Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2021, Chemistry

This dissertation will focus on the use of multidimensional mass spectrometry (MS) techniques for the characterization of complex polymeric materials and mixtures, especially of samples that are impossible or difficult to characterize by other analytical methods. The research can be separated into two categories; applying separation techniques and mass spectrometry to polymeric mixtures, and using atmospheric solids analysis probe (ASAP)-MS for the analysis of cross-linked polymeric networks. Poly-glycidyl phenyl ether (PGPE) samples synthesized via zwitterionic ring opening polymerization by the Grayson Research Group (Tulane University) were initially analyzed using matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) MS. Although able to confirm the presence of linear products, MALDI-MS was unable to distinguish between the tadpole and cyclic products, both of which are produced by back-biting reactions and are structural isomers. To overcome this problem, ultraperformance reversed-phase liquid chromatography interfaced with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) was employed. These experiments showed that the tadpole isomer elutes before the cyclic structure due to the increased polarity associated with a free hydroxyl end group on the tadpole tail. The achieved separation showed that the ratio of tadpole to cyclic species increases with each repeat unit. These results agree with the synthetic predictions, as the potential for forming tadpole structures by back-biting should increase with increased polymer chain length. Once separated, the two isomers could be independently analyzed by tandem mass spectrometry. The cyclic and tadpole species exhibit unique fragmentation patterns and include structurally diagnostic fragments for each structure. The importance in these peaks lies in their ability to provide information about the tadpole to cyclic ratio, without the need for inline separation techniques prior to MS. Surfactants are co (open full item for complete abstract)

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2020, Antioch New England: Marriage and Family Therapy

As the dynamics of the United States' social landscape shifts in relation to the diversity of culture, ethnicity, values, and traditions, and as religion and spirituality have become highly diverse and fluid, diversity in spirituality has received limited attention in the field of marriage and family therapy. Utilizing an interpretative phenomenological analysis, this qualitative investigation explores common meanings and experiences of emotional intimacy of couples in heterosexual relationships where there are differences in spirituality. Overall, the results of this investigation demonstrate that in situations where heterosexual couples who display differences in spirituality attentively attuned to their individual and relational needs, their emotional intimacy satisfaction was enhanced; in situations where couples' attentiveness to their spirituality and religious differences was undermined, their individual needs suffered, and their emotional intimacy was impeded. Furthermore, this study shows that it is not so much the differences in the contents of spiritual beliefs between spouses in married relationships that determine the direction of their emotional intimacy satisfaction but their shared or divergent values on spirituality. Clinical implications for therapists are provided alongside study limitations and recommendations for future research.

PHD, Kent State University, 2020, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

Educational institutions, at all levels, must justify their use of placement testing and confront questions of their impact on students' educational outcomes to assure all stakeholders that students are being enrolled in courses appropriate with their ability in order to maximize their chances of success (Linn, 1994; Mattern & Packman, 2009; McFate & Olmsted III, 1999; Norman, Medhanie, Harwell, Anderson, & Post, 2011; Wiggins, 1989). The aims of this research were to (1) provide evidence of Content Validity, (2) provide evidence of Construct Validity and Internal Consistency Reliability, (3) examine the item characteristics and potential bias of the items between males and females, and (4) provide evidence of Criterion-Related Validity by investigating the ability of the mathematics placement test scores to predict future performance in an initial mathematics course. Students' admissions portfolios and scores from the mathematics placement test were used to examine the aims of this research. Content Validity was evidenced through the use of a card-sorting task by internal and external subject matter experts. Results from Multidimensional Scaling and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis revealed a congruence of approximately 63 percent between the two group configurations. Next, an Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to investigate the underlying factor structure of the mathematics placement test. Findings indicated a three factor structure of PreCalculus, Geometry, and Algebra 1, with moderate correlations between factors. Thirdly, an item analysis was conducted to explore the item parameters (i.e., item difficulty, and item discrimination) and to test for gender biases. Results from the item analysis suggested that the Algebra 1 and Geometry items were generally easy for the population of interest, while the PreCalculus items presented more of a challenge. Furthermore, the mathematics placement test was optimized by removing eleven items from the Algebra 1 factor (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2020, Chemistry

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have emerged in recent years as one of the most promising materials for solution-processed electronics and optoelectronics including solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LED) and field-effect transistors (FET). Combining the rigid inorganic framework with soft organic materials, these hybrid perovskites provide the opportunity for investigating organic-inorganic interactions at the molecular scale. This MS thesis summarizes studies on organic-inorganic hybrid lead halide perovskites to date, explores PSCs device fabrications and then conducts the synthesis targeting at a new lower-dimensional perovskite incorporating azobenzene. This thesis is organized by exploring the functions of organic cations ranging from structural building block (chapter 2), PSCs device fabrication progress (chapter 3) to the synthesis of azobenzene perovskite (chapter 4). To start the work, experiments were first repeated following established procedure. Then based on these practices, efforts were contributed to new material synthesis. In this process, challenges and problems were tried to be solved and rationalized by various techniques. Finally, synthetic strategy was proposed and conducted based on the rationalized motivation, proposing potential solutions or producing new chemical compounds for found problems.

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2019, Statistics

The adjustment of students to a school environment is fundamentally linked to the friendship networks they form with their peers. Consequently, the complete picture of a student' adjustment can only be obtained by taking into account both their friendship network and their reported perceptions of the school environment. However, there is a lack of flexible statistical models and methods that can jointly analyze a social network with an item-response data matrix. In this paper, we propose an extended latent space model for heterogeneous (multimodal) networks (LSMH) and its extension LSMH-I, which combine the framework of latent space modeling in network analysis with item response theory in psychometrics. Using LSMH, we summarize the information from the social network and the item responses in a person-item joint latent space. We use a Variational Bayesian Expectation-Maximization estimation algorithm to estimate the item and person locations in the joint latent space. This methodology allows effective integration, informative visualization and prediction of social networks and item responses. We apply the proposed methodology to data collected from 16 third-grade classrooms comprised of 451 third-grade students' self-reported friendships and school liking, which were collected as part of the Early Learning Ohio project. Through the person-item joint latent space, we are able identify students with potential adjustment difficulties and found consistent connection between students' friendship networks and their well-being. We believe that using LSMH, researchers will be able to easily identify students in need of intervention and revolutionize the the understanding of social behaviors.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Psychology/Industrial-Organizational

Situational judgement tests (SJTs) became popular selection instruments in the last three decades, due to their predictive validity, small subgroup differences, and high face validity. However, although SJTs have made a significant progress in the last century, there still remains a construct problem – it is not sure whether SJTs are a construct or a measurement method. In addition, almost in parallel to the advancement of SJTs, a new theory for scoring and testing has been developed – item response theory (IRT). IRT offers researchers and practitioners flexible models that fit various types of data and can be used to score tests and questionnaires and to learn about their psychometric qualities. In addition, some IRT models offer us a unique method to score multidimensional tests, which assess more than one construct. This study attempts to apply different IRT models to a leadership SJT in order to answer two main questions: one, is SJT a construct or a measurement method? And two, can IRT-based scoring benefit us in terms of validity and reducing subgroup differences over the classical scoring approaches? These questions were tested on three samples of Israeli soldiers who went through a selection process for officers' training school and had to take a leadership SJT as part of it. The results of this study suggest that the picture is more complicated than it was originally thought. It appears that IRT has value over classical test theory (CTT) only for some samples, whereas CTT has more value in other samples. In regard to the construct vs. measurement method debate, it appears that multidimensional IRT models better fit the SJT that was used in this study, a testimony that sides with the SJT as a measurement method camp. Future research and limitations are discussed at the end of the manuscript.

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2018, Chemistry

This dissertation focuses on the use of multidimensional mass spectrometry to analyze amphiphilic systems. Mass spectrometry (MS) is coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), liquid chromatography (LC), as well as ion mobility (IM) spectrometry. Ion mobility was used to derive experimental collisional cross sections which probe molecular size and shapes; where as molecular dynamics simulations were used to calculate theoretical cross sections which were compared with the experimental results in order to determine the shape of polymers. Chapter II details the history and basic principles of mass spectrometry, ion mobility, and liquid chromatography. Chapter III details the instrumentation and materials used in this dissertation. Chapter IV discusses the analysis of thermoresponsive polyester copolymers. Two amino acid-based monomers were combined in differing ratios and the incorporation of each into the polymer chain was studied. Matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) were used to analyze the comonomer composition of the polymer chain. MS/MS was used to determine the sequence of monomers in the polymer chain. Ion mobility mass spectrometry (IM-MS) was used to confirm the macrocyclic formation of oligomers. Chapter V investigates the complexation of flavone dyes and serum albumin proteins. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and a BSA-flavone based dye complex were investigated using native MS to determine the stoichiometry of the complex. After confirming the occurrence of complexation with BSA, the flavone dye was complexed with human serum albumin (HSA) and the adduct exhibited the same properties as the BSA-flavone dye complex. The complexes of several other flavone dyes with HSA were also examined to determine the stociometric binding ratio. Chapter VI investigates the structure of polyglycerol. Multiple hyperbranched p (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2017, Counseling Psychology

Black women experience several unique influences on their wellness and mental health symptoms, including gendered-racism, religion/spirituality, cultural beliefs, controlling images/stereotypes, and gendered-racial identity. Counseling psychologists are called to recognize these individual and sociocultural influences on clients, viewing clients holistically and within their cultural context. This study explored how psychological well-being and optimal beliefs related to Black women's gendered-racial identity and mental health symptoms. This study also assessed the factor structure of Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-being measure for Black women and identified a suitable two-factor structure for this sample. Across qualitative and quantitative results, optimal beliefs contributed uniquely to Black women's definition of wellness. Liberation/empowerment, an optimal worldview, trusting relationships, and confidence to manage future challenges were related to fewer mental health symptoms in this sample. Study results also clarified that Black women who have high private regard and whose gendered-racial identity is central to their self-concept endorse trusting relationships and optimal beliefs as central components of their wellness. These results suggest counseling psychologists must move beyond multicultural knowledge to engage in social justice action that creates liberation for Black women and challenges the suboptimal system currently in place in dominant society. Taking such action and enacting social justice is necessary to decrease the mental health disparities experienced by Black women and to be an ally in their empowerment.

Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.), Xavier University, 2017, Psychology

Attitudes and behaviors related to drive for muscularity have been associated with use of anabolic steroids and engagement in risky exercise and dieting behaviors (Olivardia, Pope, Borowiecki, & Cohane, 2004; Parent & Moradi, 2011). However, the risk factors for drive for muscularity are not well defined in the literature. Previous studies have yielded inconsistent and limited results, and thus, the present study sought to clarify risk factors of drive for muscularity in a sample of college men. Male college students (N = 99) completed online surveys measuring drive for muscularity, self-objectification, internalization of societal body ideals, and multidimensional perfectionism. The results of the standard multiple regression were significant, indicating that the combination of predictors significantly predicted drive for muscularity, accounting for 45.10% of the variance. Investigation of the individual predictors' contributions to the overall prediction revealed that internalization of societal male body ideals and self-objectification significantly predicted drive for muscularity. Post-hoc analyses revealed significant correlations between specific types of exercise and time spent on various media sources, with internalization and drive for muscularity. Limitations and clinical implications are discussed.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, Psychology

Psychologists routinely use item responses to estimate individuals' standing on constructs of theoretical and practical interest. However, in addition to the focal constructs, item responses may be meaningfully influenced by response styles, which are characteristic ways in which participants use rating scales. Response styles may or may not be related to the content of an item and may interfere with the accurate measurement of target constructs. This project focuses on comparing multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) from three model families: difference, divide-by-total, and IRTree models. In addition to ordinal-only models from the three families, I consider two very general models from the divide-by-total (Falk & Cai, 2016) and IRTree (Jeon De Boeck, 2016) families that allow researchers to relax the assumption that Likert-type item responses are purely ordinal. Response style models from the difference model family do not currently exist. Several research questions are addressed using a large set of responses (N = 6,714) to a Big Five personality inventory with 10 items per dimension and a 5- point Likert-type response scale: (1) Can response style models from the divide-by-total and IRTree families be fit to a single set of responses? (2) Is there evidence that response styles should be modeled or can they simply be ignored in terms of statistical model fit (AIC and BIC)? (3) How can IRTree models be extended in such a way that they become more conceptually similar to divide-by-total models for trait and response style dimensions? (4) If there is statistical evidence of response styles in the data, is there also evidence that modeling them makes a practical difference in scores on the target (Big Five) dimensions? The results of this work suggest that failing to model individual differences in extreme and (possibly) midpoint response styles may meaningfully bias expected a posteriori (EAP) scores for at least some personality dimensions. On the other (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science, University of Akron, 2017, Electrical Engineering

Radio frequency (RF) antenna array beamforming based on electronically steerable wideband phased-array apertures find applications in communications, radar, imaging and radio astronomy. High-bandwidth requirements for wideband RF applications necessitate hundreds of MHz or GHz frame-rates for the digital array processor. Systolic array architectures are often employed in multi-dimensional (MD) signal processing for linear and rectangular antenna arrays. Thus, this research used a FPGA hardware platform, the ROACH-2, which is equipped with a Xilinx Virtex-6 SX475T FPGA chip, and which is widely used in the field of radio astronomy. The research concentrated on the prospects of implementation of systolic array based MD beamformers on the ROACH-2, and on methods of extending the operating frequency to GHz range by using polyphase structures. The proposed systolic array architectures employ a differential form 2-D IIR frequency planar beam filter structure which is low in hardware utilization. The study highlights techniques that can be used to overcome the limitations of the ROACH-2 signal processing platform to achieve high operating frequencies.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1985, Graduate School

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1978, Graduate School

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1969, Graduate School

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Computer Science and Engineering

Analysis and quantification of uncertainty have become an integral part of the modern day data analysis and visualization frameworks. Varied amounts of uncertainty are introduced throughout the different stages of the visualization pipeline. While visualizing the scientific data sets, it is now imperative to provide an estimation of the associated uncertainty such that the users can readily assess the reliability of the visualization tools. Quantification of uncertainty is non-trivial for scalar data sets and this problem becomes even harder while handling multivariate and vector data sets. In this dissertation, several techniques are presented that identify, utilize and quantify uncertainty for multi-dimensional data sets. These techniques can be broadly classified into two groups: a) analysis of the existence of relationships and features and b) identification and analysis of error in flow visualization tools. The first category of studies use multivariate and ensemble datasets for analyzing relationship uncertainties. The second category of studies primarily use vector fields to demonstrate streamlines and stream surface for error analysis. In the analysis stage, we initially present an information theoretic framework towards the exploration of uncertainty in the relationships of multivariate datasets. We show that, in a multivariate system, variables can show interdependence on each other and information theoretic distance can be effectively used to find a hierarchical grouping of these variables. Using information content as the importance measure, salient variables are identified to start the variable exploration process. Specific mutual information is used for classifying the isosurfaces of one variable such that they reveal uncertainty regarding the other selected variables. Feedback from the ocean scientists establishes the superiority of this system over the existing techniques. From multivariate relationships, next we discuss the uncertainty in the rel (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Computer Science and Engineering

Recently, rapidly growing amounts of data with numerous attributes and variables arise in various areas of science, engineering, business, and others. Analysis of the multi-faceted information contained in multidimensional data sets has already led to breakthroughs in many fields and emergence of new information-based industries. Data with high dimensionality and complexity has far exceeded our human ability for comprehension without powerful tools. Visualization enhances human's understanding by organizing information in graphical display, offering the possibility of visual exploration of data for knowledge discovery and sense-making. Visual exploration strengthens human perceptual capabilities with visual interfaces to guide data navigation, actively engaging users into the exploration process to make knowledge discovery much more efficient. However, due to the increasing heterogeneity and complexity of multidimensional data, the multidimensional data space exceeds human comprehension. Novel representations are needed to display and organize data items based on the relationships of the dimensions in multidimensional data sets. Furthermore, visual analysis of multidimensional data sets often requires investigating the hidden relationships between different dimensions and specific items to understand the multi-faceted properties of the data sets. The enormous multidimensional data space complicates the search of potentially interesting relations between dimensions and data items. Powerful and versatile visualization tools are thus needed to allow users to analyze and compare complex relations and heterogeneous structures in multidimensional data for knowledge discovery and sense-making. In this dissertation, we investigate critical aspects of multidimensional data visualization and comparative analytics in assisting users in visual exploration of multidimensional data for knowledge discovery and sense-making. Specifically, we address the questions: How can we d (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Wright State University, 2016, Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology PhD

Burnout is a syndrome—composed of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment—resulting from chronic stress. The Maslach Burnout Inventory – Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS; Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996) is the most popular measure of burnout. Unfortunately, the MBI-HSS has flaws including highly correlated traits and low subscale reliabilities. I tested a bifactor model for the MBI-HSS based on the work by Meszaros, Adam, Svabo, Szigeti, and Urban (2014) using item response theory. Bifactor models specify a general factor that underlies all the items within a scale and specific factors that underlie the subscale items; also, all factors are orthogonal. I found that the bifactor model had superior fit to the traditional correlated traits. A method for decomposing item and test information in multidimensional item response theory is also introduced along with a new method of displaying the test information. Finally, I provide the scoring recommendation that only the general burnout dimension for the MBI-HSS should be reported as the subscales are unreliable.

BS, Kent State University, 2016, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Interoceptive awareness (IA), or the perception of visceral signals, plays a crucial role in healthy cognitive and affective functioning. For example, accurate perception of visceral signals has been linked to a greater ability to regulate emotions, positive reevaluation of body signals, as well as the ability to make better decisions. Traditionally, IA has been viewed as a unitary construct measured by heartbeat tracking tasks, during which individuals are asked to silently count and report the number of heart beats they experience. However, recent research suggests that there may be subtle differences in aspects of body awareness, including the way in which an individual perceives or relates to his or her own body signals. The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA), a recently developed self-report measure, is designed to capture such differences. Although the MAIA performed well when compared to other questionnaires designed to measure body awareness and showed adequate internal consistency (a = 0.65), research has yet to examine the relationship between the MAIA and behavioral measures of IA, such as the widely used heartbeat tracking task. Additionally, research has yet to examine how the heartbeat tracking task and MAIA differentially relate to measures of psychopathology. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between the MAIA and the heartbeat perception task, and their relationship to other measures of body awareness and psychopathology. Overall, measurements of reliability for the MAIA scales ranged from a = .52 to a = .89, and performance on the heartbeat perception task evidenced previously reported associations with measures of anxiety and depression symptoms. However, correlational analyses did not reveal a significant association between the MAIA and the heartbeat perception task. Furthermore, the MAIA scales (except the scales non-distracting and not-worrying) evidenced significant asso (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2015, Vision Science

The Whorfian linguistic relativity hypothesis is a highly contested model linking cognition and perception, in which substantial cultural-linguistic differences between languages are proposed, which significantly constrain in individual's perception and world view. Due to the wide variation in color naming in cultures around the world, the constraints on naming imposed by color physics and the physiology of the visual system, and the near-ubiquitous nature of color communication, color naming has often been used as a model for testing linguistic relativity effects. However, by themselves, variations in color naming cannot give any useful information about whether color perception is affected by linguistic relativity. For this reason, we used color naming in conjunction with unique hue selection and multidimensional scaling (MDS) to test for the presence of Whorfian effects related to color naming for speakers of English and Somali, a language previously shown by our lab to show great inter-individual variation in both color naming and non-lexical measures of color perception. In Experiment I we tested English subjects using a non-metric MDS paradigm with heteroluminant stimuli and found it to generally replicate fiducial orderings of stimuli in CIE UV space. Experiment II added a unique hue selection task, and English speakers' unique hue selections in this task were concordant with those obtained from previous studies. We introduced a new method of MDS data collection, the binary sort protocol, in Experiment III, which allowed us to quickly gather MDS data from English and Somali-speaking subjects. Somali color naming showed similar patterns to previous experiments by our lab, but we were unable to gather data from a sufficient variety of Somali informants to robustly test for Whorfian effects. Somali speakers' MDS maps conformed more poorly to CIE UV space than English speakers' maps, though analysis of stress indicated that Somali subjects may use two dimensio (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2015, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD

In our current age of media ubiquity and evolving technologies it's no secret that people all over the world are taking up new skill-sets and utilizing digital tools to tell stories and express themselves. Scholars in rhetoric and composition (Selfe, et al. 2012; Halbritter, 2013; Sheridan, Ridolfo & Michel, 2012) have been studying the ways digital media has allowed for rhetorical openings through the use of new media, and continue to debate how such composing affects writers both inside and outside of academic spheres. This dissertation research looks at a specific digital storytelling project, titled Hollow, to understand how residents in a small, Appalachian community are using digital tools and spaces to speak back to stereotypes and effect change in their community. These findings provide researchers and pedagogues in rhetoric and composition with a more thorough, contextualized portrait of how people are taking up and manipulating digital tools and spaces to understand their identity as citizens of a particular community and to better comprehend how they are using their new-found literacy practices to enact tangible changes in their community. Insights gained from such research can better inform us about the potential of digital tools and spaces, and how we might foster similar applications elsewhere in hopes to engage and understand the literate practices of those inside and outside of our classrooms.