiences. This game focuses on using the physical world (physical space, physical and tangible cards) and the digital world (accessible by any phone or tablet with a modern web browser) as part of its gameplay.Peer-reviewe

ABOVE WATER: An Educational Game for Anxiety

© Lennart Nacke, 2016. This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in CHI PLAY Companion '16 Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts, https://doi.org/10.1145/2968120.2971804We present Above Water - a digital/physical hybrid game to inform people about the available strategies to cope with two types of Anxiety Disorders - Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder. The game teaches players about existing treatments. This hybrid game is designed to inspire players to share their experiences and develop their own personal narrative. The document also outlines an assessment strategy to study the game and determine its effectiveness as a game for health. The game is designed to educate non-institutionalized individuals with clinical anxiety and panic disorder. Potential players may be diagnosed, seeking intervention information, or a supportive friend.Peer-reviewe

Spouse Beliefs about Partner Chronic Pain

While research has shown that patients’ beliefs about their pain are related to pain adjustment and treatment outcomes, little is known about the beliefs of their significant others. The purpose of this study was to develop a measure of pain beliefs in significant others and to examine the correlates of these beliefs. Participants were 104 married couples in which one partner reported chronic pain. Spouses completed an amended version of the Survey of Pain Beliefs (SOPA) [14]. The scale development procedure described in Jensen et al.[12] was used to select appropriate items for the significant other version of the SOPA. This procedure yielded 7 subscales that closely resembled the original SOPA. Spousal pain beliefs about disability, emotion, control, and medication were significantly correlated with partners’ pain severity and other indicators of pain adjustment. Emotion, disability, and other beliefs were related to spouse responses to pain, and spouses’ depressive symptoms and marital dissatisfaction. Spouses’ personal experiences with pain were not related to their beliefs about their partners’ pain. Additional research on the pain-related beliefs of significant others may extend cognitive-behavioral theory concerning the social context of pain and provide an additional avenue through which clinicians can address cognition in patients and families

Distribution of raphespinal fibers in the mouse spinal cord

Background: Serotonergic raphespinal neurons and their fibers have been mapped in large mammals, but the non- serotonergic ones have not been studied, especially in the mouse. The present study aimed to investigate the termination pattern of fibers arising from the hindbrain raphe and reticular nuclei which also have serotonergic neurons by injecting the anterograde tracer BDA into them. Results: We found that raphespinal fibers terminate in both the dorsal and ventral horns in addition to lamina 10. There is a shift of the fibers in the ventral horn towards the dorsal and lateral part of the gray matter. Considerable variation in the termination pattern also exists between raphe nuclei with raphe magnus having more fibers terminating in the dorsal horn. Fibers from the adjacent gigantocellular reticular nucleus show similar termination pattern as those from the raphe nuclei with slight difference. Immunofluorescence staining showed that raphespinal fibers were heterogeneous and serotoninergic fibers were present in all laminae but mainly in laminae 1, 2, medial lamina 8, laminae 9 and 10. Surprisingly, immunofluorescence staining on clarified spinal cord tissue revealed that serotoninergic fibers formed bundles regularly in a short distance along the rostrocaudal axis in the medial part of the ventral horn and they extended towards the lateral motor neuron column area. Conclusion: Serotonergic and non-serotonergic fibers arising from the hindbrain raphe and reticular nuclei had similar termination pattern in the mouse spinal cord with subtle difference. The present study provides anatomical foundation for the multiple roles raphe and adjacent reticular nuclei play

Identifying accurate metagenome and amplicon software via a meta-analysis of sequence to taxonomy benchmarking studies

Metagenomic and meta-barcode DNA sequencing has rapidly become a widely-used technique for investigating a range of questions, particularly related to health and environmental monitoring. There has also been a proliferation of bioinformatic tools for analysing metagenomic and amplicon datasets, which makes selecting adequate tools a significant challenge. A number of benchmark studies have been undertaken; however, these can present conflicting results. In order to address this issue we have applied a robust Z-score ranking procedure and a network meta-analysis method to identify software tools that are consistently accurate for mapping DNA sequences to taxonomic hierarchies. Based upon these results we have identified some tools and computational strategies that produce robust predictions

Compendium of TCDD-mediated transcriptomic response datasets in mammalian model systems

2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) is the most potent congener of the dioxin class of environmental contaminants. Exposure to TCDD causes a wide range of toxic outcomes, ranging from chloracne to acute lethality. The severity of toxicity is highly dependent on the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR). Binding of TCDD to the AHR leads to changes in transcription of numerous genes. Studies evaluating the transcriptional changes brought on by TCDD may provide valuable insight into the role of the AHR in human health and disease. We therefore compiled a collection of transcriptomic datasets that can be used to aid the scientific community in better understanding the transcriptional effects of ligand-activated AHR.Peer reviewe