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Chronic diseases and health disparities are on the rise in the United States. Along with infectious diseases and injuries, all are major contributors to the morbidity and premature mortality of the population. Additionally, healthcare costs are at an all-time high. Employing effective health communication strategies and interventions is key to facilitating the behavioral and social change necessary to improve the population’s health. Rather than using one-size-fits-all messaging to attempt to influence lifestyle changes, public health professionals should focus on tailoring communications. Customizing or tailoring health messaging can magnify the potency and efficacy of the message which may affect behavior change. Thus, it is an opportune time for public health professionals to embrace novel and creative techniques for developing more impactful health communications. This three-paper dissertation provides concrete examples of how community and public health professionals can utilize community-based participatory research (CBPR) and human-centered design (HCD) approaches to create successful messaging. Paper 1 is a scoping review of the literature providing insight into how personas, an HCD tool, have been used in public health and healthcare over the past ten years. Personas are fictional representations of consumers with common behavioral characteristics such as goals and motivations which can be used to create compelling interventions personalized for the end-user. Paper 2 is a published empirical research study which resulted in the development of four unique personas and corresponding messaging created to increase safe sleep practices in parents and caregivers of infants. Paper 3 is also an empirical research study which used concept mapping to engage neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stakeholders in generating ideas and strategies to improve the transition from NICU to home. Concept Mapping is a six-step, sequential, participatory research process using brainstorming, unstructured sorting, multidimensional scaling, and hierarchical cluster analysis to gather and analyze data. These three papers provide examples of research demonstrating how CBPR and HCD have been used successfully as standalone approaches in healthcare and public health for tailoring messaging and interventions, while also emphasizing and discussing how the approaches can be combined for a synergistic effect.

Lignin is an abundant biopolymer with significant promise due to its aromaticity. It has been targeted as a replacement for a number of petroleum-based products including adhesives, coatings, polyurethane foams, activated carbon, and carbon fibers. However, commercially available bulk lignins are too polydisperse, and contain too many residual metals from the pulping process that are detrimental to the properties of the final product. The Sequential Liquid-lignin Recovery and Purification (SLRP) process was developed by Michael Lake and John Blackburn, in collaboration with Clemson, with the intention of creating a continuous method for recovering lignin from paper-mill black liquors. Thies and co-workers have developed the Aqueous Lignin Purification with Hot Agents (ALPHA) process for taking bulk lignins (including lignin from the SLRP process) and purifying and fractionating that lignin based on molecular weight. The key advantage to both processes is that they can be carried out continuously and, therefore, can be scaled up to meet demand. This work starts with the development of a technique (under patent application) that links the liquid-phase recovery of lignin from black liquor (SLRP) to the simultaneous fractionation and purification of said lignin (ALPHA). This was accomplished by incorporating renewable organic solvents into the SLRP process, after precipitation of the liquid-lignin phase, which resulted in the formation of a second liquid–liquid equilibrium. This allowed for lignin to be continuously separated. This lignin was also shown to be an order of magnitude higher in purity than the SLRP process practiced alone. In addition to this, conditions for using the SLRP process on agricultural black liquors from a lignocellulosic biorefinery were outlined, demonstrating that SLRP can be used for a range of biomass feed streams and is not limited to Kraft black liquor from paper mills. The other byproduct from a biorefinery, lignin cake, was also investigated to see if useful lignins could be recovered from it using organic solvents. We found that high-purity lignins could be recovered in appreciable quantities, and these lignins had the potential to be converted into value-added products. Lastly, a redesign of the existing SLRP pilot plant at Clemson University was undertaken with the goal of converting the unit into a research facility, such that the effect of processing variables could be investigated in a cost-effective manner. The existing reactors were redesigned and refabricated, and a complete overhaul of the process controls was necessary to improve the automation and reliability of the pilot plant. These changes, as well as the design considerations and technical challenges encountered, are described.

Abstract: Industrial decarbonization is a critical challenge along the pathway to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at a sufficient scale and pace to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The intrinsic energy- and emissions-intensive nature of heavy industry has led to the recognition that efforts to change the profile of industrial energy use could play a major role in meeting this challenge. This concept, defined broadly as industrial energy efficiency, encompasses a category of technology solutions such as process improvements, equipment upgrades, and fuel switching within sector boundaries. These and other efficiency technologies are notable for their potential to lower industrial emissions while improving (rather than reducing) competitiveness. Robust analysis of the costs and benefits of efficiency as a comprehensive technology suite can help to overcome known barriers to adoption including poor awareness of efficiency opportunities and perceptions of high risk for efficiency investments. Understanding the impacts of efficiency can also be beneficial to policymakers by identifying effective emissions reduction pathways. The overall objective of this thesis is to develop a novel method for fully characterizing the techno-economic potential of industrial energy efficiency and in-sector fuel switching as solutions for energy savings and emissions reductions. This thesis demonstrates application of the method to the case study of the Canadian pulp and paper sector. To achieve the objective of this thesis, a technology-explicit energy and GHG emissions modelling and analysis framework was developed based on best practices for studies of energy efficiency and resource potential. The framework integrates a bottom-up sector energy model with a comprehensive database of energy efficiency technologies validated against data from actual projects in industry. Analysis of efficiency measures was linked to the sector energy model at the point of end-use secondary energy consumption, enabling more realistic representation of how efficiency technologies can impact final energy use. Technology-explicit applicability factors and iterative, cumulative analysis techniques were used to capture the expected impacts of measure overlap, interference, and diminishing returns so as to not overestimate the effects of all measures acting in parallel. Energy savings bandwidths and cost of saved energy curves were developed to characterize the energy savings potential associated with efficiency. Energy-driven GHG emissions abatement scenarios were then developed and analyzed within a Canada-wide energy and emissions model over a long-term planning horizon at both the sector and system level. Marginal GHG abatement cost curves were produced to provide insights into the most impactful and cost-effective technologies over the study period. The key findings of this work demonstrate that natural gas, biomass, and net electricity consumption in the Canadian pulp and paper sector could be reduced by 95%, 1%, and 41%, respectively, via adoption of economically viable efficiency technologies at current energy prices. Achieving this potential would significantly improve sector competitiveness by bringing it into alignment with international energy intensity benchmarks and by dramatically reducing energy costs. At current production levels, efficiency in the pulp and paper sector could reduce net demand for natural gas and electricity by 71 PJ/year and 44 PJ/year, respectively. Energy efficiency was also found to have significant potential as a tool for reducing GHG emissions. The annual GHG emissions abatement associated with economical efficiency measures was estimated to be 3.6 MtCO2e (46%) by 2030 and 4.9 MtCO2e (66%) by 2050 relative to business as usual. Accounting for the technical potential of all measures increases the abatement potential to 6.2 MtCO2e in 2050. Over the study period, energy efficiency was found to reduce cumulative sector GHG emissions by 107.6 MtCO2e (42%) through 2050 at a weighted average abatement cost of -$162/tCO2e. When considering system-level effects, the cumulative abatement rises by 44% to 155.6 MtCO2e through 2050. The results presented in this thesis provide a clear indication to industry and policymakers that energy efficiency could be the single most important technology solution to achieve emissions reduction targets at low or negative cost while enhancing pulp and paper sector competitiveness. The novel framework developed in this thesis can be adapted to any other jurisdiction or sector to produce similar insights. Further work is needed to determine how best to achieve the potential associated with industrial energy efficiency so that it can take a leading role in the transition to a prosperous low-carbon economy.

Although advanced medical technology has been progressively developed, access to quality healthcare services is still a major problem, especially in developing countries. Advanced medical technology requires enormous and expensive resources; therefore, affordable, easy to use and accessible technology could bridge the gap, improving people’s lives, and attracting venture capital investment. Moreover, it is expected that the diagnostic device market would grow exponentially, particularly for paper-based technology. As a result, technology development could promote the local economy by creating jobs. Paper-based analytical devices have been introduced and developed over the last decades. This technology has been widely used as a tool for diagnosis in fields such as environment, food quality and healthcare. Point-of-care (POC) diagnosis has attracted a great deal of attention from the research community, eventually aiming for the development of a platform that can evaluate biological markers in body fluids such as saliva and urine. Paper-based diagnostic devices make an impact because of their low cost, environmentally friendliness and biodegradability. The significant advantage of paperbased devices is the capillarity driven fluid transport through the paper network without the need for additional equipment. This thesis starts with a detailed literature review on paper-based devices. The literature review includes material selection, fundamentals, applications and design criteria, and mainly discusses the technical challenges in engineering and biochemical aspects. Additionally, this section will discuss the current research trends and perspectives of advanced technologies for enhancing assay performance. The study of wicking in paper strips predicts the flow behaviour to control fluid flow and perform programmable fluid handling tasks. An accurate model to predict flow in paper is required for designing paper-based devices. In this thesis, a novel model explains wicking in paper strips altogether with liquid absorption capacity. Based on observation, paper can store liquid in a matrix because after removing the reservoir, the fluid continues flowing. We employ the electrical circuit analogy to formulate the model. The capacitance should be included in the model because the capability to store and release charges is analogous to liquid absorption capacity in the matrix which contain and discharge the fluid. The theoretical data from the model agrees well with the experimental data obtained for wicking in paper strips in a vertical configuration. Additionally, fitting the model with experimental data confirms the critical parameters of liquid absorption capacity and capillary pressure. Considering liquid absorption capacity as a capacitance in electrical circuit analogy could elucidate the relationship between materials and wicking mechanism. Next, the thesis focuses on developing of paper-based analytical device fabrication technology that allows the defined hydrophobic pattern on paper to guide fluid along a hydrophilic path in a controlled manner. There have been many fabrication processes reported in recent decades. However, some methods using harsh chemicals result in contamination of the subsequent reagents for analytical assays. Some other techniques have complicated processes requiring expensive equipment, impractical for mass production. The subsequent study focused on a parametric fabrication of parafilm hot pressing, which is inexpensive, rapid, and straightforward. The basic concept is providing heat and pressure to melt and squeeze parafilm into the paper matrix resulting in a hydrophobic pattern defined by a laminate mask. The smallest hydrophobic barrier made by this technique is 821 um, resulting from the resolution of the laminate mask. Likewise, this study also demonstrated the suitability of paper for both physical and biochemical functions. In terms of physical function, the wicking speed on fabricated paper is slower than on non-fabricated paper because the pore could be reduced due to pressure. Diffusive mixing in 2D and 3D paperfluidics are also reported. We employed a sandwich immunological assay for biochemical functions to evaluate protein binding capacity on the paper. Demonstrating the paper device from this fabrication process is potentially applicable to analytical instrument for wicking studies and biomolecule detection. Besides investigating wicking in paper strips and the fabrication process to handle engineering challenges, biomarker detection has been studied to demonstrate diagnostic applications for the developed devices. Biomarkers used in this study include SARSCoV-2 humanised antibody and cell-derived exosomes. The readout methods implemented in this study are colourimetric, fluorescent, and electrochemical. First, we employed a paper-based colorimetric assay using the horseradish peroxidase and 3,3’,5,5’-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB)/hydrogen peroxide system. The colourimetric readout was obtained from a self-made image acquisition system and is quantified using the MATLAB program. The detection limit of SARS-CoV-2 humanised antibody assay was 9.00 ng/uL, which is lower than commercially available kits (0.112 IU/mL vs 5 IU/mL). However, the result for exosome detection encountered many challenges. Firstly, the exosome concentration may be inadequate to reach a detectable range. Secondly, high background signal resulting from non-specific binding on the platform leads to a lack of sensitivity and specificity for exosome detection. A paper-based colourimetric assay has the potential to be further developed into a point-of-care diagnostic device. Further modification of the paper may be required to promote protein binding for specific targets and prevent non-specific binding to reduce the background signal. Next, the thesis reports a paper-based immunofluorescent assay for biomarker detection using fluorophore conjugation with detecting antibodies. The fluorescent-based assay requires a specific excitation wavelength and retrieves a wavelength of emission. Fluorescent microscopy was used to observe the readout. Before, the images were processed and quantified using a MATLAB program. The assay selectively detects SARS-CoV-2 humanised antibodies spiked in PBS and healthy human serum samples. The limit of detection of the assay was 2 ng/uL (0.025 IU/mL) and 10 ng/uL (0.125 IU/mL) in PBS and human serums, respectively. This assay can detect 1010 exosome/mL obtained from cell culture media, but also faced many obstacles. First, exosome concentration prepared from cell culture media may be insufficient to reach the detectable range. Second, minimising chemical contamination could enhance assay specificity and sensitivity to prevent non-specific absorption. Therefore, a paper-based fluorescent assay could be further developed into a portable device. The light source to excite the fluorophore and to emit the signal, including an optical system, could be scaled down from fluorescent microscopy into a handheld-size device. Lastly, this thesis presents a proof-of-concept electrochemical paper-based device for biomarker detection. The paper-based device is fabricated using parafilm hot pressing, as reported previously. The electrochemical chacracterisation on paper-based carbon electrodes was thoroughly investigated using cyclic voltammetry. The detection employed a sandwich immunological assay using carbon electrodes on paper. Differential pulse voltammetry was used to observe the current response in the subsequent steps. The stepwise addition of biomolecules on paper-based carbon electrodes results in the attenuation of the current response caused by stepwise biomolecules binding on the electrode surface. The current reaction after target binding corresponds to the target concentrations. In addition, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy is utilised to affirm the validity of the assay by observing the electron transfer resistance coming from the interfacial electron transfer at the electrode surface. The assay for SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection in PBS samples detected the target concentration in the range of 10 to 100 ng/uL. The detection limit is estimated to be 9.37 ng/uL. For exosome detection prepared from cell culture media, this assay quantified the total exosome and ovarian cell-derived exosome concentration with a limit of detection of 9.3 X 10 exosomes/mL and 7.1 x 10 exosomes/mL with < 10% relative standard deviation for samples of n =3. However, the limit of detection can be enhanced by strengthening antibody immobilisation on the paper-based device and stabilising the carbon electrodes on paper to be conductive enough to sense the change of the subsequent loading of biomolecules. Our electrochemical paper-based assay could be an alternative tool for detecting diseasespecific exosomes in biological samples for point-of-care diagnosis. In conclusion, this study aims to overcome engineering and biochemical challenges posed by paper-based analytical devices. To tackle the engineering issues, a novel wicking model with consideration of liquid absorption capacity offers an alternative way to predict flow behaviour in capillary rise experiments and explain the material characteristics. Additionally, the thesis studies the fabrication parameters to control the paper-based device fabrication better using parafilm hot pressing, demonstrating the functionality of paper for both physical and biochemical applications. Regarding biochemical challenges, the thesis reports colourimetric, fluorescent, and electrochemical techniques implemented on paper-based platforms, employing a sandwich immunological assay to detect biomarkers, which include SARS-CoV-2 humanised antibody and cell-derived exosome samples. These established protocols have the potential to be further improved for automation and portability, which could be compatible with other advanced technologies such as wearable sensing devices, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Companies face the challenge of determining the return on investment of premium paper packaging features, such as substrate thickness and finishing options. If companies can better understand how consumers perceive “premium,” they could channel their focus on specific design elements and maximize their returns (Dwivedi & Nayeem, 2018). Touch is a critical factor in driving consumer behavior and purchase decisions and influencing trust between brands and consumers (Krishna et al. 2017). While previous studies have explored the impact of design elements like size, shape, color, and font on consumer behavior, this research investigates the influence of touch, substrate, print finishes (foil, emboss, and gloss), unboxing experiences of direct mail, and consumer packaged goods. The study employed three unique in-person environments, which collected participant data through eye-tracking, facial expressions analysis, touch coding, and surveys across various consumer activities. Results indicate that premium packaging generates higher engagement and positive responses from consumers in retail and at-home settings. Foil finish outperforms in the retail environment for unfamiliar CBD serum (P < 0.0001). Touch is shown to be a better predictor of sales than visual attention across multiple packaging finishes, including foil (P = 0.002), glossy (P = 0.006), embossed (P = 0.007), and no finish (P = 0.028). All participant touches were identified and coded, revealing four unique touch actions (feel, pick up, compare, put in cart). Premium paperboard packaging evokes more positive facial expressions in consumer electronics unboxing and more interaction with direct mail. Notably, prominently displaying discount codes increases consumer engagement. Direct mail results reveal that circular mail was widely perceived as recyclable, tri-folds were retained the most, while postcards were more likely to be discarded. These findings have practical implications for businesses, enabling them to optimize packaging strategies, drive consumer engagement, and promote environmentally friendly practices.

Many different graphitic materials have become integral in modern society for the past couple of decades. Advances in developing carbon fibers, graphene, and graphene oxide have improved the amount of the material that can be produced in bulk as well as improving different properties of the material such as increasing its mechanical strength carbon fiber or improving the conductivity of graphene oxide. Carbon fiber has seen use in both commercial and industrial applications ranging from electronics to fuselages, which can have impressive electrical and mechanical properties combined with its relatively low-density compared to traditional metals. Both graphene and graphene oxide have seen advances in many different areas, including high-performance sports gear, flexible electronics, and even use in space equipment. However, there is an opportunity to explore different sources to produce graphitic materials, many derived from renewable materials. Thus, finding alternative precursors to meet the demand for graphitic products, whether through renewable biomass or industrial waste, is crucial. One precursor that has gained broad attention is lignin, a byproduct of the pulp and paper industry. Lignin is one of the most common naturally occurring macromolecules derived from three different phenolic alcohols, and there has been research into developing various products from lignin, including carbon fiber. Another precursor is asphaltene, which is a byproduct of the asphalt industry. While asphaltene is not a renewable material like lignin, it has limited applications, making it a waste product. The oil industry can become more sustainable by converting the material into graphitic carbon, like graphene. In the first chapter, background information is discussed on various graphitic carbons, their applications in the market, and the potential for lignin and asphaltene to be converted into carbon fiber, graphene, and graphene oxide. Chapter II details the development of lignin-based carbon microfibers and a novel method of using different surface treatments to control the specific capacitance of the carbon fibers. Characterization showed that the specific capacitance is increased by activating the carbon and/or growing Ni(OH)2 nanocrystals on the surface. The next chapter studies a new method of producing graphene oxide (GO) from lignin using vermiculite as a scaffold. This is one of the few methods of producing graphene oxide from lignin. Various characterization techniques were performed on the material, confirming that it is graphene oxide. In addition, a reduction reaction using ascorbic acid was performed to produce reduced graphene oxide (RGO), a semiconductive material. Chapter IV investigates the usage of a unique form of lignin called alkaline lignin to develop graphene using an iron catalyst. Characterization showed that the material was graphitic and incorporated into electrospun PVDF fibers. These fibers were studied for their piezoelectric properties, where it was demonstrated that they could produce a voltage when mechanical force was applied to them. Chapter V demonstrated a novel application of asphaltene-based graphene as a filler for UV-curable resin. Mechanical analysis showed that the graphene improved the flexural properties and the thermal stability of the resin. Chapter VI contains potential future work for these projects.

In the autumn of 1506, Albrecht Dürer drew two young faces on blue paper. 92 years later, in 1598, Aegidius Sadeler II, a talented engraver hailing from Antwerp and living in Prague, set out the very same drawing (now split in two) and carved with his burin a corresponding network of lines to reproduce the heads. That first impression from the copper plates of Sadler’s engravings marks an early—if not the earliest—instance of reproductive printmaking after an already existing drawing, where the engraving reproduces another work of art originally in a different medium. Veering in the other direction, the drawing of the youthful heads connects to two separate paintings that Dürer had just completed in Venice Christ Among the Doctors and Feast of the Rose Garlands. My project considers the associations between Dürer’s drawings directed towards the future in its concern with posterity and Sadeler’s engravings that turned back on the past. These works on paper by Dürer and Sadeler map the interdependency between retrospection and a future-oriented prospection. These multi-directional aspects mobilize the possible conditions of Dürer’s endurance and intimate how that survival was engineered in advance. Sadeler’s subsequent engraving project reveals how Albrecht Dürer’s singular drawing exhibits a strange, proleptic temporality that prefigures the possibilities of its own futurity—especially in the so-called Dürer Renaissance that emerged during Sadeler’s time. Considered together, these graphic works expose what I call the prospective aspect in Dürer’s drawing to describe the way it looks forward to the possibilities of an unpredictable but nonetheless still imagined futurity. I suggest how his perdurability rests on the idea of weak networks and the multitude of ways he afforded such generative, spurring potential for an imagined future that we see now, retrospectively, in Sadeler’s prints.

The demand for entry level skilled trades workers in the pulp and paper industry has far outnumbered the supply of workers currently available in the United States. Many pulp and paper manufactures have dozens or even hundreds of unfilled high paying jobs with great benefits currently available. Concurrently to this, an available workforce of unskilled workers with little to no formal technical training remains available. These unskilled workers are frequently working in lower wage jobs with poor benefits that offer very little opportunity for advancement. This research explores and attempts to identify what is the most effective process that can be used to develop unskilled workers into entry level skilled trades workers in the pulp and paper industry. Grounded Theory qualitative research methods were utilized for this research. Expert opinions and experiences were gathered from nine seasoned individuals with maintenance leadership experience in the pulp and paper industry by conducting a series of interview questions. The data collected from the interviews were summarized into 21 different main topics of importance. These topics were further grouped into six significant themes that will help to build an effective and efficient process for skilled worker development. The potential benefits from this research and the resulting conclusions are two-fold. First, the potential of filling the employment gap for organizations, which will allow them to continue to operate profitably and be a strong economic force in communities. Second, individuals in unskilled jobs can potentially be given the opportunity for career advancement and improved financial stability.

The use of paper as a sensing platform has great potential for point-of-care diagnostics in low-resource settings. However, there is a need for approaches that enable a higher level of control and customisation of the paper properties and reduce the cost of production and immobilisation of bioreagents onto paper. This thesis explores whether introducing digital printing into papermaking in combination with the recombinant protein production of paper-binding bioreagents could provide an accessible, scalable tool for the fabrication of affordable paper-based microfluidic biosensors with customised and varying paper properties. A novel printing method based on the localised vacuum-driven filtration of fibre suspensions ('vacuum-driven printing') was explored for the direct formation and patterning of engineered paper. An analytical model based on incompressible cake filtration theory was derived to predict the final thickness of the printed paper as a function of printing parameters and showed good agreement with the experimental data. This model enabled the rational design of complex 2D paper patterns with controlled and varying thickness profile that could be formed in a single printing process. The recombinant fusion of a cellulose-binding domain (CBD) into the protein reagent enabled its one-step immobilisation and purification onto paper fibres directly from the crude lysate, significantly reducing the cost and number of downstream processing steps required for the production of the bioreagent. The specific immobilisation provided by the CBD helped retain the protein's diagnostic activity during air drying and long-term dry storage, even after four months at 20-37°C, when compared to direct physisorption of the protein reagent onto paper. The protein-bound fibres could be directly patterned with the vacuum-driven printing technique into the detection zone of a paper-based assay, forming bioactive paper. A proof-of-concept paper-based microfluidic biosensor was fabricated in a single vacuum-driven printing process, using unmodified paper fibres to form microfluidic channels of varying thickness, and protein-bound fibres to form bioactive paper at the detection zone of the assay. This research demonstrated a simplified, accessible, and lower-cost pathway to the production of paper-based biosensors with customised properties.

The emerging demands for healthcare where access is limited due to political, environmental, or socio-economic factors have been driving research into bio-medical devices that perform in both diagnostic and therapeutic roles at lower costs and greater accessibility. Paper microfluidic devices are used in many applications, particularly medical diagnostics and offer an excellent combination of utility and low cost making them particularly valuable in resource-limited applications and point-of-care usage across a wide variety environmental conditions. Microfluidic biological diagnostics continue to mature as researchers discover new ways to exploit the technological possibilities, and address liabilities. The increasing complexity of paper-based microfluidic devices beyond home pregnancy tests is driving the need to produce new tools and methodologies that enable more robust biological diagnostics and potential therapeutic applications. However, the process of developing new paper microfluidic devices is limited due to having to manually design and fabricate designs to research. Often, researchers must design scores of different devices to find a combination of parameters that functions as expected. In this work, a novel software framework to support automated development of paper-based microfluidic devices is introduced to facilitate both research and fabrication to accelerate the investigative process and reduce material utilization and manpower. Unlike to existing lab-on-a-chip technologies, paper-based microfluidics differs in terms of substrate technologies and use a passive flow method to deliver fluids and reagents for assays. While numerous analogies between microfluidics and semiconductor technologies have been espoused, the physical differences between the fluid dynamics and electrical current are significant which suggests that current trends in physical design for microfluidics must change course in order to be of practical use to designers. Within this framework, a methodology is introduced to address design automation such as dynamically placing and routing microfluidic components in a non-discrete design space while avoiding invalid design layouts, accounting for fluid volume usage, surface area utilization, and the timing required to perform specified biological assays and also optimizing device parameters, enabling researchers to focus on the science and thereby accelerating the development of new, low-resource paper microfluidic devices for a developing world.

This thesis is a study of non-objective works on paper by the German artist Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) selected from the one hundred and six original works on paper in the 'Artist Rooms' collection, owned and managed jointly by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland. It investigates ways in which works on paper that do not depict objects might be interpreted. The question of non-objectivity in Beuys's works on paper has not previously been addressed, perhaps because non-objectivity is less common in the more familiar early works, or perhaps due to the difficulty of reconciling non-objectivity with Beuys's contention that he was not an abstract artist. I show that non-objectivity and abstraction need not be equivalent, so Beuys's work can be regarded as concrete (non-abstract) even when it does not depict an object. Previous Beuys scholarship mostly uses iconological approaches, which are necessarily object-based; for non-objective works on paper an alternative is required. My approach is founded on identifying arenas of interpretation through detailed formal analysis of the works and critical appraisal of what Beuys said, combined with socio-political contextual analysis, comparison with other artists, and a study of the phenomenological effect of non-objectivity on the viewer. Beuys was well-read and well-connected, alert to the ideas of the past and of his own time. I examine Beuys's non-objective works on paper in the light of Romanticism, Expressionism, Suprematism, Neo-Plasticism, art informel, and American Minimalism, concluding that while Beuys did not align himself with these movements, he did incorporate a wide range of historical and contemporary ideas into his work. Thus, this thesis offers an approach to Beuys's non-objective works on paper through arenas of interpretation based on a distinction from abstraction, close critical attention to his works and words, the socio-political context in which he lived, resonances with the ideas of others, and the role of the viewer.

This doctoral dissertation explores the transcultural use of the material of blue paper for figure studies and figural compositions by artists working in sixteenth-century Venice and seventeenth-century Amsterdam. The research focuses on artists' use of blue paper made with blue fibres, or that which is coloured blue during its production, rather than neutral papers that are prepared with a coloured wash. Blue paper provided a readily available mid-tone and its texture allowed friable drawing implements like chalk and charcoal to be absorbed into the paper at varying degrees. This interplay contributed to the achievement of rilievo, or the ability to model three-dimensional forms in space on a flat surface. Understanding the broader artistic, cultural, and theoretical frameworks that led to the employment of blue paper in these two centres of commercial and artistic exchange is central to our understanding of the material's role in early modern artistic practice, as well as to our interpretations of the drawings themselves. Through object-based, technical, and archival research, as well as analyses of contemporary texts on art, this research is inherently interdisciplinary in examining the significance of the role of blue paper in Italian and Dutch artistic practice and stylistic development.

In a comparative forensic analysis, an examiner can report that a physical fit exists between two torn or separated items when they realign in a manner unlikely to be replicated. Due to the common belief that it is unlikely that two unrelated fractured objects would match with distinctive characteristics, a physical fit represents the highest degree of association between two items. Nonetheless, despite the probative value that this evidence could have to a trier of fact, few studies have demonstrated such assumptions' scientific validity and reliability. Moreover, there is a lack of consensus-based standard protocols for physical fit comparisons, making it difficult to demonstrate the basis for the features that constitute a “fit.” Since these analyses rely entirely on human judgment, they are highly subjective, which could be problematic in the absence of harmonized examination and interpretation criteria protocols. As a result, organizations like the National Institute of Justice and NIST-OSAC have identified the need for developing standardized methods and assessing potential error sources in this field. This research aims to address these gaps as applied to physical fits of textiles and paper. Here, standard criteria and prominent features for each material are defined to conduct physical fit examinations in a more reproducible manner. Additionally, a quantitative metric is used to quantify what constitutes a physical fit when conducting comparative analyses of textiles and paper, further increasing the validity and reliability of this methodology and providing a manner of assessing the weight of this evidence when presented in the courtroom. The first aim of this research involved the development of an objective and systematic method of quantifying the similarity between fractured textile samples. This was done by identifying relevant macroscopic and microscopic characteristics in the comparative analysis of a fractured textile dataset. Additionally, factors that affect the suitability of certain types of textiles for physical fit analysis were evaluated. Finally, the systematic score metric was implemented to quantify and document the quality of a physical fit and estimate error rates. The second objective of this study consisted of establishing the scientific foundations of individuality concerning the orientation of microfibers in fractured paper edges. In comparative analysis of paper, it is assumed that the microfibers deposited across the surface of paper are randomly oriented, a key feature for addressing the individuality of paper physical fits. However, this hypothesis has not been tested. This research evaluated the rarity and occurrence of microfiber alignments on fractured documents. It also quantified the comparative features of scissor-cut and hand-torn paper and the respective performance rates. Finally, the comparative analysis of textile and paper physical fits was validated through ground truth datasets and inter-examiner and intra-examiner variability studies. A ground truth blind dataset of known fits and known non-fits was created for 700 textile samples with various fiber types, weave patterns, and separation methods. Also, a set of 260 paper items, including 100 stamps and 160 office paper samples, were examined. The paper specimens contained handwritten or printed entries on two paper types and were separated by scissor-cut or hand-torn methods. This proposed research provides the criminal justice system with a valuable body of knowledge and a more objective and methodical assessment of the evidential value of physical fits of textiles, paper, and postage stamps.

The document “From the Paper to the Stars” is a concise Thesis evoking the powerful art of literature. The first section is constructed to a minimal recount of the author's past when the spark for writing began in a preschool classroom, followed by inspiration from great authors (J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, to name a few) instilling a purpose to write as a commission to the Lord. The critical evaluation showcases the research of certain fiction, or fantasy, is rooted in mythological ideological reputation. However, such a genre is shown to be a tool for Christian writers to illustrate the beautiful wonder of God. The follow-up is insight toward the conceptualization of any novel's setting based on the individual's belief relating to a specific universal module. Then it evaluates the creationist theory concerning the ether (fabric of the universe), utilized to establish as the specific module forming the core physic laws within the Manuscript's universe. A final investigation is an approach to indicate parallels between idols and deities of the bygone era to demons of the bible and how such fiends have taken new forms in the modern world. The Creative Manuscript is the culmination of years of refining thoughts meant to act as more than a mere story for the amusement of masses to escape into, but an outlet for any of an audience to experience the first steps to the Lord. The Manuscript centers around a young man's journey, Andrew Reagan. A boy plagued with anxiety freshly graduates high school and is immediately taken up and met by a divine being. Accepting a commission, he receives a suit of magical armor. Later travelers arrive in a space vessel and ferry Andrew off the earth, where betrayal strikes and leads Andrew to be stranded in a distant realm. There he encounters a mysterious guardian who claims to have waited for Andrew's arrival. Those two embark on an odyssey across worlds of sea, glass, and darkness. Across his travels, Andrew learns of a galactic enemy bent on the domination and death of all free people; all the while, his fate is connected to the universal kingdom known as the Auroran Templar. This excerpt is a form of evangelization in the Great Commission, not catering to any specific group but invoking that childhood desire for heroism and triumph over evil.

The Potato Famine Paper illuminates a document written and passed down by eight separate members of a Catholic Irish-American family. Over a thousand years of history and culture have been studied and compiled in order to create an edition of handmade books of that document. Various processes of printmaking, papermaking, bookmaking, lettering, and painting have been used to preserve this document in a style inspired by Insular illuminated manuscripts as well as contemporary illustrated books.

The rise of global value chains (GVCs) has become the new reality of international trade and investment in the 21st century. This dissertation presents new arguments and methods based on the development of GVCs to understand the evolution of global trade governance, in particular the growing presence of non-trade regulatory provisions in preferential trade agreements (PTAs). The first paper develops a theory of domestic preferences over the regulatory provisions in PTAs. The paper finds that firms integrated into GVCs, as opposed to firms insulated from GVCs, heavily engage in harmonizing regulatory environments across countries through PTAs. The second paper connects the negative externalities of deep PTAs with GVCs to explain the proliferation of regulatory provisions in PTAs. The findings of the paper suggest that countries most exposed to the discriminatory effects of deep PTAs by other countries are more likely to form countering deep PTAs. The third paper addresses the problem of mapping out the packages of economic policies countries adopt to engage the global economy. Using unsupervised machine learning methods, the paper finds that countries fall under five distinct clusters based on how they strategize policy sets for global economic engagement. The paper then applies the learned clusters to understand the role of regime type – democracy or non-democracy – in the choice among these alternative strategies.

In scientific writing, retrieving, summarizing, and citing relevant papers is necessary but usually time-consuming. Recent research in natural language processing (NLP) has explored the use of neural networks to recommend, summarize and cite papers automatically. However, the following challenges remain before applying these NLP techniques to help authors write scientific articles. First, the rapidly growing volume of available scientific literature has raised the demand for accuracy and efficiency in recommending citations. Second, the length of scientific articles requires high memory efficiency in the summarization model, so long articles do not need to be truncated when summarizing them. Third, the generation of citation sentences needs to be well-controllable to allow authors to direct the generation as they wish. In addition, there is a lack of an integrated system that allows users to search for papers, obtain paper summaries, and get suggested citation sentences to cite them, all in a one-stop shop. In this thesis, we aim to develop an integrated system for joint paper retrieval, summarization, and citation generation, which consists of the following four parts. In the first part, to balance speed and accuracy, we propose a two-stage citation recommendation system that first prefetches K candidate papers by embedding-based K-nearest neighbor search and then reranks the prefetched papers with a fine-tuned SciBERT. In the second part, we develop a reinforcement learning-based sentence extraction model that summarizes a document by iteratively scoring sentences based on the extraction history (e.g., which sentences were selected) and selecting the highest-scoring sentence. Moreover, the lightweight structure allows our model to summarize long scientific articles efficiently and surpass previous state-of-the-art BERT-based extractive summarizers. In the third part, we propose a controllable citation generation model that users can control by specifying citation attributes. We define the citation attributes as the intent of the citation (e.g., to introduce context or to compare results), the keywords that the user expects to appear in the citation or the specific sentences in the body of the cited paper that are most relevant to the expected citation sentences. In the final part, we integrate the subsystems for paper retrieval, summarization, and citation generation into a convenient user interface that displays recommended papers, extracted summaries of recommended papers, and abstractively generated citation sentences that are consistent with the context and selected keywords. Our work is a step toward applying NLP techniques to help authors write academic papers in real-life scenarios and one of the early attempts at artificial intelligence (AI)-driven scientific inference.

Sport nutrition is a fast growing discipline within sport science with many sports team now employing a sport nutritionist on either a full or part time basis. Despite this growth in the discipline, and a resultant abundance of sport nutrition literature, often the literature can be inappropriately implemented in practice or even worse ignored. This is particularly dangerous in sport nutrition given the risks to health, performance and the anti-doping risks inherent in the sport nutrition discipline. To help the sport nutritionist in practice we initially developed a framework termed 'Paper to Podium (Chapter 1). This framework then provides the basis of the thesis by presenting operational guidance for practitioners to critically evaluate the translational potential of sport nutrition research to practice and provide a time efficient protocol for practitioners to appraise research and inform practice. Once the framework had been developed, this thesis via publication splits into two main themes based upon two major roles of the Sports Nutritionist in applied practice. The first theme, presented in Chapter 2, is based around current tools for measuring energy intake, energy expenditure and body composition and resulted in 4 publications. The first publication demonstrates that the practical ways in which applied practitioners often estimate energy intake is not necessarily a valid or reliable measure in practice, despite the experience of the practitioner or the simplicity of the meal. This was particularly timely given the growing use of the term 'Gold Standard' to describe the 'Snap-n-Send' method. The second manuscript focusses upon the estimation of energy expenditure in free living athletes. Here we utilise a joint measure of heart rate and accelerometery to assess the energy requirements of golf, as previous research had failed to do this accurately. We found that prior literature significantly over-estimated the energy expended across a round of golf suggesting a MET value in excess of that reported during jogging. This manuscript highlighted the importance of using the most appropriate measurement tool in as close to real conditions as possible as well as highlighting the dangers associated with poor measurement techniques and is already being used to prescribe more accurate diets to elite professional golfers. The third publication focusses upon the assessment of body composition within an applied model using a weight-making athlete. Here we observed large discrepancies in body composition data dependent on the selected assessment method. Specifically, we found that some methods (e.g. DEXA) were more effected than others (skinfold thickness) during acute and chronic weight loss and rapid regain. This observation led to the fourth publication in this chapter, which involved a review of the available methods for measuring body composition in practice including novel insights from DEXA scans on professional athletes. Publications derived from Theme 1 had a number of practical implications, such as informing CPD sessions of sporting organisations for their practitioners, direct changes to practitioner planning of nutritional interventions, and changes to the body composition collection practices, especially for larger athletes or those where ideal operating conditions could not be controlled. Having assessed and appraised some of the field field-based tools available to nutrition practitioners, theme 2 provides guidance on supplementation practices and procedures for applied practitioners (Chapter 3) and resulted in a further 5 publications. Advice surrounding supplementation is required by nutritionists daily, however due to the stigma surrounding supplementation, a growing 'food-only' approach is being advocated by many organisations, where supplementation is deemed somewhat taboo. The first publication provides a commentary to introduce a 'food-first but not food-only' framework for advising supplements to athletes and forms the basis of the resultant papers in this chapter. The second publication investigates a common practice reportedly used by both team sport athletes to avoid bloating as well as well as weight-making athletes aiming to 'train-low'. This study used the 'Paper to Podium' Framework to design an ecological model to test the hypothesis that carbohydrate mouth rinse combined with caffeine had a benefit on decrements to performance that athletes may experience when restricting carbohydrates or fluids. The third publication investigates another practice that many athletes commonly participate in, oral nicotine use (e.g. snus). As such, we felt the need to produce a short review with the aim of educating athletes and support staff as to the current landscape of oral tobacco use in sport. We highlight the lack of data on snus and that the data available suggests detrimental effects to health and performance and therefore should not be advised in practice. Contrary to snus, cannabidiol (CBD) is a supplement that has a number of proposed benefits, however, although observed first- hand by authors, it was important to first review its prevalence within sport. The fourth article presented within this theme assesses the prevalence, awareness of inadvertent doping, and rationale for CBD use in rugby. We found that players supplemented with CBD in a quest for pain relief despite the apparent risk of inadvertent doping. As the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) prohibits all cannabinoids other than CBD, we thought it pertinent to understand the effects of the whole cannabinoid profile on performance. The final publication of the thesis concentrates on reviewing the existing evidence for the physiological effects of cannabis, THC and CBD on sporting performance. The manuscripts presented in Theme 2 have been used in a number of key note conference addresses educating academics and practitioners, adopted by organisations to form the basis of position stands, and applied directly within the elite sporting environment. Having set the goal of answering some of the key questions that arise daily within applied practice, I can reflect that this novel approach to conducting a PhD allowed me to focus on answering these key sport-nutrition questions, whilst also guiding other practitioner's, researcher's and student's practice. Taken together, the publications presented within the current thesis have helped shape applied practice, educate practitioners and academics, and have had direct impact within the real-world of elite sport in a number of ways highlighted throughout. There is a need for 'fast' research and Researcher-Practitioners based predominantly in applied environments as these publications can often help bridge the gap between science and practice.

In recent years, the growing popularity of NPS within the prison system has contributed to the increase in violence, psychotic episodes and self-harm, undermining the rehabilitation of prisoners. A systematic literature review on the detection of NPS in prison settings was carried out to establish an understanding of current research in the field. MEDLINE, Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science databases and the grey literature were consulted in line with the PRISMA-S guidelines leading to the identification of 50 articles which met the inclusion criteria. Findings showed that the most prevalent NPS class reported in prison was synthetic cannabinoids mainly deposited on paper matrices and smuggled through the postal services. Laboratory-based techniques i.e., LC-HRMS/MS and GC-MS were predominantly employed for the detection of NPS. The IMS was the only technique used for in-field analysis, highlighting a gap in knowledge for specific and selective in-field analytical techniques for such samples. Therefore, the aim of the thesis was the development of an extraction method of psychoactive substances from paper samples which can be used to facilitate the development of a minimally invasive, highly sensitive, in-field detection technique of psychoactive substances on such samples. Basic extraction properties of paper impregnated with psychoactive substances were investigated to gain knowledge of the process and the percentage recovery using traditional analytical techniques such as LC-UV-Vis and UPLC-PdA-QDa-MS. An extraction method using simulated paper samples impregnated with paracetamol employed as a model substance was optimised and led to the extraction of 80.1 ± 0.7% of paracetamol, over two consecutive extractions. The extraction method was then applied to simulated paper samples impregnated with a ternary mixture of caffeine + cocaine + THJ-018 and the percentage recovery was calculated at 74.7 ± 1.3%, over one extraction. Qualitative analysis of a seized paper sample from prison was carried out to gain insight into the concentration found on such samples, using corroborative analytical techniques i.e., HPLC-PdA-QDa-MS, GC-MS, and NMR, leading to the identification of 5F-ADB. Following up, 5F-ABD was found on another seized paper sample from prison from the same evidence bag as the previous one and was quantified using an optimised and validated UPLC-PdA-QDA-MS method. Concentrations of 5F-ADB calculated on 39 subunits of the sample after three consecutive extractions ranged between 0.00026-0.055 mg/cm2. Furthermore, the percentage recovery of 5F-ADB from simulated paper samples (n=15) was calculated at three concentrations (C1=20 µL of 1 mg/mL, C2=50 µL of 0.1 mg/mL and C3=10 µL 0.1 mg/mL) over five consecutive extractions, this was found to be 98.7 ± 0.8%. A matrix effect study evaluating five paper matrices impregnated with 5F-ADB was performed, the low RSD calculated over the measurement for each type of paper was of suggested that no matrix effect arises when quantifying 5F-ADB on these specific types of samples. A PCA model was developed to understand if Raman spectra of psychoactive substances and cutting agents/adulterants i.e., 5F-PB-22, amphetamine, benzocaine, caffeine, cocaine, diazepam, and paracetamol, as a single neat reference standard, as neat binary mixtures and as soaked or pipetted on simulated paper samples, could have been discriminated. Good discrimination could be achieved between the spectra of neat psychoactive substances and related adulterant/cutting agents reference standard analysed. Discrimination using PCA of the Raman spectra of mixtures of psychoactive substances and related adulterant/cutting agents reference standard has been proved challenging due to the impact of the orientation of oscillations of light waves of the excitation laser irradiating the molecules and the different Raman scattering properties of the compounds in the mixtures. While most of the paper samples impregnated with psychoactive substances and related adulterant/cutting agents formed a 'mega cluster' in the scores plot near the BP samples, due to the paper background present in the spectra. However, observation of Raman spectra of such samples showed potential for their discrimination. For instance, when the line plot of the psychoactive substances i.e., 5F-PB-22, amphetamine, cocaine and diazepam reference standard pipetted on the simulated paper samples at five concentrations and collected using Raman Rigaku were examined characteristic peaks of the related reference standard were visible at the highest concentration e.g., 5F-PB-22 pipetted on paper at 20 and 15 mg/mL; cocaine pipetted on paper at 60, 40, 35 and 30 mg/mL. Finally, a minimally invasive extraction of 5F-PB-22 from simulated paper samples using agar gel was developed and optimised using Design of Experiments techniques. This was performed to facilitate the development of a minimally invasive, highly sensitive, in-field NPS detection technique. The screening phase performed using a 25 full-factorial design led to the selection of two statistically significant factors in the process i.e., agar concentration and sonication time. The optimisation phase was then carried out using a two-factor CCD, in which the maximum of the AUC was sought. This identified the optimum agar concentration and sonication time at 2% and 10.95 min, respectively. The extraction time, weight applied, and extraction number were fixed at 120 sec, 85 grams, and 2 extractions, respectively. The model was successfully validated by running five confirmation experiments using the same parameters as the optimised conditions. A 99.67% increase in the extraction of 5F-PB-22 from simulated paper samples was achieved (unoptimised vs. optimised process 1.20 ± 0.09% vs. 2.36 ± 0.19%). Furthermore, the optimised extraction method has also been successfully applied to a seized paper sample known to contain 5F-ADB.

Cost effectiveness is one of the crucial key factors driving the shipping and trading industry. Nowadays global trade involves multiple parties and sectors across international borders, and numerous paper transport documents, such as paper bills of lading (pBLs), are handled and disseminated around the world. With the advent of digital technology, electronic solutions are arguably ripe for the replacement of pBLs. The key benefits of using an electronic bill of lading have long been identified as the speed of transfer, the avoidance of external costs and removal of need to use Letters of Indemnity. As an alternative to the transfer of physical endorsements, electronic bills of lading (eBLs) are processed and transferred automatically by a computer system that constructs the information electronically using agreed standards. However, the journey of promoting eBLs is not all smooth sailing. Despite the growing number of private and public projects and initiatives during the past 40 years, the maritime world has yet seen the dawn of the electronic age. On the contrary, pBLs remain a staple in international trade, despite years of criticism over delays, costs and security risks. This thesis seeks to identify the underlying reasons for the stagnation in the development of this key legal document. It will demonstrate that, apart from the technical challenges, the real impediment to a true replacement of the pBL is the formidable legal challenges in reproducing the three principal functions of the antique paper-based trade document, for which the existing paperless implementations have failed to provide anything but a piecemeal solution. In coming to this finding, the thesis will also examine the effectiveness of the various legislative efforts, both nationally and internationally, to address the legal issues identified in the thesis. Finally, the author will attempt to speculate on the trends and prospects of the evolution of eBLs in the light of the observations submitted in the thesis.

A bank under a letter of credit transaction is always expected to become a pledgee on the goods which are the subject of the transaction by holding the related bills of lading. However, the process of creating a pledge in a letter of credit transaction is much more complicated than a mere delivery of a bill of lading, and there are many inherent factors that might impair a bank's ability to become a pledgee on bills of lading. These factors are deeply associated with the mechanism of letters of credit and the characteristics of bills of lading. Some of these factors were identified in the authorities in decades ago; but since then, they have been overlooked by both English courts and academia; meanwhile, some have been being misunderstood for many years. These factors have existed as a risk to a bank's security for a long time and would continue to act as a threat when paper bills of lading are replaced by electronic bills of lading (eB/Ls). This thesis aims to identify these factors and examine the impacts thereof on bank's position under letter of credit transactions. Also, it evaluates how the usage of eB/Ls to replace paper bills of lading will change the bank's position, especially in the occurrence of the factors mentioned above; last but not least, it proposes suggestions for lawmakers to address the risks brought by these factors, in the context of both the paper world and the digital world. Through examining each stage of pledging a bill of lading associated with the performance of the parties in a sale of goods transaction, the thesis identifies the following factors that affect (or are assumed to affect) a bank's security under a letter of credit: first, goods have been discharged before a sellers' tender of bills of lading; secondly, the ownership in the goods has passed to buyers before sellers' tender of bills of lading; thirdly, sellers have not intended to transfer constructive possession to banks through their transfer of bills of lading or sellers have not indorsed their bills of lading properly (if necessary) to banks; fourthly, buyers fraudulently dispose of the pledged bills of lading, which are previously redelivered by banks against a trust receipt. From the detailed discussion on these factors, it concludes that banks' position under letter of credit transactions is less secured than it appears and that the impact of the replacement of paper bills of lading with eB/Ls on banks' position will vary depending on types of electronic-bills-of-lading platforms used. To deal with these factors, the thesis proposes that more certainty and clarity in the law are necessary, especially the law of bills of lading as well as the law of pledge; moreover, more preparation in legal infrastructure is required before entering the digital context.

This dissertation consists of four papers on the morality and the law of antidiscrimination. The first paper considers whether the harm that discrimination causes is the only wrong-making feature of discrimination by analyzing cases of putatively harmless yet wrongful discrimination. The second paper develops an interpretation of antidiscrimination law’s main features according to which the law’s purpose is not to reflect the private interpersonal morality of antidiscrimination but to function as an instrument for pursuing valuable public objectives, such as reducing social inequality. The third paper argues that the justification for the objective of reducing social status hierarchies between marginalized and privileged social groups is to prevent harm to members of marginalized groups. The fourth paper critiques the view that in pursuing its objectives antidiscrimination law aims to promote a particular conception of the good for human beings. A distinctive picture of antidiscrimination law emerges from these four papers. Even if discrimination is sometimes made morally wrong by how it manifests or expresses disrespect for its victims, antidiscrimination law has an exclusively instrumental purpose of preventing harms suffered by members of subordinated groups in social status hierarchies. In pursuit of this objective, the law is not required to abjure state neutrality between conceptions of the good.

Peer review is the process by which publishers select the best publications for inclusion in a journal or a conference. Bias in the peer review process can impact which papers are selected for inclusion in conferences and journals. Although often implicit, race, gender and other demographics can prevent members of underrepresented groups from presenting at major conferences. To try to avoid bias, many conferences use a double-blind review process to increase fairness during reviewing. However, recent studies argue that the bias has not been removed completely. Our research focuses on developing fair algorithms that correct for these biases and select papers from a more demographically diverse group of authors. To address this, we present fair algorithms that explicitly incorporate author diversity in paper recommendation using multidimensional author profiles that include five demographic features, i.e., gender, ethnicity, career stage, university rank, and geolocation. The Overall Diversity method ranks papers based on an overall diversity score whereas the Multifaceted Diversity method selects papers that fill the highest-priority demographic feature first. We evaluate these algorithms with Boolean and continuous-valued features by recommending papers for SIGCHI 2017 from a pool of SIGCHI 2017, DIS 2017 and IUI 2017 papers and compare the resulting set of papers with the papers accepted by the conference. Both methods increase diversity with small decreases in utility using profiles with either Boolean or continuous feature values. Our best method, Multifaceted Diversity, recommends a set of papers that match demographic parity, selecting authors who are 42.50% more diverse with a 2.45% gain in utility. This approach could be applied when selecting conference papers, journal papers, grant proposals, or other tasks within academia.

As early diagnosis is essential for improving patient outcomes when treating both communicable and noncommunicable diseases, it is necessary to develop diagnostic tests that are accessible at the point of care. Thus, there is a need for rapid, robust, and inexpensive diagnostic tests, especially in resource-limited areas where access to healthcare is reduced. One such test is the lateral-flow immunoassay (LFA), which has seen a drastic rise in use during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the conventional LFA suffers from a couple limitations, which this thesis aims to address. First, we address the limited sensitivity of the LFA by incorporating nanozyme signal enhancement to improve detection of the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein in serum. By developing dehydrated signal enhancement reagents and an innovative 3D printed casing to store and deliver reagents at the push of a button, we were able to improve the limit of detection of the LFA by at least 10-fold without introducing additional complexity for the user. Next, we shifted our focus to introducing semi-quantitative results to the LFA through the multicolor etching of gold nanorods (GNRs). We demonstrated the first integration of the LFA with GNRs to produce a multicolor readout for the quantification of digoxin levels in serum. We then expanded upon this work by developing a fully paper-based assay to incorporate both the LFA detection and GNR etching steps together, which involved the design of novel color-changing GNR pads. The color hues generated by GNR etching are easily distinguishable by the naked eye, thus allowing for quantification of target biomarker concentrations at the point of care.

The novel Coronavirus Disease has affected the lives of millions of people all around the world, thus acquiring the need for rapid testing. Point-of-care (POC) diagnostics are such rapid tests that are used to diagnose an infectious disease, and provide the results within minutes of the test being done, thereby allowing rapid treatment. Paper-based point-of-care devices have become very popular due to their portability, low-cost and ease of fabrication and distribution. This project describes a simple and inexpensive paper-based modular system for detecting the presence/absence of DNA/RNA targets using a smartphone.Smartphones have an extremely sophisticated hardware and software package in a truly portable, user-friendly and inexpensive manner [5]. Therefore, it has played a major role in the point-of- care diagnostic field as standalone biosensing systems for medical applications [5]. They are replacing laboratory analytical and biomedical equipment. The following is a smartphone enabled nucleic acid based amplification device. Molecular based testing depends on the amplification of the target pathogen DNA/RNA. Current molecular diagnostic systems rely on Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to selectively find, amplify and detect target pathogen DNA/RNA in human samples. As an alternate to PCR, Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) reaction can amplify a known DNA/RNA sequence in the target pathogen without the use of bulky, power-consuming thermocyclers. Liquid aliquots can be hard to deal with and have supply chain issues, especially during a pandemic. Transportation of paper substrates is easier as all the LAMP reagents are present in the dried format on it. Paper based detection is more suitable for POC diagnostics. Paper-based LAMP platform involves a paper substrate on which the DNA/RNA amplification reaction takes place. The first aim talks about characterizing visual detection systems for detecting amplified LAMP products. This involves exploring the various methods for detecting the amplified nucleic acid target and picking the best one from the lot. The second aim proposes developing a protocol for dehydrating LAMP reagents and detecting LAMP products on paper. This entails the experimental protocol for performing amplification reaction on paper substrate. The third and final aim involves coming up with a portable platform for detection of infectious diseases. This talks about the design and working of a portable dark box which acts as a molecular diagnostic toolkit.Results and protocols are reported throughout the proposed aims to further ensure the validity of this project. Each aim has been designed after a thorough literary review of pre-existing strategies. Extensive background and insight have been provided in conjunction with a detailed experimental approach to adequately satisfy the objectives of each aim. While it is clear that LAMP on paper has immense potential for POC diagnostics, this project will build beyond that foundation to create a novel portable diagnostic toolkit for detection of pathogens. The result will be the inclusion of an isothermal heating setup in a smartphone enabled 3D printed dark box. Researchers can then build upon the findings to better optimize this toolkit for POC testing.

We present Operations Management work on overcoming healthcare delivery challenges in remote settings in two chapters. We begin with work on inventory management of a last-mile supply chain. It is motivated by the need for a reliable and cost-effective delivery system to resupply new mosquito-repellent technologies to combat malaria in the Lake Tanganyika region of The Democratic Republic of the Congo. The primary delivery methods used around Lake Tanganyika can become inoperable during periods of floods, machinery breakdowns, and armed conflict. To ensure continuous coverage, our model allows for emergency delivery methods, with high variable costs, to be used during outages. In normal operating times, we use a large-capacity fixed-cost delivery method. We model the changes in the operating environment between normal and outage states using a Markov chain with disruption-specific parameters. We use an infinite-horizon discounted objective, which consists of ordering costs and a linear holding cost. We show that a novel hybrid policy is optimal and we provide the means to calculate the policy parameters. Additionally, for managerial considerations, we propose two heuristic policies and show their relative effectiveness through a series of numerical studies. In the second chapter, we present a constrained optimization model to aid in selecting maternal and newborn community health interventions in previously underserved rural and remote populations through Community Health Worker (CHW) programs. The first application of the model is in Dhusamareeb, Somalia, and the surrounding area within the state of Galmudug. After establishing the resource requirements (financial, time, commodity, and policy) for 25 maternal and neonatal interventions with local stakeholders in Somalia, we used the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) to calculate the number of projected lives saved as a function of services delivered. We then used optimization techniques to sort through the feasible combinations of interventions satisfying the resource constraints to determine the package of care that leads to the most projected lives saved in Galmudug. With a cadre of 1,450 Female Health Workers and a budget of $435,000 for health commodities, we calculate that the optimized set of interventions for Galmudug could avert 15 percent of the 4,132 projected maternal and neonatal deaths in 2023. Sensitivity analysis shows how the optimal combination of interventions, and the number of lives saved, change as the constraints and parameters used in the model change. We focus on Somalia for the first application of this model; however, the combination of LiST's database with a simple framework for sourcing data on local health system resources, allows the application to other country health programs. The model provides practitioners with a new tool and accompanying approach to evaluate possible packages of community health interventions with competing resource requirements.

This dissertation argues that the material qualities of paper had a direct and significant impact on the development of English and Dutch national identities through the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Affordable, accessible texts played a critical role in disseminating concepts of nationhood among early modern elites and non-elites alike. Cheap publications, however, required cheap paper. Unlike the creamy white sheets of high-end paper destined for magisterial tomes, cheap paper was brown, thin, and ephemeral. The disposability of affordable paper necessarily colored the reception of the text printed upon it, and shaped the ways readers made sense of emerging nationalized structures. Each chapter of this project examines a different category of affordable print, their tactics for molding a sense of national cohesion, and the ways the materiality of the paper they are printed on complicated their intended message. Chapter one looks at how the ephemerality of political broadsides and pamphlets allowed readers to revise personal attitudes regarding international antagonism during the first two Anglo-Dutch wars. The second chapter analyzes almanacs and how the conditions of their production produced locally flavored iterations of national identities. Chapter three examines the way in which abundant paper fostered the emergence of travel writing as popular literature and how parodies of the genre challenged common assumptions of national belonging. The final chapter zeros in on one book, Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid, and the ways its graphic satires use paper’s physical lightness, to explain and critique the financial collapse of 1720.

Urea has attracted attention because of its various potential applications, such as hydrogen production, fuel cells, fertilizers, and electrochemical sensors. Furthermore, as an end-product of human metabolism, urea is essential for analyzing various metabolic disorders, such as liver disease and renal function. In order to overcome the stability issue associated with enzyme-based sensors, a non-enzymatic nickel-based oxide catalyst was explored to fabricate a highly efficient urea sensor. The research aims to develop non-enzymatic catalysts (NiO) for use in urea electrochemical sensors and to increase sensitivity through synthesis (hierarchical structure), process (electrophoretic deposition), and flexible electrodes (cellulose paper). First, a hierarchical NiO catalyst by a one-pot hydrothermal method was synthesized as a non-enzymatic catalyst. By introducing the SDBS soft template, the synthesis process became simpler by eliminating the removal process of a hard template. The hierarchical structure, in which 2D building block nanosheets comprise 3D hollow structures, could be achieved by the SDBS soft template during hydrothermal synthesis. The morphological modification of the NiO catalyst leads to a highly sensitive electrochemical urea sensor. Second, the modification of morphology through the catalyst loading method was investigated by electrophoretic deposition (EPD). For EPDs, direct current (DC) electric fields are commonly used. When alternating current (AC) was introduced to the EPD process, however, the deposition behavior was modified; therefore, the current response toward urea was increased over DC-EPD electrodes. A more environmentally friendly catalyst loading process was also achieved by using water solvent with AC EPD as well as maintaining a modified packing behavior. Third, as a substrate modification, the paper substrate was developed. The paper has the advantage of high surface area, cost, biocompatibility, and disposability, which makes it an ideal substrate material for use as point-of-care equipment. Having a complex cellulose network in the paper, it can be used to further enhance the electrochemical reaction. As the paper lacks electron conductivity, the mixed solution of CNT and NiO was used by means of the capillary property of the paper. The various design of paper electrodes were considered, and the optimization of electrode configuration was carried out to increase the current response toward urea. In the dissertation, three approaches were investigated to develop a highly sensitive non-enzymatic urea sensor: hierarchical catalyst synthesis by hydrothermal method, modified loading method by AC-EPD, and cellulose networks on paper as a substrate.

Cervical cancer mortality burden is carried disproportionately by African American women. Early indicators of cervical cancer are identified through prevention screening, a procedure typically performed by a gynecologist. Ideally, the patient group with the most severe mortality would likewise be the group with the most robust communication exchange with their physician to prevent cervical cancer incidence. However, a slew of factors contributes to continued mortalities among Black women. This study uses semi-structured interviews (n=10) and the health belief model to examine one barrier to Black women’s prosocial behaviors regarding routine gynecologic care—awkwardness, which here is conceptualized as social anxiety. The focus on awkwardness stems from the CDC health campaign, Under the Paper Gown, where awkwardness is the African American woman protagonist’s main drive for averting her appointment. However, anxiety and awkwardness are under-cited in current literature on Black women’s barriers to gynecologic care. Interviews revealed eight themes. The aims of the current exploratory study are twofold: Gain insight into Black women’s perceived barriers regarding gynecologic care and learn whether the portrayal of awkwardness accurately captures the true experiences of said women.

This dissertation aims to understand the transformation of Chinese art in High Qing China through its interaction with and expression in stone. It demonstrates how Chinese elites extended the notion of “painting” and expanded the confines of “art” by adopting and adapting lithic media in their artistic practice and patronage. I argue that perceptions of lithic materials evolved in the High Qing period to liberate stone carving from its artisanal associations. Through close examinations of lithic materials like pictorial stelae and variegated marble panels, as well as what might be called lithic imagination—that is, rubbings made from stone stele and paintings inspired by stone carvings—I point out a change in the perceived value of different media, as competition grew between modalities of artmaking. Stone gradually became a valued art form in elite practice and discourse, thus challenging the thousand-year-old definition of art held by literati artists who had given pride of place to painting on paper and silk. I further argue that the promotion of lithic medium in artistic practices in the High Qing was closely intertwined with the Qing empire’s multiethnic politics, contemporary intellectual movements, and concern with cultural authenticity. To support this argument, my study is comprised of four substantive chapters. It shows Chinese elites—ranging from emperors and government officials to literati artists, and local gentry—engaged in using stone materials. While their contemplations of the value of the stone were not the same, their artistic practices collectively promoted stone and treated it as a legitimate medium for painterly representation.In methodological terms, this dissertation considers the relationship between lithic media and painting through the twin lenses of history (political, social, cultural) and media archaeology (intermediality, remediation). I contextualize the use of stone in intermedial practices within a dynamic network of images. This approach subverts long-standing medial divisions within the study of Chinese art and contributes to the literature on circulation, artistic hierarchy, canon formation, and media archaeology. Ultimately, this study presents an alternative mode for understanding and evaluating art of the High Qing period, one which decenters style and highlights the previously scholastically and aesthetically marginalized medium of stone.

The paper industry provides important consumer products comprised of paper, tissue, paper board, and pulping. The papermaking process requires a lot of energy, in the form of steam, to dry the paper web in rotating dryers. As steam condenses inside the dryers by releasing heat to the dryer walls, the condensate is removed using either stationary or rotary siphons. Since the condensate is usually at a saturated state, part of the condensate flashes into vapor during the extraction process and becomes difficult to extract. Thus, additional blow-through steam is used to push the condensate out. Since this blow-through steam is not used for drying, it is deemed a waste of energy. The objectives of this project are to conduct computational and experimental investigation to understand the fundamental physics of the two-phase flow behavior during condensate extraction process to find means of minimizing or completely removing the blow-off steam and thus significantly saving energy. The project is focused on four areas: (a) investigating three two-phase modeling methods—Volume of Fluid (VOF), Mixture, and Eulerian-Eulerian (E-E)—to simulate condensate rimming behavior in a rotating cylinder, (b) developing a two-phase flow computational model to simulate the condensate flashing and re-condensation phenomena inside a siphon, (c) constructing an experimental test bench to study the maximum void fraction that can be sustained in a cold natural siphon flow and to find various means for repriming the siphon, (d) constructing a boil water experiment to investigate if the natural siphon principle holds valid with hot water flashing under actual operating conditions, (e) investigating the heating uniformity inside a rotating dryer under the influence of steam injection distribution, steam condensation, and conjugate heat transfer with the paper web cover part of the dryer. The results show that (a) up to 70% void fraction can be sustained in a natural siphon, (b) the natural siphoning of hot saturated water can be sustained even with flashing, (c) condensate rimming has been successfully simulated with all three models and the results are consistent with experimental data, (d) a two-phase flow model successfully predicts the alternating flashing-recondensation phenomenon in the two-phase siphon flow, and (e) the heat transfer uniformity of the dryer is predicted.

This dissertation is published in the format a white paper series which tells the story about Butler Tech's Fifth Day Experience across six issues. FDE is a student-centered initiative that was launched in the spring of 2020, and aims to operationalize deeper learning by exploring student voice, teacher agency, equity, personalized learning and innovation. FDE also aims to serve as a catalyst to redesign schools. A mixed methods approach was used to capture the action research process. Each white paper issue ranges between 12-15 pages and focuses on different themes within the research. Each issue include narratives, trends, and patterns from the data and highlights the evolution of FDE as it moves in real-time from a 1.0 model, to the 2.0, and eventual 3.0 versions. Issue one focuses on the origin of FDE. Issue two unpacks student voice in the design process. Issue three centers on the student experiences during the implementation process. Issue four focuses on an unexpected Covid-19 influenced model. Issue five captures the structural changes and highlights the rich programming. Issue six offers an executive summary, compares the three design models and provides a vision for the future of FDE. My hope is that school leaders, policymakers, and change agents use this white paper series as a vehicle to influence their own efforts to transform the educational world. Each publication is practical, applicable and offer critical insights into the FDE journey.

Seldom if ever has there been such a sudden shift in a society’s reading medium (the last time was from parchment to paper). The current migration is from on paper reading (OPR) to reading on electronic screen (OSR). Many studies and several meta-analyses show varied results in comparing OPR and OSR, and for most metrics OPR may be superior, depending on the subject area of the text. Only one other known study compared OPR to OSR regarding financial material. To test whether or not reading financial material on screen or on paper affects the reader’s decision making, we ran an experiment. We announced the experiment as a test of the reader’s financial literacy as it relates to the reader’s age. However, the actual dependent variables of interest were the readers’ self-reported trust and risk tolerance measurements accompanying the financial literacy scenarios and questions. Subjects (N=212) recruited via Amazon MTurk were given the test instrument either via onscreen or on paper (with the print version not previewed onscreen ahead of printing). The hierarchical regression analysis results showed that the reading medium had no effect (at p < .05) on the subjects self-reported trust, but reading medium had an effect on risk tolerance, with OSR showing significantly more risk tolerance than OPR (at p < .01). This increased risk tolerance with OSR was most pronounced in the younger ages (18-34 years). Also shown were mixed results on the relationship of trust to age (at p < .05), but that risk tolerance was negatively related to age (at p < .05). Trust and risk results by gender differences were not statistically significant (at p < .05). These results show that the reading medium makes a difference in risk tolerance, with OSR being higher in risk than OPR.

The pulp and paper industry traditionally consumes high levels of water and energy and the reduction of fresh water use with emphasis on process water management and wastewater recycling are key factors for the growth of this industry. The use of fresh water has reduced significantly during the last decades. The main reasons for this include increased environmental legislations relating to effluent discharge, and hefty costs arising from either the supply of fresh water or treatment of wastewater thus effecting the marketing potentials. Although using recovered paper as raw material has an advantage of saving energy, water and landfill space, attention needs to be paid to treating the wastewater due to discharge regulations and standards. Wastewater sent to a treatment facility is regarded as waste. It is treated only with the purpose not to cause a negative impact to the environment. Although the level of impurities and toxic substances in treated wastewater satisfies the discharge standards, it often limits recycling potential because it adversely affects manufacturing processes and paper quality. Methods for removing these impurities and toxic substances include various physical and biological methods and the intended reuse of the water determines type and level of treatment required. This study aims to explore the possibility of introducing advanced technologies such as enhanced coagulation and flocculation, and membrane separation to improve wastewater recycling in a commercial paper mill. A commercial plant water circuit was first analysed and a water balance was proposed to reduce the water consumption from 10m3 to 6m3/tonne product. The quality of treated wastewaters and associated parameters from commercial individual processes were analysed to forecast the plant influent flows and predict pollutants concentrations in wastewater. Although organics in wastewater were mostly processed through biodegradation, non-biodegradable recalcitrant compounds limit its potential for reuse, thus a tertiary treatment is proposed. Enhanced coagulation and flocculation yielded very promising results, especially for colour removal. The treatment was able to achieve the target colour value. The desirable COD output values were also achieved by varying coagulation/flocculant ratio. For membrane separation, different units of operation and pollution parameters were examined. Results indicate that membrane technology produced higher colour removal efficiencies (96% for NF and 87% for UF) compared to enhanced coagulation and flocculation (61%). However, when it comes to removing COD, enhanced coagulation and flocculation was able to achieve a removal efficiency of 46% COD, compared to 43% for NF and 20% for UF. Amongst the three methods, UF, if used as a stand-alone method, failed to reduce the COD level to the target value. However, when feedwater was pre-treated with coagulant, UF was able to produce a similar COD removal rate to NF. Pre-treating feedwater also reduced fouling of membranes. Between the two membrane cleaning agents used, alkaline was shown to be more effective in reducing fouling. Backwashing was also investigated and found to be effective in prolonging membrane lifespan. However, despite the reduction in fouling, irreversible fouling still happened. Although membrane technology performed better in the removal of colour, retrofitting a membrane system into an existing plant can be difficult, requires the implementation of appropriate pre-treatment technology to control fouling resulting in higher capital and operating costs compared to enhanced coagulation and flocculation.

Mass spectrometry (MS) is a powerful analytical tool that plays crucial roles in many fields, including disease diagnosis, environmental monitoring, drug discovery, and chemical reaction screening and their mechanistic studies. The plethora of applications using MS continue to expand; this, in turn, has enabled continuous explorations that have resulted in the development of innovative ion sources and analyzers. Ambient ionization is a recent innovation that enables direct in-situ complex mixture analysis without having lengthy pretreatment of the sample (e.g., extraction, precipitation, lyophilization). Therefore, direct analysis using ambient ionization reduces analysis time and allows high throughput chemical detection. With such developments in ionization techniques, chemical instrumentation is getting advanced into new applications which were not previously possible. A future outlook on instrumentation is manufacturing portable mass spectrometers. In addition to basic figures of merits of the mass spectrometer, portable mass spectrometer broadens the scope of modern MS due to less power consumption, relatively low cost, and fieldable application. This dissertation describes the development of MS-based applications for clinical diagnosis utilizing ambient ionization and portable mass spectrometer (Chapters 2-4) and reaction screening (Chapter 5). Chapters 2-4 describe the innovations of coupling microfluidic paper-based analytical device (µPAD) to the portable mass spectrometer for ultrasensitive malaria diagnostic. Diagnosis of malaria, which is one of the deadliest infectious diseases, is the primary focus of this dissertation. This disease is encountered in developing countries and other resource-limited settings. Thus, the objective is positioned toward developing an ultrasensitive point-of-care tool so that all people can have equal opportunity to get diagnosed early and accurately. In chapter 2, the use of a portable mass spectrometer became the focus of the work and demonstrated the capability of field study using a mass spectrometer. Less required power consumption, economic burden, and lighter weight of portable mass spectrometer opened another opportunity for chemical detection in low resource settings. In chapter 3, dendrimer-mediated signal amplification technology was developed and applied to the 2D µPAD-MS platform to target asymptomatic diagnosis. The most challenging aspect of eradicating malaria is controlling asymptomatic infection due to no specific symptom and low parasite density. Without control, these asymptomatic infections prompt to generate parasite transmission continuously. Dendrimer contains multiple sites that can link numerous copies of mass tag, enhancing ion signal for MS detection. In chapter 4, next-generation three-dimensional (3D) µPAD was designed and fabricated. Compared to 2D biofluid sampling, a self-sustained and automated 3D µPAD system can serve as a single platform for microsampling, splitting a sample into multiple testing zones, room temperature storage of collected samples and direct MS analysis by paper spray ionization. Lastly, chapter 5 develops a novel nano-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) source for monitoring and screening gas-phase chemical reactions. The ionic wind from corona discharge in APCI provides relatively high-energy electrons, which enable numerous collisions at atmospheric pressure. Abundant collisions led to an efficient uncatalyzed N-alkylation reaction for various primary amine compounds (e.g., propyl-, butyl-, hexyl-, and cyclohexylamine). By performing the reactions at atmospheric pressure, not only were we able to monitor reactions in real-time using mass spectrometry, but the following gas-phase reaction products were collected and offered for preparative-scale opportunities.

Macroscopic assembly of graphene into 2D films or paper is a new form of graphene which utilizes its exceptional properties. In this effort several fabrication processes of graphene-based paper were studied, and the mechanisms of thermal management and deicing were investigated. The details of these techniques were studied and their effect on the structure, quality, and in-plane thermal conductivity of graphene-based paper was evaluated. The techniques used to prepare graphene-based paper were chemical vapor deposition (CVD), hot pressing of graphene slurry, and evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA). The thermal and electrical conductivities of the resulting papers were measured, and various structural characterizations were made, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, X- ray diffraction (XRD), small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and optical microscopy. SEM images showed the morphology of graphene-based paper made by the different techniques. XRD patterns had a sharp peak at 26.5° to show that the matching of crystallinity for graphene paper prepared via different techniques. SAXS patterns showed high directionality for CVD graphene-based paper. In-plane thermal conductivity measurement was performed using custom-built steady state in-plane thermal conductivity device. According to the measurements of in-plane thermal conductivity, CVD graphene-based paper has highest thermal conductivity than hot pressing and EISA techniques because of long phonon mean path, absence of defects and highly orientation of CVD graphene-based paper. This was important because heat spreaders made from high thermal conductivity materials are one of the most effective techniques used to dissipate heat generated in microelectronic devices, thereby enhancing the performance and reliability of electronics. A graphene-based paper composite panel was fabricated using a wet layup / vacuum bagging technique to study the mechanism of graphene-based paper for deicing applications. An infrared (IR) thermal camera was used to show the thermal distribution during the deicing process. The efficiency of the composite panel containing the CVD-produced graphene paper was the highest due to lower phonons dispersion which led to high in-plane thermal conductivity. COMSOL Multiphysics 5 was used to simulate the electrochemical exfoliation of graphite, as well as the temperature gradient through graphene based paper when being used as a heat spreader. This exercise enhanced the fundamental understanding of the electrochemical exfoliation of graphite and the thermal distribution through graphene paper. Using this model-based numerical approach, we revealed insight into the mechanisms of the intercalation and exfoliation processes of exfoliated graphite. The predicted results showed that the concentration of intercalated sulfate anions through graphite rod was in the range (9.77x10-7 - 4.58x10-5) mol/m3. Also, the stresses applied to exfoliate graphite were in the range (3.43x10-8 – 5.77x10-7) N/m2 to overcome the van der Waals forces between graphene layers. Thermal distribution through graphene-based paper was studied numerically using conductive heat transport in solid phase in order to predict the thermal distribution for graphene paper. The simulation showed that the temperature gradient through graphene- based paper.

This study addressed five key applications of paper spray mass spectrometry (PS-MS): (i) comparative analysis of the microporous substrate with the cellulose-based substrate in drug detection; (ii) detection of more than 190 fentanyl analogs with their fragmentation pattern can be implemented in the future reference for quicker, accurate and sensitive determination; (iii) exploring sweat in a fingerprint to be considered an alternate method to recognize non-invasive markers of metabolites, lipids, narcotics, and explosive residues that can be used in forensic testing applications; (iv) extending and improving better, cost-effective and quick real-time monitoring of the diseased stage using biofluid samples to obtain vastly different lipid information in viral infection such as COVID-19; and (v) mass spectral detection in chemical warfare agent (CWA) stimulant gas exposure with microporous structure absorbency capabilities in air quality monitoring. This novel synthetic material is known as Teslin® (PPG Industries), consisting of a microporous polyolefin single-layered silica matrix, can be used for precise, sensitive, selective, and rapid sample analysis with PS-MS. The Teslin® substrate provided longer activation time for samples and an active signal with a higher concentration of ion formation and mobility compared to cellulose-based papers. Direct analysis of multiple samples showed that, besides being more sensitive to the study and highly efficient with less sample size and spray solvent needed, Teslin® had less interaction with paper source molecules. For less than 60 seconds of processing time, PS-MS can be used as a rapid detection tool, with limited sample preparation requiring less than one microgram of the sample. Overall, the data in this analysis indicate the capacity of the PS-MS as an alternative approach for direct chemical analysis in many applications. Specifically, the waterproof and microporosity characteristics of Teslin® have proven its usefulness in detecting a variety of chemical components in liquid, solid, and gaseous phases without requiring any chemical treatment or substrate alteration.

This body of research reviewed the first 36 years groundwater remediation at the St. Regis Paper Company Superfund Site. Thus far the remediation has not been effective at protecting human health and the environment. Available geologic cross sections of St. Regis Paper Company Superfund Site show the two gravel aquifers, but these investigations are non-conclusive about the constancy the clay confining layer. If the confining layer is discontinuous it could be affecting the groundwater flow as well as pollution spread between the aquifers. The existing 2016 groundwater model of the St. Regis Paper Company Superfund Site showed how the pump and treat extraction wells are capturing part but not all of the groundwater pollution. In 1985 when the St. Regis Site Superfund clean-up effort began, the pump and treat extraction wells near were planned where the disposal lagoons and landfills were located during the time of operation. A 2015 soil studies of the St. Regis Paper Company Superfund Site showed that the most polluted soil was not just in the former disposal lagoons and landfill areas. ESRI’s ArcGIS Hydrology Spatial Analyst Toolset was utilized to show the major stream drainage influents at the St. Regis Paper Company Superfund Site. This research found that the areas with most polluted soil unfortunately are located where water will gather and drain to due to the topography of the St. Regis Site. the non-remediated soil continues to contribute to the groundwater pollution as precipitation leads to the pollution in the soil to leach into the groundwater. These early assumptions about the locations of the contaminated areas have limited the site remediation ever since. This study recommends the EPA and the Potentially Responsible Parties engaged in remediation should consider other methods of groundwater and soil remediation at the St. Regis Site. Technology and remedial capabilities have improved greatly since 1984. There are many more options for remediation, including some that are much more affordable and effective than the pump and treat method.

The objective of this research is to reduce freshwater consumption and carbon dioxide emission from the pulp and paper industry. Specifically, we investigated the feasibility of reducing freshwater consumption in the bleach section, one of the largest freshwater consumers in pulp and paper manufacturing by recycling white water from the paper machine. Then, we carried out a techno-economic analysis of solvent-based carbon dioxide capture from limekiln flue gas, the primary source of fossil fuel-based emissions from the pulp and paper industry. Windows General Energy and Material Balance Systems (WinGEMS) was used to develop a process simulation model of an integrated softwood line of a Kraft pulp mill for the bleaching section and the paper machine section capturing the material, water, energy, and the Non-Process Elements (NPEs). Steady-state equations for the Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) bleaching sequence D0EOPD1EPD2 are included in the simulation capturing the effects of Brown-stock washers (BSW) and the extraction stage washers on the chemical consumption and the pulp brightness. The simulation model prepared can predict changes in the kappa number, brightness, and COD values with changes in the operating parameters. Industry and literature data were used to validate the ECF bleaching simulation model, and the difference was in the range of 0.2 to 5.5% for final stage brightness and the post-first extraction pulp kappa number, respectively. Then we simulated the effect of stepwise replacement of the freshwater used in the bleach washer showers with the white water on scaling tendency in the bleach section. The partition of calcium ions, the primary NPE in white water, between the fiber walls and the surrounding liquor was studied using the Donnan equilibrium model. The dynamic data exchange (DDE) feature in WinGEMS was used to link the Donnan equilibrium model with the bleaching section simulation. After simulating white water addition, the free calcium ions were calculated using the value of the distribution coefficient ‘λ’ and taking the inputs of the metal ion concentration from the ECF bleaching section of the WinGEMS model. The free calcium ions predicted by the Donnan equilibrium model were used to calculate the saturation index (SI) in the bleaching section. The maximum amount of white water recycled in the bleaching section without the scale formation is determined by the SI value sensitivity analysis. Of the three major sources of CO2 in pulp and paper manufacturing, the Lime Kiln is the only source of fossil fuel-derived CO2 and has the highest concentration of CO2. In this work, we, for the first time, performed a techno-economic analysis (TEA) of a monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent-based CO2 capture from the pulp and paper mill’s Lime Kiln section using the CAPCOST modular program. The flue gas specifications were obtained from published limekiln data of a theoretical pulp and paper mill. The process was simulated in Aspen Plus and linked to CAPCOST using a python script for the cost calculations. The CO2 capture cost estimates were compared to the only CO2 capture costs data available in the literature for limekiln flue gas. Comparing the cost breakdown between the published data and this study, the capital cost difference was found to be highest for the stripper and the compression and dehydration sections. We further examined the TEA and process flowsheet optimization by processing flue-gas using actual mill data from two different mills. A derivative-free optimization (DFO) solver was used to optimize the flowsheet and minimize the CO2 capture costs. Additionally, we analyzed possible steam integration from within the mills and explore potential in-mill CO2 applications and their impact on the total CO2 capture costs. After taking into account the steam savings and CO2 utilization, the total capture costs were -$2.5 per tonne of CO2 for Mill A and $2.6 per tonne of CO2 for Mill B.

In the tradition of studies that focus on Black students’ experiences in HWCUs, the three papers in this dissertation broadly address how organizational structures and campus environments at HWCUs influence the experiences of Black students. I examine this topic at a single site, Millington College (pseudonym), a college of performing arts in the United States. Millington is a particularly relevant site to examine my research question as the beginning of my research coincided with the creation and implementation of LEAD (pseudonym), a pre-enrollment and academic year support program for Black students. Programs like LEAD, which I broadly refer to as race-specific enrichment programs (RSEPs), are one of several tools that higher education administrators use to support Black and other minoritized students. As I discuss in this dissertation, HWCUs’ attempts to create structures to support Black students can have unintended consequences for the students who attend these programs, despite administrators’ best intentions. The three papers included in this dissertation draw on 50 interviews with 37 informants, as well as a survey of 32 students. The totality of my data collection at Millington, however, was more expansive and included roughly 20 hours of participant and non-participant observation, two interviews with students who identify as Black but are not a US citizens or permanent residents, and in turn, were outside of the scope of my research, and interviews with 10 Millington faculty and administrators. Though these data do not appear explicitly in the chapters that follow, the insights and perspectives I gained in collecting and analyzing these data helped shape my thinking and the according conclusions that I present. The first paper, presented in chapter 2, examines Black students’ experiences with different-race interactions on campus, and how these interactions are associated with their willingness to engage in different-race interactions. Drawing on interviews with 37 students, I induced three core findings. First, several informants who were socialized in predominantly-Black high school and neighborhood contexts chose to attend Millington, in part, to have relationships with non-Black peers. Second, perceptions of racial homogeneity among social groups at Millington preceded many informants’ reticence to have interactions with different-race peers. Last, several informants were subject to experiences of microaggressions and racism, which alongside their perceptions of racial homogeneity in social life at Millington, reinforced their reticence to have interactions with different-race peers. I discuss these findings in the context of recent contributions to the homophily literature. Chapter 3 focuses specifically on participants in the LEAD program and addresses two questions. First, what is the relationship between Black students’ identities and the experiences of their relationships with same-race peers in an RSEP? Second, how do Black students’ experiences of these relationships influence their perceptions of the costs to access the benefits of the social capital the RSEP is designed to generate? Drawing on 27 interviews with 18 participants in LEAD, I find that students’ experiences with their same-race peers varied based on the extent to which they had prior exposure to predominantly-Black institutions and communities, and whether they held salient and marginalized non-racial social identities. Based on these findings, I identify three ways that the informants experienced relationships with same-race peers in the LEAD program: affirmed, rationalized, and alienated. While nearly all informants identified benefits of the social capital that LEAD generated, informants who experienced rationalized and alienated relationships perceived costs to access the social capital that LEAD generated, and in turn, to remain connected to the LEAD community. I discuss these findings in the context of theory on social capital and the intersectionality literature. Chapter 4 further focuses on participants in the LEAD program, and places findings from interviews with 28 students and 32 survey respondents in the context of the literatures on belonging and identity. Despite the prevalence of RSEPs, there are two related gaps in our understanding of RSEPs and how they influence their participants’ experiences of social life in HWCUs. First, scholarly investigations of minoritized students’ experiences in HWCUs often take for granted that they generally experience belongingness in their campus’ co-ethnoracial groups and communities. Second, we know little about how minoritized students’ perceptions of their ethnoracial identities change once arriving on campus and participating in RSEPs, and how these perceptions are associated with their feelings of belonging to the RSEP. In two phases of research, I find that without explicit programmatic supports that emphasize the importance of inclusion within the RSEP, students with limited prior exposure to same-race peers may experience RSEPs negatively. I close by discussing the practical implications of this research for college administrators and student affairs professionals whose campuses support minoritized students through RSEPs.

Paper House is a collection of creative nonfiction essays about coming of age as an Asian American biracial and bisexual woman in China. The narrator goes to China to teach English in rural Shanxi Province for 2 years and struggles with her own loss of Chinese culture, and the loss of her Chinese grandmother who died before she was born. Through her daily life in China and visiting places her grandmother lived, the narrator tries to understand a homeland that she’s been displaced from. Additionally, she attempts to navigate her in-between identities — biracial and bisexual within cultural contexts she is largely unfamiliar with, endeavoring to find a place where she feels like she belongs. Being perceived as an outsider, and the growing distance from her U.S.-based girlfriend amplifies loneliness. Ultimately, the narrator learns to accept care from strangers, her cat, and a constellation of women, and gains knowledge of self from family and ancestors. The prose holds tension between absence and abundance and moves patiently through scenes and images with a lyrical voice.

A white paper is a document that provides a description of a particular cryptocurrency project’s business plan, and, further, generally outlines any consumptive or functional aspects of its native crypto-asset. White papers are written by founding teams and then disseminated to the public in a bid to raise the necessary funding needed to build out their project. Prospective cryptocurrency project investors read white papers to gain the information needed in order for them to make a well-informed investment decision. Moreover, there have been many instances of cryptocurrency projects being complete scams. These scams are typically orchestrated by predatory actors who use a malicious cornucopia of tools and tactics in order to raise capital from unsuspecting investors. Because white papers are extremely popular mechanisms used for raising funds, they are highly susceptible to misuse in terms of deluding investors. For this reason, I hypothesize that a White Paper Scoring Framework (WPSF) can be used by prospective investors to evaluate the reliability of white papers. To do this, the WPSF helps investors determine if a cryptocurrency project falls within one of the three following categories: 1) Very Reliable, 2) Somewhat Reliable, or 3) Very Unreliable. In doing so, this categorization technique attempts to reduce the risk of investing in cryptocurrency projects.

This three-paper dissertation examines whether arts integration-an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form-helps with foreign language teaching and learning, especially language performance. The first paper conducts a comprehensive literature review of research on arts integration and its use in the context of language classrooms, including both English as a Second Language and Foreign Language classrooms. The second paper is a qualitative case study exploring how a French teacher perceives the role that arts integration plays in her students’ language performance. Specific arts-integrated strategies are discussed, and connections are made to students’ language performance defined by The ACTFL Performance Descriptors, which serves as the theoretical framework for understanding how arts integration supports language performance. Seven domains of language performance are examined in relation to arts integration from multiple sources of information, such as interviews, observations, and documents. The third paper provides some concrete examples of integrating arts into an elementary Chinese classroom in order to promote students’ language performance in three modes of communication: interpretive, interpersonal and presentational. All three papers together offer insights into an arts-integrated approach to foreign language education with a special focus on language performance that refers to students’ abilities “to use language that has been learned and practiced in an instructional setting” (ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners, 2012, p. 4).

The rapid growth rate of scientific literature makes it increasingly difficult for researchers to keep up with developments in their field. This is a problem that can be addressed by structuring academic papers according to information units that go deeper than keywords. The need to efficiently structure scholarly documents so that they are machine operable necessitates the creation of machine readers to extract and classify bits of fine grained scientific information. This process requires the development of gold standard corpora of annotated scholarly work. For this thesis we developed a gold-standard corpus of task description phrase annotations from Shared Task Overview papers and trained a text classifier on the resulting dataset. The annotation project consisted of: developing a set of annotation guidelines; reading and annotating the task descriptions of 254 Shared Task Overview papers published in the ACL Anthology; validating our guidelines by measuring the Inter-Annotator Agreement; and digitizing the resulting corpus such that it could be used as a resource in machine learning projects. The resulting dataset comprises 254 full text papers containing 41,752 sentences and 259 task descriptions. In our second and final validation we achieved a strict score of 0.44 and a relaxed score of 0.95, measured using Cohen's kappa coefficent. We then used this resource to facilitate the training and development of a classifier to perform automatic identification of shared task descriptions. For preprocessing, we improved the balance between negative and positive samples by eliminating every paper section that does not contain a task description. During our machine learning experiments we trained and validated 18 different sentence classification models using a variety of text encodings and hyperparameter settings. The best performing model was SciBERT, which achieved an F1 score of 0.75 when applied to the reduced test set.

The goal of this dissertation is to develop a paper-based mass spectrometry (MS) ionization method for detection of small molecules from biological fluids and water samples. In biofluids, highly sensitive analytical methods are required to monitor small biologically active molecules during treatment. When analyzing both biofluids and industrial water samples, rapid and inexpensive detection platforms streamline screening for harmful concentrations of chemicals. Paper spray ionization shortens analysis time to less than one minute.Current analytical detection methods for these molecules include gas chromatography (GC)-MS, which is useful for creating databases for small molecules. However, GC-MS often requires extensive sample preparation and analyte derivatization prior to analysis. Liquid chromatography (LC)-MS offers better sensitivity without the need for derivatization. However, LC-MS is also limited by additional sample preparation/handling procedures. In particular, matrix components must be removed prior to any chromatographic work, which can be time consuming. For these reasons, immunoassay screening is still the most commonly used detection method for these small molecules despite their well-recognized limitations with regards to sensitivity and selectivity. Alternatively, paper spray (PS) ionization MS is capable of direct analysis of small biological sample volumes. However, PS often suffers from low sensitivity due to inefficient extraction.The second chapter in this document utilizes treated hydrophobic paper substrates prepared by a gas-phase silanization reaction. Hydrophobic PS utilizes online liquid/liquid extraction from a drop of biological fluid without drying steps or sample pretreatment, which is applicable in point-of-care analyses. Preliminary experiments demonstrated high sensitivity in the analysis of drugs cocaine, benzoylecgonine, methamphetamine, and amphetamine in 4 μL of raw blood, serum, and urine. When the sample is dried, a 3-dimensional dried spheroid is formed, as opposed to a dried blood spot. This spheroid decreases interaction between the bulk of the blood sample and ambient air, decreasing oxidative stress, increasing the lifetime of the analyte in the sample. Experiments show that labile organic compounds diazepam and cocaine have increased stability up to 28 days, where sample signal decreases by 90% within a day when stored in dried blood spots.The third chapter discusses the use of wax printing on paper. Wax printing creates microfluidic channels in which the designer can control solvent flow. Through this solvent control, spray time was increased from 1.5 minutes to 10 minutes. Additionally, because the solvent acts as the charge carrier, manipulation of the electric field decreased the required voltage applied to the paper triangle from 3-5 kV to 0.5-1 kV.The fourth chapter outlines the detection of low concentration corrosion inhibitor Duomeen O and molluscicide metaldehyde in industrial and environmental water samples. On-site analysis of Duomeen O would facilitate the maintaining of appropriate levels to prevent corrosion in water tube boiler plants. Because metaldehyde is readily soluble in water, runoff during periods of heavy rainfall ultimately introduces metaldehyde into drinking water. Paper spray ionization has been demonstrated as a viable technique for rapid screening and quantification of these molecules without sample preconcentration with detection limits below the threshold set by the World Health Organization.

The Trope of the Papers: The Coloniality of Citizenship and the Turn to the Undocumented in Black and Chicana Feminist Thought examines the work the undocumented immigrant, its presence and absence, has enabled in feminist history, theory, and literature, from the mid-nineteenth century to the late-twentieth century, and argues that the undocumented immigrant is central to the development of U.S. feminist thought. Specifically, this project traces a theoretical shift in Black and Chicana feminist thought, what I term the turn to the undocumented, where citizenship is replaced by undocumentedness, a multidimensional experience that is not simply a result of the modern immigration regime but is rather a result of interlocking oppressions and resistance to them, as the organizing rubric in Black and Chicana feminist thinking and organizing. This process, as this project demonstrates, begins with Black and Chicana feminist thinkers’ recognition of the coloniality of citizenship, by which I mean, legal citizenship’s function as a mechanism for the perpetuation of colonial forms of domination, and is followed by a rejection of the institution of legal citizenship that is enacted through the trope of the papers, what I define in this project as the use of legal and extralegal documents in Black and Chicana feminist writings to interrogate both the limitations of legal citizenship and the liberatory potential in the abolition of this institution. This theoretical shift, I argue, demonstrates that Black and Chicana feminist thought cannot be understood without accounting for the undocumented immigrant, that Black and Chicana feminist thinkers’ engagement with this figure has created a new set of possibilities and relations among feminist thinkers and organizers that have facilitated greater organizing between them across existing boundaries, and that feminist thinkers’ and organizers’ continued engagement with the undocumented immigrant is necessary to advance the ongoing feminist project of decolonization.

Electrophoresis techniques are analytic platforms widely used for analyzing complex analytes such as proteins, antibodies, and DNA. Often a series of analyses of these analytes is required for analytical purposes. Thus analytical systems, capable of producing accurate, reproducible results are highly desired. The advent of micro-scale total analysis system (µTAS) opened the possibility of miniaturized analytical system which can provide qualitative and/or qualitative assessment while analyzing complex analyte. MicroChip Electrophoresis (MCE) enables fast, efficient, and reliable analysis because of the accelerated sample processing, and increased reaction rate due to the sample being analyzed is minute in volume. In addition, the ability to provide high-resolution separation of a complex mixture of analytes in a smaller length scale (compared to their traditional counterparts) enables them in high throughput applications, which demand many disciplines such as biology, chemistry, environmental testing, as well as engineering. The effort towards the miniaturization of electrophoresis techniques has yielded a plethora of materials, methods, and process development and a vast amount of these efforts have been emphasized in greater portability, cost-reduction and large scale fabrication; thus enabling single-use rapid, reliable, high throughput analytical tools for testing in remote and/or resource-limited setting.The potential of MCE platform prompted a surge in microfluidic implementation of miniaturization of electrophoresis, and the majority of the efforts have been concentrated on capillary electrophoresis. A great volume of analytical and experimental work has enriched the understanding of capillary electrophoresis. This ample understanding of the electrokinetic phenomena for capillary electrophoresis has curved the success of the capillary-based MCE platforms. The emergence of paper-based microfluidics in the past decade has also marked the onset of miniaturization of paper-based MCE platforms. The lower material cost (compared to capillary electrophoresis), simpler fabrication approach (such as channel fabrication, and electrode integration), ease of sample injection/transfer holds the key for a disposable, mass-producible analytical system with long self-life. These are the essential factors that govern the feasibility of the translation of lab-based proof-of-concept technology to a commercial product. The blessings of MCE technologies can only be materialized only if successful commercialization of such technologies can be made available, not only for state of the art scientific application but also for widespread application in various disciplines and different kinds of end-users. In this doctoral dissertation, I describe the design, development, fabrication, mass and thermal transport characterization, and clinical validation of the MCE platform for hemoglobin variant testing application.

During my graduate studies, I focused on the northern paper wasp Polistes fuscatus, a classic model system in the study of animal recognition behavior. P. fuscatus wasps use cuticular chemicals as a source of information to guide multiple behaviors, such as mate choice and nestmate recognition. I investigated phenotypic variation in P. fuscatus cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) using solid-phase microextraction and GC-FID. Chapter 1 presents the CHCs found on P. fuscatus, informed by GC-MS results generously shared by Dr. Kevin Loope, and identifies nest-specific chemical signatures that could mediate nestmate recognition. Chapter 2 presents comparative genomics analyses of the Polistes odorant receptor (OR) gene family. I argue that the OR gene family and 9-exon subfamily expanded in gene copy number during the evolution of sociality in wasps, independent of ants. Patterns of molecular evolution of the 9-exon OR subfamily are investigated, and the relevance of these evolutionary patterns to the perception of complex chemical signatures is discussed. Chapter 3 reports sex-biased antennal gene expression patterns in P. fuscatus, identifying candidate sex pheromone receptors and documenting expression of 9-exon ORs in males, deviating from patterns observed in ants. In Chapter 4, I analyze short-term changes in body posture of P. fuscatus foundresses in response to experimentally introduced conspecific intruders in the field and discuss how persistent vigilance may relate to plasticity in nestmate recognition behavior.