Digital Commons Network^™

Improving The Enabling Environment For Electronic Communications And Ict Development In Kosova : [Presentation Given On November 17, 2010], Agim Kukaj

Theses

This Capstone Project addresses an important problem hampering growth and development in the Kosova electronic communications sector, namely that its legislative enabling environment is seriously out of phase with current communications technology convergence, modern competition-based regulatory practices, and European Union (EU) information society policies. This is because the existing Law on Telecommunications is eight years old and urgently requires updating, and at the urging of the European Commission (EC), has led Government to commit to completing a new Electronic Communications Law based on EU legislation by end 2010. Specifically, of the many issues to be addressed by a new legislative …

Analysis Of A Queueing Model With Service Threshold, Kathryn Graf

Theses

We study a variation of the M/G/1 queueing model in which service time of customers is modified depending on the class to which the customers belong. Specifically, apart from the regular service time, we consider different service times for every customer who starts service after an idle and also for every (m+1)st customer. The model represents situations such as when the system requires a warm up time from a cold start (i.e.) after being idle for some time and also a system that is taken down at regular intervals perhaps for maintenance. Such systems come under the general class of …

Predicting Someone's True Identity: Linguistic Norms And Cues In Online Personal Advertisements, Lindsay Elliott

Theses

Internet dating is now ranked third as the way people meet, behind meeting at work or school, and through a friend or family member. This study researches the use of social and linguistic norms in online dating advertisements. Previous research has posed that social groups create unique identities and group members will selectively present themselves in ways consistent with these identities. Using Craigslist to assess the similarities and differences between genders and sexualities in online personal postings, an online quiz-like survey was created. This research reports on people's abilities to predict the sexual orientation and gender of the writer based …

Gender Differences In Resilience In The Emerging Adulthood Population, Erin Bezek

Theses

Risk factors and protective factors influence an individual's resilience. For this study archival data collected from Rochester Institute of Technology college students were used. Specifically the participants' responses on the 16PF- Adolescent Personality Questionnaire (APQ) Life Difficulties Scale (LDS) were analyzed. After reconfiguring the Life Difficulties Scale using the literature review to analyze the items, results indicated that specific items can be considered risk factors, whereas others can be considered protective factors. Results from this emerging adulthood population did not indicate gender differences in the risk and protective factors.

Bessi, Danny Rings

Theses

This paper Accompanies my animated short film entitled Bessi. In this paper I will describe the creation and motivation for the story of Bessi. I will also discuss my visual style and the roots from whence it came. I shall tell the reader of the techniques I used to achieve the ascetics I wanted. I will describe all the issues I had in the creation of the story and the problems I encountered as I animated. I explain the animation style I chose and why. I also discuss the animation techniques I used and why. I shall tell how my …

Public Administration Reform In Kosovo: Strengthening The Role And Capacities Of Kosovo Institute Of Public Administration : [Presentation Given November 17, 2010.], Pleurat Sejdiu

Theses

This capstone project is addressing the challenges of Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Kosovo with focus on strengthening the role and capacities of the Kosovo Institute of Public Administration (KIPA), the KIPA is a critical institution for ensuring a successful implementation of the Strategy of Public Administration Reform. During research, it was noticed that countries aspiring to join the European Union have undergone serious reforms in their public administration, in search for good governance, and improvement of administrative efficiency, also the promotion of the devotion of public sector staff to democratic values, ethics and respect of the rule of law. …

Modeling The Random Component Of Manufacturing Yield Of Integrated Circuits., David L. Farnsworth, Michael E. Long

Articles

A model is created for the number of integrated circuits that are good from each wafer on which they are fabricated. The goal is to separate the random or common cause loss from the systematic or special loss. The random loss from this type of process is modeled so that false alarms indicating systematic loss are less likely to occur and so that the structure of the systematic loss can be determined.

Modeling And Simulation Of Jp-8 Fuel Based Hybrid Solid Oxide Fuel Cell System, Kalyan Nishtala

Theses

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) are solid state energy conversion devices that operate at high temperatures (800 to 1000 ±C). Their inherent advantage of fuel flexibility, tolerance to impurities, faster chemical kinetics with non precious catalyst materials and capability of supporting bottoming cycle components make them an attractive proposition for energy generation in comparison to other fuel cell technologies. To assist the advancement of this technology, this work develops dynamic, computer-based, mathematical models of an Auto-thermal reformer (ATR) based SOFC system with Jet Propellant-8 as the fuel to the ATR. Limitations in the existing models of SOFC systems lie in …

Project: Love Yours, Wei Hsiao

Theses

Project: Love Yours is a graduate thesis project that examined the importance of emotional attachments to product longevity in the context of problems where our material culture is distant and disposable. Through research memory was identified as an influential factor in attachment formation. By incorporating the philosophical concept of imperfection as a design strategy to stimulate the process of memory building, three concept solutions were developed. The design implementation in four product prototypes proves to be successful in encouraging memories to grow within each product. As ownership continues over the years, we can anticipate memories to accumulate and build up …

Measuring Aberrations In Lithographic Projection Systems With Phase Wheel Targets, Lena Zavyalova

Theses

A significant factor in the degradation of nanolithographic image fidelity is optical wavefront aberration. Aerial image sensitivity to aberrations is currently much greater than in earlier lithographic technologies, a consequence of increased resolution requirements. Optical wavefront tolerances are dictated by the dimensional tolerances of features printed, which require lens designs with a high degree of aberration correction. In order to increase lithographic resolution, lens numerical aperture (NA) must continue to increase and imaging wavelength must decrease. Not only do aberration magnitudes scale inversely with wavelength, but high-order aberrations increase at a rate proportional to NA2 or greater, as do aberrations …

Ftp-Like Streams For The 9p File Protocol, John Floren

Theses

The Plan 9 operating system from Bell Labs has broken a great deal of new ground in the realm of operating systems, providing a lightweight, network-centric OS with private namespaces and other important concepts. In Plan 9, all file operations, whether local or over the network, take place through the 9P file protocol. Although 9P is both simple and powerful, developments in computer and network hardware have over time outstripped the performance of 9P. Today, file operations, especially copying files over a network, are much slower with 9P than with protocols such as HTTP or FTP. 9P operates in terms …

The Unit Rbf Network: Experiments And Preliminary Results, Peter G. Anderson

Articles

URBF, the unit radial basis function network is an RBF neural network with all second layer weights set to +/- 1. The URBF models functions or physical phenomena by sampling their behaviors at various probe points, and correcting the model, more and more delicately (i.e., using Gaussian functions with ever narrower spread), when discrepancies are discovered. The probe points---input space positions to test and adjust the network---are linear pixel shuffling points, used for their highly uniform sampling property. We demonstrate the network's performance on several examples. It shows its power via good extrapolation behavior: for smooth-boundary discriminations, very few new …

Atmospheric Compensation Over Case Ii Waters: Simultaneous Aerosol And Water Constituent Retrieval, Donald Taylor

Theses

In many algorithms designed to retrieve water constituent concentrations, an assumption of negligible water-leaving radiance is made in the near infrared (NIR) wavelengths (750-950 [nm]). This allows fairly accurate atmospheric correction to be applied to the oceanic imagery. Given this assumption, it is possible to derive model estimates of aerosol type and density and compensate for its effects in other regions of the spectrum. Unfortunately this assumption is only valid in areas of very low total suspended sediment (TSS) concentrations, such as open ocean waters. Increased TSS load causes significant back-scattering within the water, increasing the water leaving signal in …

Kethelavia: Promoting And Branding An Original Cartoon Using Interactive Website Design, Wenzheng Cui

Theses

How to design and promote a cartoon brand are always interesting questions to contemporary cartoon industry. To the rising Chinese cartoon business, they need to find a suitable way for its continuous development. Through reviewing the evolution process of some classical cartoon brands in the world, the history and current status of Chinese cartoon industry, I have found that, cartoon making is no longer purely an art work, but rather a concept of brand design. Like fashion, cartoon brand design asks for a constant self-re-innovation to meet the change in culture and aesthetic standards. On the other hand, new technology …

X-Rays From Planetary Nebulae: Unveiling Wind Collisions And Binarity, Rodolfo Montez

Theses

Planetary nebulae (PNe), the ionized, ejected envelopes of low- to intermediate-mass stars, are thought to be shaped by a nascent fast wind from the spent core (a future white dwarf) that collides with and sweeps up previously ejected material (red and asymptotic branch giant winds). This collision can generate an X-ray emitting "hot bubble" that fills the swept-up cavity. Circumstellar material in a dense torus or disk, likely due to an interacting binary in the PN nucleus, is widely believed to collimate the winds that shape non-spherical PNe. Hence, PNe offer excellent opportunities to study astrophysical shocks and binary interactions. …

A Multimedia Instructional Animation And Website On Anti-Glomerular Disease, Mary Roche

Theses

Immunology is a field of study that is expanding in the biomedical community. Current research has given the study greater consideration in understanding the nature and origin of disease. The purpose of this project was to explore the immunology of a particular type of kidney disease: Anti–Glomerular basement Membrane disease. The kidneys provide a visual landscape that is anatomically unique. The nephron, in particular, provides anatomical structures that lend themselves nicely to engaging visual graphics. The animation of Anti–Gomerular Basement Membrane Disease provides a visual format for understanding structures and processes that have not been previously presented in a visual …

Reposition, Ratna Khanna

Theses

Landscape should be an instrument of cultural force. This work contemplates the relationship between the artificial and the natural. It resulted from thinking about matters concerning my interactions with public space; the combination of nature and the culture we inflict upon it. By including "nature" here, I use it to denote an outside environment that includes biological activity that is untamed, yet still capable of being influenced by human agency. This human agency takes the form of culture, that which appropriates nature towards our social needs. Hence, this agency benefits the formation of landscapes. A cultural artifact such as an …

Laplacian Eigenmaps Manifold Learning And Anomaly Detection Methods For Spectral Images, Marcela Munoz Reales

Theses

Spectral images provide a large amount of spectral information about a scene, but sometimes when studying images, we are interested in specific components. It is a difficult problem to separate the relevant information or what we call interesting from the background of a spectral image, even more so if our target objects are unknown. Anomaly detection is a process by which algorithms are designed to separate the anomalous (different) points from the background of an image. The data is complex and lives in a high dimension, manifold learning algorithms are used to analyze data that lives in a high dimensional …

Digital Dog Shelter Application, Taryn Bzdick

Theses

Pet overpopulation has been a major issue for a long time. Hundreds of thousands of dogs are in shelters all over the country who desperately need homes. When looking up these dogs on shelter web sites it is common to find a small blurb and a low quality photograph in a poorly designed environment about a dog in need of a home. Most of the time these postings are not informative enough to help the potential owner make an educated decision in choosing the right dog for them. Dogs in these shelters would have significantly higher chances of being adopted …

Extracting Structural Vegetation Components From Small-Footprint Waveform Lidar Data In Savanna Ecosystems, Joseph Mcglinchy

Theses

Research groups at Rochester Institute of Technology and Carnegie Institution for Science are focusing on characterization of savanna ecosystems using data collected from the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO), which integrates high spatial resolution imaging spectroscopy and waveform light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data. This component of the larger RIT ecosystem project evaluated the extraction of waveform features from the small-footprint waveform LiDAR data and their ability to explain structural variation across differing land cover types by way of bare ground cover, woody, and herbaceous biomass estimation. The combination of nanosecond digitization of the backscattered signal and fine spatial resolution allowed …

Differences In Personality Factors And College Major Choice, Jennifer Smith

Theses

The transition from secondary education to post-secondary education is stressful for all students. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA 2004) only mandates transition plans for students receiving special education services. Career assessments and transition services should encourage career exploration which requires students to have knowledge about oneself and the world of work. When career assessments provide students with this information, they may be more informed on what major to choose. The purpose of this study was to look at group differences among college majors and their personality factors as measured by the Sixteen Personality Questionnaire, 5th Edition (16PF-5). …

Exploring Taoism Philosophy: A Visual Interactive Interpretation, Yang Dan

Theses

Thesis URL: http://www.yangdan.info/thesis Exploring Taoism Philosophy: A Visual Interactive Interpretation is an interactive graphic design project which introduces the Taoism philosophy to college students, it's also a personal graphic interpretation of Taoism. This project is a flash website that runs on any computer that has access to the Internet. My goal for this project is to explore the history, principles, and rules of Taoism philosophy, its applications in modern society and to interpret Taoism through creative interactive graphic solutions based on personal understanding. My targeted audience is college students from 18 to 25 who have interests in Taoism, philosophy, or …

High Tech Vanity: Efficient Design With The Help Of Technology, Cassandra Krul

Theses

On a daily basis, humans execute multiple tasks. With technology becoming more prevalent in our everyday lives, we find it creeping into these rituals. This makes it easier to accomplish many tasks at once. The root of the success of technology is its ability to allow us to communicate in ways beyond a simple conversation. That is to say, means of communication are constantly being reinvented and developed.

With these developments, people are finding creative ways of implementing technology into everyday tasks For example, many of us start our day by waking up and taking a shower. Following that shower, …

Interactive Stem Cells: Education Through Game Design, Sarah Hudson

Theses

In my thesis I developed an interactive website intended to educate the non-scientific or lay public about stem cells. Most people have heard about stem cells but few truly understand them. It would be beneficial to those wishing to engage in the current stem cell debate to be more thoroughly educated. Currently, the information available is all geared towards scientists or from a biased source. I used a series of Flash games to convey the important information in an engaging way. The site is intuitive enough that even users unfamiliar with the Internet and basic high-school science knowledge will be …

Daughter Of Nepal, Surbhi Dewan

Theses

Living in exile since the age of 9, Manushi Yami Bhattarai, now 23, is back in the political chaos of Kathmandu, Nepal to carry on the legacy of her parents in the Maoist party. The film DAUGHTER OF NEPAL explores Manushi's childhood years through poignant correspondence with her parents, her politics, and her dream of creating a new Nepal. The filmmaker Surbhi Dewan writes here about her experiences during the making of this documentary film.

Cookie Dough 2.0: Digital Sketchbook, Sue Leo

Theses

Cookie Dough 2.0 is a thesis documenting the graphic design branding journey of transforming cookie dough from simply a mixture of raw ingredients used in making chocolate chip cookies into a legitimate snack food. Graphic design was the critical factor in forming the brand character, packaging and marketing support materials. All concepts and final mechanicals were created digitally. Additionally, this thesis illustrates how the brand identity emerged through the many phases of product development.

Priorities For Privatization Of Kosovo's Electricity Distribution Network And Supply : [Presented May 17, 2010], Avdush Ibishi

Theses

Historically nationalized industries have had a low performance and generally speaking, the privatizations of these industries increased dramatically their efficiency and effectiveness. For these reasons, the Kosovo’s government has decided to privatize the Distribution System Operator (DSO) and Electricity Supply. This privatization is set to take place in the second part of 2010. There are several priorities that need to be considered for an effective transfer of ownership of Kosovo’s Distribution network from the government control to private investors. The top three priorities in this project are considered to be: • Legislation and regulation for distribution • Economic and electricity …

Appendages, Emily Winton

Theses

Appendages explores my sexuality, identity and the concepts of heteronormativity, queer theory, and gender norms. Through the creation of sculptures called DilNO's, I was able to engage the audience in experiencing my interpretation of my own sexuality. By mocking and bending the concept of the dildo, I was challenging the stereotypes of gender, and lesbian sexuality and intimacy. The sensations of touching and feeling played a vital role in both the creation and presentation of the pieces in my thesis exhibition. Moving from my previous photographic work into the three-dimensional realm of sculpture helped me express the physical and sensual …

Purification, Processing, And Separation Of Carbon Nanotubes And Application In Lithium Ion Batteries, Matthew Ganter

Theses

Single wall carbon nanotubes' (SWCNTs) unique structural and electronic properties have made them an ideal candidate for use in electrochemical devices like lithium ion batteries, PEM fuel cells, and supercapacitors. SWCNTs were investigated as free-standing anodes, current collector supports, and conductive additives in lithium ion batteries. Before incorporation into batteries, the effect of organic solvents on SWCNT material properties and separation of SWCNTs by electronic type was studied to enable characterization and control of SWCNT properties. Variations in purity, solvent processing, and electronic type of SWCNTs are shown to have a significant effect on SWCNT characterization, optoelectronic properties, and performance …

Feasibility Study Of A Novel Method For Real-Time Aerodynamic Coefficient Estimation, Phillip Gurbacki

Theses

In this work, a feasibility study of a novel technique for the real-time identification of uncertain nonlinear aircraft aerodynamic coefficients has been conducted. The major objective of this paper is to investigate the feasability of a system for parameter identification in a real-time flight environment. This system should be able to calculate aerodynamic coefficients and derivative information using typical pilot inputs while ensuring robust, stable, and rapid convergence. The parameter estimator investigated is based upon the nonlinear sliding mode control schema; one of the main advantages of the sliding mode estimator is the ability to guarantee a stable and robust …