Electronic Thesis or Dissertation

Cryptographic algorithms are being developed and incorporated into network security protocols to provide secure communication over vulnerable mediums like the Internet. These protocols utilize secret and public key mechanisms to carry out data integrity, confidentiality, authentication, and non-repudiation.
The urge to deploy cryptosystems on low-end devices, based on the constantly growing Internet of Things (IoT) world, requires optimal design and implementation of cryptographic algorithms and protocols to achieve small communicational and computational cost, while preserving the privacy of the transmitted data. Scenarios of low bandwidth, constrained memory, and limited processing power are common when targeting embedded devices; however, security requirements are still present due to the sensitive information that may be communicated. In this thesis, we address the need for optimal cryptographic primitives implementation design in terms of computing capabilities, energy and power consumption, and memory usage to accommodate the deployment of cryptographical systems on resource-constrained devices.

This thesis analyses the foreign economic policies of the Eisenhower and Kennedy administration toward Venezuela from 1957 to 1963. By examining material from U.S. diplomatic document collections, my research intervenes in the historiography of the Alliance for Progress by demonstrating the failures of U.S. policy in Venezuela during the Latin American Cold War. Although the United States supported the democratic government of Rómulo Betancourt politically, it hamstrung his government economically. The Kennedy administration at first provided loans for economic development to Venezuela, though they quickly eliminated this aid and began prioritizing military assistance as the most efficient way of supporting Betancourt’s government. More importantly, by continually limiting imports of Venezuelan oil into the United States, both the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations hurt Venezuela’s economy and caused Betancourt to face a crisis of legitimacy as his capacity to manage the nation’s natural wealth came into question.

This research focuses on deformation constraints of honeycomb core cells in a sandwich imposed by bonds to the face sheets. Specifically, the influence of one-sided core constraints on the bending stiffness of a single-face honeycomb core sandwich is examined. To characterize the unconstrained in-plane compressive response of honeycomb core, a range of honeycomb cores was experimentally examined. Cores with a thin cell wall displayed extensive bending deformation of inclined cell walls while cores with thicker walls failed by a shear-type instability of the cells indicated by tilting of vertical cell wall segments. The modulus and compressive strength of the core were compared to the predictions from unit cell models. The results show that geometrical imperfections such as deviation from the intended cell wall angle cause in-plane anisotropy and have strong influence on modulus and strength of the core. Modulus and strength were in reasonable agreement with predictions from unit cell models for cell wall modulus and strength between 5-12 GPa and 72-171 MPa for the set of cores examined.

This study focuses on developing optimization models to estimate missing precipitation data at twenty-two sites within Kentucky State. Various optimization formulations and regularization models are explored in this context. The performance of these models is evaluated using a range of performance measures and error metrics for handling missing records. The findings revealed that regularization models performed better than optimization models. This superiority is attributed to their ability to reduce model complexity while enhancing overall performance. The study underscores the significance of regularization techniques in improving the accuracy and efficiency of precipitation data estimation.

In identifying ways to create inclusive spaces in the classroom, instructors should not be limited by singular modes of discourse to engage students. Particularly when teaching first-year students who seek to invent the university and claim their intellectual space within it, these considerations must be deeply integrated into the course curriculum and not seen as an extended project to be optional or added at the end of a semester. Rather, instructors must find ways to integrate multimodal discourses in the first-year composition course as a foundation of learning.
One way to do this is to engage students in multimodal practices of rhetorical appeals. This dissertation examines the theories and practices of emotional appeal, namely pathos, to construct meaning-making opportunities that transcend gatekeeping endeavors of singular modes of persuasion.
Through the transmission of affect, students can be given the opportunity to affectively respond through various modes of discourse in applying emotional appeal to practices of persuasion.

I examine Donna Barba Higuera’s The Last Cuentista to not only continue discourse on Latinx SF, but also extend it to Latinx Children’s SF. Barba Higuera highlights themes of colonialism and cultural erasure found within SF novels before disrupting them with a Latinx protagonist. She blends Anglo-Western tropes and themes with Latinx folklore and technology, creating a new canon that sees and treats both as important. Her work also allows for a story centered on providing hope in the face of trauma and erasure. I argue Barba Higuera disrupts the themes of racism and erasure in science-fiction and dystopian CYA and instead incorporates Latinx traditions of oral storytelling and Trickster figures with more common tropes found in CYA literature to ground readers in a potential world that is as culturally diverse as our present one.

A collection of stories exploring the intersection of queerness, latinidad, spirituality, and the generational impact of storytelling. This collection aims to examine the relationships between religion, tradition, politics, and the concept of culture as it crosses borders through a fictional mythos. Many of these stories reflect the hopes, desires, and anxieties of young Latinx individuals across the Americas while expanding and evolving the definition of Latin American literature.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is projected to triple by 2050, highlighting the urgent need for disease-modifying treatment strategies. Our gene therapy approach tackles three critical challenges: a) delivering drugs effectively to the brain and brain bioavailability of those delivered drugs, b) intervening early in the disease process to prevent progression into nonreversible stages, and c) managing the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) that significantly impact patients and caregivers. Our non-invasive ocular delivery system effectively delivered therapies to CNS as indicated by the localization of those transcribed genes and translated protein products in different brain regions, including the hippocampus, cortex, dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, red nucleus, and pontine nucleus This approach could overcome the limitations of traditional drug delivery methods for neurological diseases. In a 3xTg AD mouse model of AD, we evaluated the efficacy of Choline Acetyltransferase (ChAT) gene therapy on early disease progression. A single treatment improved impaired memory functions such as cognitive flexibility, memory extinction and working memory, reduced amyloid beta oligomers and phosphorylated tau protein levels, and enhanced mitochondrial dynamics through the regulation of fusion, fission and mitophagy. Additionally, ChAT gene therapy modulated apoptosis, inflammation and the activity of microglia and astrocytes in parts through the activation of AKT. These findings suggest ChAT gene therapy's potential to slow or prevent AD
progression if administered early in the disease course.

Animalization is a creative nonfiction manuscript comprised of essays which are able to stand on their own, yet gain complexity as they inform one another. Each essay epitomizes the narrator’s attempt to reconcile with emotional instability, self-destructive behaviors, dangerous relationships, the ethics of who has to suffer, and a masochistic brain disorder. This manuscript follows its narrator’s young life as she attempts to understand herself through lived experience, as well as the lives of some extroadinary family members. The narrator’s lifelong fascination with animals supports her desire to understand pain as an applied ethical consideration and an enactment.

On August 11, 1868, Thaddeus Stevens died. He left behind him an unfinished and unjust nation. In his 76 years, he attempted to articulate a vision of American society as a raceblind meritocracy where the rights of individual citizens were safeguarded by a state they directed in common regardless of race, class, or gender. This thesis traces the intellectual path Stevens blazed through politics, economics, and religion as he tried to craft a version of American liberalism equal to the fundamental problems of racism and economic inequality exposed by the Civil War, also treating his unorthodox personal and religious lives. It concludes with a survey of radical remembrances and reassessments of Stevens by activists seeking to follow in his footsteps and remold American society between the counter-revolution of 1877 and the appearance of Eric Foner's revisionist opus Reconstruction: Americas Unfinished Revolution.