Digital Commons Network^™

Designing The Civic Commons: How Design Can Foster Social Capital In Civic Spaces In The Context Of Urban Sprawl, Jennifer Jean Sloan

Public Affairs Dissertations

In modern America, people gather in civic public spaces for many reasons: to celebrate family, gather as a community, engage in commerce, or protest injustices. The design of these spaces is critical to their ability to foster civic participation. Jan Gehl has argued that public spaces should be designed for people and encourage social interactions that build social capital (Gehl, 2006). Social capital is beneficial to individuals and communities in many ways, including political engagement, the economic prosperity of individuals and communities, and the safety and security of the community (Putnam, 1995). It has been said that in public spaces, …

Multiscale Modeling And Simulation Of Clutter In Isar Imaging, Jon Mitchell

Electrical Engineering Dissertations

Clutter is common in applications of radar imaging and can adversely impact target imaging by contributing scattered energy that is not accounted for in target signal models. One potential source of clutter is moving foliage in the vicinity of the target, such as a target embedded in a forest. ISAR imaging of moving clutter results in an equivalent current image that changes over each imaging sample. The stochastic nature of this clutter equivalent current presents challenges in detecting and imaging a weak embedded target using traditional algorithms. This dissertation proposes a multiscale model and analysis method to characterize the multiscale …

Identifying And Addressing Improvement Opportunities In Primary Care Clinics, Mozhdeh Sadighi

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations

ABSTRACT: The main aim of this dissertation is to study how unrecognized opportunities for improving efficiency of in-person patient visits in a primary care clinic can be identified and addressed. To fulfill this goal, the research is divided into three distinct but related sections. Section one, with the most holistic view, uses a combination of scientific and rigorous methods along two research paths and, as a result, explores two opportunities for improvement in the clinic. These opportunities are high patient waiting time and unbalanced workload. Sections two and three each focus on underlying conditions driving one of these two opportunities. …

Some New Results On Statistical Information And Evidence, Maryam Moghimi

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations

This dissertation represents an attempt to relate some fundamental statistical problems using the notions of information, entropy, and evidence.

Mathematical Modeling Approaches In Sustainable Food Supply Chains, Amin Gharehyakheh

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations

Access to high quality and safe food is vital for sustainable development in societies. Perishable foods lose a major portion of their quality after harvesting until the consumption point due to poor storage and distribution conditions. Thus, improvements in food supply chain operations are very critical in the sustainable development of society and the industry. The first part of this dissertation seeks to find a cost-effective and reliable tool to monitor the quality loss and implementation of the least shelf life first-out inventory management policy in food banks. Application of the Gompertz model and Arrhenius equation based on time-temperature data …

Reinitiation Mode Study Of Highly Irregular Detonation, Nandakumar Vijayakumar

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations

The propagation of detonation waves is governed by their stability characteristics. Interest in highly unstable detonation grew when early experiments revealed limits of operation to be directly proportional to the stability of detonation. This research focuses on reinitiation pathways of highly irregular self-sustaining detonation. This is an important aspect of stability which is not yet fully understood, while many possible mechanisms have been proposed in the literature. First, a one-dimensional instability model simulation was performed using a global one-step chemistry mechanism to understand the different unstable modes by increasing the activation energy of a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. The …

Measurement And Optimization Of Thermal Transport Phenomena For Weld Strength Improvement In Polymer Extrusion Based Additive Manufacturing, Darshan Babu Ravoori

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations

Additive manufacturing (AM) processes involve layer-by-layer addition of material to fabricate a 3-dimensional part. AM offers significant design and manufacturing flexibility compared to traditional manufacturing approaches. The major challenge in polymer-based additive manufacturing (AM) is that printed parts often have poor thermal/structural properties. These properties depend on weld strength of filaments and which intern depends on the degree of healing/neck growth between deposited polymers. The major contribution of this dissertation is understanding the importance of heat transfer during the printing process on the polymer neck growth and presented with techniques to improve the thermal and structural strength of finished part. …

Design And Optimization Of Thermal Management Approaches In Data Center Applications, Rajesh Kasukurthy

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations

In the present day to day life, Internet of Things (IOT) is everything, i.e., Internet and telecommunication is needed for almost every task of our life, which require data centers. These data centers provide various facilities such as, data processing, storage, transmission, maintenance, operations etc., To perform these tasks, a huge amount of power is consumed, which in turn generates large amount of heat. As these data centers are to be made operational throughout the year, cooling of data centers is of utmost importance. The continued increase in heat flux at the chip level due to new and robust technology …

Robust, Time-Critical, Evidence-Based Adaptive Data Fusion, Mohammad Amin Javadi

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations

Sensors have become inevitable part of many studies and working areas ranging from navigation, transportation and medical applications. A sensor can help a user in a variety of situations including dangerous, inaccessible, time and money-consuming circumstances. Applying multiple sensors simultaneously allows for improving the accuracy of measurement estimates for system states. As an example, a part of this study uses a GPS sensor to increase the accuracy of the position estimation obtained by an IMU in an indoor environment. The same GPS device with position outputs can also be studied to provide a new measuring dimension such as velocity. This …

Heat Transfer Measurements And Enhancement For Materials And Processes In Polymer Extrusion Based Additive Manufacturing, Hardikkumar Mangaldas Prajapati

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a burgeoning method for manufacturing over the subtractive manufacturing methodologies. Among the various method of polymer additive manufacturing the fused deposition modeling (FDM) also known as 3D printing is the most popular technique. In this technique, a rastering extruder dispenses a thermoplastic material on to a bed at a temperature greater than its glass transition temperature to build the part. Due to the additive nature of the process, AM introduces several challenges related to functional properties such as strength, thermal conductivity, etc of the eventual part. Measurement of thermal conductivity of additively manufactured polymer samples in …

Distributed Optimal Policies For Multi-Agent Systems Under Uncertainties, Mushuang Liu

Electrical Engineering Dissertations

Multi-agent systems (MAS) have attracted increasing attention in the past years due to their wide applications in mobile robots, sensor networks, autonomous driving systems, etc. Along with this trend, developing distributed optimal policies for MAS under uncertainties has become indispensable. Multi-dimensional uncertainties often modulate system dynamics in a complicated fashion, which leads to computational challenges for real-time control. In many practical MAS, each agent also has its own interest to optimize beyond a global objective. Developing distributed optimal control for agents with self-interests is needed. To address the above challenges, this dissertation contributes in two major directions for MAS: 1) …

Design Optimization Of An Elastically Supported Multi-Beam Rotordynamic System To Minimize Flexural Response With Considerations For Robustness, Bret R. Hauser

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations

Modern rotating machines are often required to operate with a small physical footprint and/or overall weight; necessitating that they utilize wide-ranging shaft speed to accomplish needed power levels. It is not uncommon that these designs also be required to support operation through a speed range encompassing multiple Critical Speeds while also limiting flexural vibrations to acceptable levels. Design optimization of this class of problem can be particularly difficult in that responses can be highly multi-modal and, when coupled with Finite Element (FE) solvers meet the conditions of a High Dimensional, Computationally Expensive Black Box (HEB) system. Because of this, some …

The Development Of On-Chip Optofluidic Droplet Lasers, Han Zhang

Electrical Engineering Dissertations

Optofluidic lasers have been an emerging field for the applications of biological sensing and diagnosis, chemical sensing, and point-of-care devices. Droplets, as optical cavities, confines whispering gallery modes with high quality factors in small volumes. Optofluidic droplet lasers have brought the droplet-based microfluidics and droplets as micro-resonators to one platform, showing potentials on applications in highly sensitive bio/chemical detection, tunable lasers, cell tracking and tissue imaging. Until now, optofluidic droplet lasers can be categorized into two types, static droplet lasers and droplet lasers on the flow. Static droplet lasers offer long lifetime for biosensing, while droplet lasers on the flow …

Food Affordability: Sustainable Food Center Increasing Food Access Through Double Dollars Incentive, Codie Freeman

Public Affairs Theses

Food barriers have become a growing problem for many communities due to lower access to healthy foods. Not having access to healthy foods has been linked to health problems rising in communities. There are several food barriers including affordability of food that causes individuals of low-income groups to struggle to gain access to fruits and vegetables. Communities across the world have been creating and implementing new policies and programs in order to reduce the geographic and monetary barriers to increase food access. The Sustainable Food Center has been utilizing their Double Dollars Program to help lower income families who are …

The Effect Of Crime On Ridership, An In-Depth Analysis Of How Transit Station Neighborhood Characteristics Prevent Crime And Encourage Ridership, Sahar Esfandyari

Public Affairs Dissertations

Factors influencing public transit ridership have been widely explored in recent decades. While planners believe that density and mixed land use around transit stations will increase public transit ridership, criminology studies claim that transit stations and their surrounding environments are more prone to criminal activities due to high levels of movement and interaction between unknown persons. This study aims to investigate the impact of crime on Light Rail Transit (LRT) ridership. Using the geo-locating technique, this study analyzes the spatial distribution of crimes in the half- mile buffer around stations in six Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs): Dallas, Miami, Salt Lake …

The Geography Of Creative Clusters And Firm Productivity: Empirical Evidence From 20 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (Msas) In The United States, Tahereh Granpayehvaghei

Public Affairs Dissertations

The burgeoning research on creative clusters and an increased rate of municipal investment in creative policymaking are becoming dominant global trends. Yet, the factors that help foster creative-friendly communities and how much they relate to creative firm productivity remain insufficiently understood. This dissertation is a step forward in our knowledge of the geography and typology of creative clusters and their association with productivity in the United States. In this research, creative clusters refer to meaningful and statistically significant agglomerations of creative firms. This research demonstrates that creative clusters have an “urban nature” in most cases, meaning that there is a …

Exploring The Determinants Behind The Mode Preference For And Frequency Of Use Of App-Based, On-Demand Ride Services And Fixed-Route Transit Services By Transit-Dependent Populations, Farokh Bagheri

Public Affairs Dissertations

In recent decades, the development of diverse types of transportation systems to meet the needs of people in all parts of a country is a trend in urban development that is in line with interest in the sustainable development of communities. This development has prompted transportation policymakers to adopt policies to improve the transportation conditions of the community, while citizens, in the face of these policies, make decisions in choosing the type of transportation system that is possible, and may be different from the policy makers' management programs. Therefore, paying attention to people's views and their awareness of their preferences …

International Compensation: An Examination Of The Relationship Between Societal Culture And Preferred Compensation Policies, Divyanshu Vardhan V. Sharma

Management Theses

In my thesis, I review the research literature on the influence of national culture on reward preferences and compensation practices. I first review the major models of culture used to examine reward practices and then detail the convergence and divergence debate in international management by highlighting constraining forces in the host and home business environment that lead to standardization or localization. Finally, I review the research on cultural dimensions and preferred compensation practices and propose an integrative model.I conclude that culture is one of the many macro-variables that influence international compensation decisions and argue that the adaption of compensation practices …

Improving Online Students’ Quality Of Relationships, Academic Success, And Overall Satisfaction: A Comparative Study Between Undergraduates Who Use And Who Do Not Use Student Affairs Resources, David Duvall

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations

Online education is the fastest-growing option for student seeking completion of a degree from an institution of higher education. Students enjoy the increase pace of the coursework and the autonomy to complete it on their own time, while universities identify online education as a key factor in increasing their enrollment. However, the attrition rates of students seeking a degree through online coursework is much higher than that their on-campus counterparts. With factors such as funding, institutional rankings, and accreditation linked to the retention and graduation of its students, colleges and universities have much to gain by increasing the persistence of …

Life On The Front Line: Staff Experiences Handling Distressed Students And Their Perceptions On Job Satisfaction, Delcenia R. Collins

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the experiences of new student affairs professionals handling mental health issues among college students and how it may influence their job satisfaction. Kucirka’s (2017) model of navigating the faculty–student relationship in the context of student mental health issues provided the framework for this study. There were 15 diverse participants from Wellness University, a large public research institution in the southwest region of the United States, who engaged in semi-structured interviews to share their experience about working with distressed students and how it has impacted their job satisfaction. Findings from this study revealed that new student affairs …

Rational Expectations Or Behaviorally Inefficient Markets, Arati Devendra Kale

Finance and Real Estate Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine the rational investment hypothesis, postulated by classical theories, in mutual fund and portfolio management settings. My first two essays focus on mutual fund investors. I study whether mutual fund investors display racial or ethnic prejudices, which can be observed by mutual fund flows. I hand-collect data on characteristics of mutual fund managers in addition to their names and photographs. I use machine learning algorithms from computer science literature to calculate the probabilistic race from photographs and the probabilistic ethnicity from names. In my third essay, I construct a portfolio comprising of the small growth firms …

Peter And The Starcatcher: Creating The Character Of Peter Pan Via Rehearsal, Script Analysis, And Personal Journals, Delaney Jackson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Theatre, as an art, does an incredible job at making stage life look as organic as the lives we lead on a daily basis. That’s thanks in part to a methodical rehearsal process that the public rarely has a chance to see.

My goal with this creative project was to give the general public an opportunity to join myself and the rest of the cast of UNO’s Peter and the Starcatcher on a journey through our rehearsal process via journal keeping and character analysis before presenting the show on April 15, 2020.

Unfortunately, we had to give a painful goodbye …

The Battle Over Identity: Finnish-Americans And The Finnish Civil War, Christopher Malmberg

History Dissertations

Historical research on Finnish migration and Finnish-Americans has, until recently, been carried out by members of the Finnish-American community and as such has written out the role of Finnish-Americans in the radical labor movement, as well as their reactions to the Finnish Civil War. In some regards it could be argued that the Finnish Civil War was also fought in America, with newspapers used in battles instead of guns. Finnish-American workers’ response to the civil war, combined with Finnish-Americans’ involved in the nationalization process of Finland, illustrates the transnational nature of seemingly national events. To help create what Benedict Anderson …

Black Skin, White Money: The Transatlantic Propaganda Campaign To Recolonize West Africa, 1786 - 1863, Daniel Jason Degges

History Dissertations

Previous scholarship has mostly left the story of recolonization of former slaves and Free People of Color to West Africa in the dustbin of history. These studies also have artificially separated the multiple failed attempts into the story of either Sierra Leone or Liberia. This dissertation, for the first time, looks comprehensively and comparatively at the transatlantic propaganda campaign that accompanied each wave of support and resulting failures and the part it played in the success of the abolition movement. Ever marching westward from its London roots, recolonization’s boosters repeatedly tried to build on an imagined community that had little …

Imperial Women Of Darien: Scottish Migration And Gender In The Atlantic World, 1650-1740, Gina G. Bennett

History Dissertations

In the last two years of the seventeenth century, approximately 3,000 people, mostly Scottish merchants, soldiers, sailors and their families, migrated to a small coastal region in central America for the purpose of establishing a colony in Panama. These travelers personified the financial dreams of some elite Scottish merchants when they formed a joint stock company known as The Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies in 1696. The colony of New Caledonia ultimately proved unsuccessful and ended in the first years of the eighteenth century. Because of the failure of the Darien Scheme and its close associated …

English Proficiency At A Glance: A Literature Review And Qualitative Interview Analysis For First-Time Tesol For First-Time Tesol Volunteers, Molly Bebko

Honors Projects

The purpose of this literature review and these consultations is to present the demands and needs of ESL volunteers in order that they may be effective teachers. These demands of ESL volunteers will be categorized according to the eight domains of the 2008 TESOL International Association Standards for ESL/EFL Teachers of Adults Framework. The literature review comprised of a thematic search of past and current research. The consultation process was semi-structured, phenomenological, and qualitative. The primary investigator interviewed five professionals in the ESL field. After both the literature review and consultation process, themes were identified and results were categorized into …

Studies On Guest/Host Complexes, Liposomal And Other Systems For Potential Chemotherapeutic Drug(S) Delivery, Sherif Ashraf Fahmy

Theses and Dissertations

Following the discovery of cisplatin over 50 years ago, this platinum-based drug (PBD) has been a widely used and effective form of cancer therapy, primarily causing cell death by inducing DNA damage and triggering apoptosis. However, the dose limiting toxicity of cisplatin has led to the development of the newer generations' platinum-based drugs (second and third) that maintain the cytotoxicity of cisplatin but have more acceptable side-effect profiles. In addition to the creation of new analogs, tumor delivery systems such as liposome-encapsulated platinum drugs have been designed and are currently in clinical trials. In this study, we have created and …

Metal-Decorated Carbon Nanotubes For Gas Sensing Applications, Icell Sharafeldin

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reports on the investigation of metal-decorated carbon nanotubes-based sensor arrays with enhanced sensitivity and selectivity toward toxic gases. Ab initio first-principles methods were used to expedite the process of identifying the right materials with the highest potential compared to in-lab trial and error as well as to provide a deeper understanding of the gas adsorption mechanism. The mechanism of NO2 adsorption on Cu-, Pt- and Ti-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) was investigated. Modelling the isolated NO2 molecule indicated the formation of a band gap between the 3Ï€* HOMO and 5σ* LUMO levels, which were found to be the …

Memorial Earth Park © An Environmentally Sustainable Public Space: Synthesizing Burial Mounds, Family Trees And Human Body Composting In North Texas, Gregory A. Craig

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses

Over the next 30 years, the population growth in North Texas will place increasing demands on our urban infrastructure and natural resources, while reducing our available public land and open space. Impacts from expanded urban development will decrease our tree canopy coverage, reduce air & water quality and increase impervious surfaces, urban heat island effects and storm water flooding. Environmental sustainability is critical to combat the negative impacts of future growth in North Texas. The memorial landscape is a landscape of tremendous cultural significance in America (Wasserman, 1998) , but the two most traditional means of disposing of human remains …

Recreating A Classical Sleeping Beauty Tutu And Bodice Using Modern Methods, Gennevieve L. Wright

Honors College Theses

Tchaikovsky’s ballet Sleeping Beauty was first produced in the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on January 15, 1890. Since the ballet’s debut, the design and construction of the leading tutus have evolved and spread considerably. In most modern renditions of this particular ballet, the silhouette of the tutu includes a skirt made of net tulle that sticks straight out from either the hip or the waist, depending on the exact style. This silhouette that is so integral to a majority of modern ballets did not appear until the 1870s, just twenty short years before Sleeping Beauty’s debut. This project will …