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Optimal Feature Learning For Facial Expression Recognition, Kamran Ali
Optimal Feature Learning For Facial Expression Recognition, Kamran Ali
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
A great deal of research has been done to improve the performance of Facial Expression Recognition (FER) algorithms, but extracting optimal features to represent expressions remains a challenging task. The biggest drawback is that most work on FER ignores the inter-subject variations in facial attributes of individuals present in data. Hence, the representation extracted for the recognition of expressions is polluted by identity-related features that negatively affect the generalization capability of a FER technique on unseen identities. To overcome the effect of subject-identity bias, previous research shows the effectiveness of extracting identity-invariant expression features for FER. However, most of those …
How Does A Veteran Teacher Implement A Prekindergarten Math Curriculum?, Heidi Butterfield
How Does A Veteran Teacher Implement A Prekindergarten Math Curriculum?, Heidi Butterfield
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The purpose of this study was to explore how a veteran teacher implemented a state-approved commercial math curriculum in a prekindergarten classroom. In this action research study, guided by ethnographic principles, I employed Spradley's (2016) developmental research sequence to study what resources from the curriculum the teacher used, how the teacher adapted the curriculum, and what influenced the decisions the teacher made while implementing the curriculum. Data collected for this study included: the teacher guide provided by the commercial curriculum; teacher lesson plans; photographs of student created artifacts; the teacher's reflection journal and notes; and videos of a teacher implementing …
Leveraging Multimodal Learning Analytics To Understand How Humans Learn With Emerging Technologies, Elizabeth Cloude
Leveraging Multimodal Learning Analytics To Understand How Humans Learn With Emerging Technologies, Elizabeth Cloude
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Major education and training challenges are plaguing the United States in preparing the next generation of the future workforce to meet the demands of the 21st Century. Several calls have been released to improve education programs to ensure learners are acquiring 21st century knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). As we embark on the digital and automation ages of the 21st century, it is essential that we move away from traditional education programs that define and measure KSAs as static constructs (e.g., standardized assessments) with little consideration of the actual real-time deployment of these processes, missing critical information on the degree …
Wavelet Particle Hydrodynamics For Less Smooth Flow, Oddny Brun
Wavelet Particle Hydrodynamics For Less Smooth Flow, Oddny Brun
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The purpose of this research was to improve the smoothing operation in smoothed particle hydrodynamics, SPH, when the flow of matter is not smooth. Our main focuses are on the kernel selection, identifying the discontinuities in the sequences to be smoothed, and use of the Laplacian as opposed to artificial viscosity for improved physical accuracy. The results show that alternative kernels result in differences in how matter flows. These effects are explained by the kernels' gradient and Laplacian properties. Five alternative kernels were included in our analysis and our SPH-based simulation cases. Further, the sequences to be smoothed by the …
Change Sustainment Model (Csm) To Address Industry 4.0 In A Classified Environment, Hamilton Ervin
Change Sustainment Model (Csm) To Address Industry 4.0 In A Classified Environment, Hamilton Ervin
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Business and engineering have long intersected with each other in industry. In actuality, they are inseparable. That notion drove the thought process and actions taken to observe phenomena within a U.S. Fortune 500, Aerospace & Defense industry, Department of Defense, independent contractor. In Aerospace & Defense, the ability to implement technology freely and change to address an ever-evolving technological landscape in the world has proven to be difficult given the nature of the work performed. U.S. national security must be protected at all times, therefore information sharing guided by a "need-to-know" basis create an inability to easily implement organizational change …
Utilizing High Throughput Computing Techniques For The Predictions Of Spectroscopic Properties Of Astrophysically Relevant Molecules, Brian Ferrari
Utilizing High Throughput Computing Techniques For The Predictions Of Spectroscopic Properties Of Astrophysically Relevant Molecules, Brian Ferrari
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Here, we utilize Quantum Chemistry (QC) approaches to predict the structures, vibrational frequencies, infrared intensities and Raman activities of unusual molecular species using the General Atomic and Molecular Structure System (GAMESS(US)) package. A Python-based software, AutoGAMESS, was developed to automate the workflow and take advantage of High Throughput Computing (HTC) techniques enabling the automated generation of spectroscopic data from hundreds of calculations. This approach was utilized to determine these properties for a series of carbon oxides (C2On; n = 3 to 4), anticipated to be produced during the radiation of pure carbon dioxide ices, under conditions relevant to the interstellar …
Anomaly Detection And Failure Prediction In Gas Turbines, Vipul Goyal
Anomaly Detection And Failure Prediction In Gas Turbines, Vipul Goyal
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
This study is based on time-series data taken from the combined cycle heavy-duty utility gas turbines. For analysis, first, a multi-stage vector autoregressive model is constructed for the nominal operation of powerplant assuming sparsity in the association among variables, and this model is used as a basis for anomaly detection and prediction. This prediction is compared with the time-series data of the powerplant test data containing anomalies. Granger causality networks, which are based on the associations between the time series streams, can be learned as an important implication from the vector autoregressive modelling. This method suffers from the disadvantage that …
Topology Optimization Of Internal Cooling Channels In Turbulent Flows, Shinjan Ghosh
Topology Optimization Of Internal Cooling Channels In Turbulent Flows, Shinjan Ghosh
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Topology optimization, introduced by Bendsoe and Sigmund in 1988 has been a topic of research in the structural mechanics field for several decades. This technique is commonly used to optimize system performance of structural components with minimum material usage by varying the distribution of materials in a given domain. Fluid dynamic topology optimization, a relatively new research topic uses a method of adding or subtracting materials to a given flow domain to obtain an optimal flow-path for a given objective function. While the structural TO creates a solid structure by introducing holes into the domain, fluid TO introduces solid into …
Nonlinear Light-Matter Interactions In Novel Crystals For Broadband Mid-Infrared Generation, Taiki Kawamori
Nonlinear Light-Matter Interactions In Novel Crystals For Broadband Mid-Infrared Generation, Taiki Kawamori
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Mid-infrared (MIR) laser sources have demonstrated diverse applications in science and technology. For spectroscopy applications, numerous molecules have unique absorption features in this range, and one needs a spectrally broad coherent laser source for parallel detection of mixtures of species. Frequency down-conversion in nonlinear optical materials via second-order nonlinear susceptibility is one of the promising techniques to generate the spectral coverage of more than an octave in the MIR, assisted by emerging novel crystals. The nonlinear light-matter interactions in such special crystals as ZnSe ceramics have not been analyzed. Additionally, through the use of high-intensity few-cycle optical pulses, high-order nonlinear …
The Impact Of The Community Partnership School Model On Student Self-Efficacy And Civic Engagement, Brandon Lowe
The Impact Of The Community Partnership School Model On Student Self-Efficacy And Civic Engagement, Brandon Lowe
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to identify the impact of the Community Partnership Schools™ (CPS) model of community schools in the areas of social self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, emotional self-efficacy, and civic engagement beyond the point of enrollment in the school. To answer the research questions, the researcher compared the responses of 96 high school students that had previously been enrolled in a CPS with the responses of 402 students from racially and socioeconomically similar schools that were not CPS, using the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C) and the Civic Engagement Scale (CES). Results showed a significant positive correlation …
Machine Learning Techniques For Topic Detection And Authorship Attribution In Textual Data, Fereshteh Jafariakinabad
Machine Learning Techniques For Topic Detection And Authorship Attribution In Textual Data, Fereshteh Jafariakinabad
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The unprecedented expansion of user-generated content in recent years demands more attempts of information filtering in order to extract high-quality information from the huge amount of available data. In this dissertation, we begin with a focus on topic detection from microblog streams, which is the first step toward monitoring and summarizing social data. Then we shift our focus to the authorship attribution task, which is a sub-area of computational stylometry. It is worth mentioning that determining the style of a document is orthogonal to determining its topic, since the document features which capture the style are mainly independent of its …
The Effects Of A Tactile Display On First Responder Performance, Michael Schwartz
The Effects Of A Tactile Display On First Responder Performance, Michael Schwartz
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Firefighting is a dangerous and difficult task. Simulation affords researchers and practitioners the ability to examine performance and training in adverse conditions while preserving life, offering repeatable scenarios, and reducing costs. Multiple Resource Theory is used in this study as a model for assessing alternate sensory channels for information delivery when the optimal channel is not available. Specifically, this study tests the influence of a waist-worn vibrotactile display to assist navigation when visibility is reduced in a firefighter simulation. The present study measures participants' objective performance and self-reported workload while navigating a simulated fireground. Results from 70 research participants revealed …
An Examination Of Precollegiate Education Programs In The K-12 Context: The Role Of Student Motivation And Perception And Recruitment And Retention Strategies For Successful Outcomes, Daniel Santos
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
State leaders have responded to recruiting and retaining teachers in the workforce with Grow Your Own (GYO) programs for recruiting secondary students or community members into education. An example of a GYO is the precollegiate Teacher Academy (TA) program offered in local high schools as a career and technical education pathway. The TA provides guidance for high school students thinking about the teaching profession. TA educators foster students' interest and recruit and retain them in education by exploring their motivations. This study was a triangulated mixed methods study with the quantitative/qualitative model of utilizing both data sets to determine student …
Effect Of Various Speed Management Strategies On Bicycle Crashes For Urban Roads In Central Florida, Jorge Ugan
Effect Of Various Speed Management Strategies On Bicycle Crashes For Urban Roads In Central Florida, Jorge Ugan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
In recent years, cycling has become an increasingly popular transportation mode around the world. In contrast to other popular modes of transportation, cycling is more economic and energy efficient. While many studies have been conducted for the bicycle safety analysis, most of them were limited in terms of bicycle exposure data and on-street data. This study tries to improve the current safety performance functions for bicycle crashes at urban corridors by utilizing crowdsource data from STRAVA and on-street speed management strategies data. Speed management strategies are any roadway alterations that causes a change in motorists' driving behavior. In Florida, these …
Mail Ballot Signature Rejections: Household Members Signing Each Other's Ballots, Craig Wilding
Mail Ballot Signature Rejections: Household Members Signing Each Other's Ballots, Craig Wilding
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Election administrators anecdotally mention that many ballots get signed by someone else in the household, such as the husband signing the wife's ballot. If household members are signing each other's ballots mistakenly, then there should be a rise in mismatched signatures as the number of people in the household increases. By matching household addresses of registered voters and the addresses that ballots were mailed to from the 2020 Florida general election, the study found that the probability of a signature mismatch did increase as the number of household members increased. While the data showed that black and Hispanic households have …
Using Iphone Significant Location Data To Improve Air Pollution Exposure Estimation, Elizabeth Eastman
Using Iphone Significant Location Data To Improve Air Pollution Exposure Estimation, Elizabeth Eastman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
An accurate estimation of human exposure to ambient air pollution is crucial for air pollution health studies. Time-activity patterns may introduce substantial uncertainties in exposure estimation. As smartphones are becoming increasingly popular and their ownership is becoming ubiquitous in the US. Virtually all smartphones can collect location data, and such data is continuously somewhere. Therefore, it is clear that such stored location data has the potential to be used for characterizing an individual's time-activity patterns for air pollution health studies. However, studies on the accuracy and feasibility of using a smartphone's location data in air pollution exposure estimation are still …
An Exploratory Investigation Of Grit And Its Relationship To Student Integration In Athletic Training Education Programs, Carlos Gual
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Students must enroll in rigorous accredited academic programs and pass the National Board of Certification (BOC) examination to become athletic trainers. Therefore, studies in athletic training and student achievement focus on student persistence/retention and BOC Examination pass rates. The majority of studies conclude that cognitive measures like grade point average (GPA) have a relationship with both retention and exam pass rates. However, research should also consider meta-cognitive factors (i.e., personality traits). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between athletic training students' grit (a metacognitive factor) and their academic, clinical, and social integration. The population for this …
Storm: An Exploration Of Home Through Painterly Animation, Kirstin Hardin
Storm: An Exploration Of Home Through Painterly Animation, Kirstin Hardin
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Storm is an animated short film that follows a family of Florida Sandhill Cranes. The family experiences a storm that destroys their nest and separates them from their smallest chick. The reunion of the cranes, at the end of the film, symbolizes that the sense of home consists of the members of the family, and not the physical place. The film combines digital two-dimensional (2D) animation with traditional paint on glass animation to create visual contrast between the cranes and the storm. The stylistic choices that I have made include showcasing paint strokes, going with a lineless and painterly animation …
Distributed And Optimal State Estimation For Heterogeneous Dynamic Systems Operating Within A Strongly Connected Network, Matthew Howard
Distributed And Optimal State Estimation For Heterogeneous Dynamic Systems Operating Within A Strongly Connected Network, Matthew Howard
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
This dissertation is aimed at developing optimal and distributed state estimation algorithms for a team of cooperating nodes with the goal of improving accuracy through local sharing of relevant information. The nodes are assumed to be individually equipped with heterogeneous sensors for measuring a common target which can be dynamic and time-varying. Additionally, the nodes are assumed to be connected through a dynamically changing communication network modeled as a sequence of strongly connected digraphs allowing for local communication and distributed interactions. Using the data sharing afforded by the communication network, a weighted average state estimate consensus can be found across …
One Pint At A Time: Documenting The Black Experience In American Craft Beer, Aaron Hose
One Pint At A Time: Documenting The Black Experience In American Craft Beer, Aaron Hose
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
One Pint at a Time is a documentary feature by Aaron Hosé, created as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Feature Film Production from the University of Central Florida. This is the first documentary film in history to focus exclusively on the stories of African American beermakers and brewery owners, their ties to ancient Egyptian and African brewing traditions, and how they are trying to make their mark within the business of craft beer; a multi-billion-dollar industry in which merely one percent of breweries are Black-owned and operated. Following the guidelines of UCF's program, …
Big Five Aspect Personalty Scales And Social Anxiety Severity In A Nonpsychiatric Sample, Samantha Simpson
Big Five Aspect Personalty Scales And Social Anxiety Severity In A Nonpsychiatric Sample, Samantha Simpson
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Personality can be explored hierarchically with higher- and lower-order factors. Recent research suggests the personality hierarchy is comprised of higher-order Big Five traits with two lower-order factors per Big Five trait, termed aspects. There is a lack of research examining the relationship between these lower-order aspects and social anxiety (SA) severity. To better understand these relationships, 443 university undergraduate students (72.2% female; mean age = 20.48, SD = 4.64) completed the Big Five Aspects Scale (BFAS) and the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory- 23 (SPAI-23), and were retained following exclusionary criteria. Path analysis, covarying for sex, age, and general anxiety …
Hermeneutics Of Hate: How Martin Luther's Rhetorical Manipulation Of The Greek Bible Led To His Anti-Judaic Treatise On The Jews And Their Lies, Michael Parrish
Hermeneutics Of Hate: How Martin Luther's Rhetorical Manipulation Of The Greek Bible Led To His Anti-Judaic Treatise On The Jews And Their Lies, Michael Parrish
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Though lauded as a Protestant hero, it is impossible to read Martin Luther's On the Jews and Their Lies and not think about the numerous acts of violence inspired by his commentary. Luther argues that his anti-Judaic treatise is simply reiterating the Greek Bible (the New Testament) and anyone who reads the Greek Bible would come to the same conclusion. This thesis argues that Luther adopted a hermeneutical Jew from theologians and the Greek Bible before him to create his own hermeneutics that demonized the European Jewish population with devastating consequence. Though much of the Greek Bible was part of …
Structural Dynamics And Encapsulation Properties Of Polyelectrolyte Complex Micelles, Sachit Shah
Structural Dynamics And Encapsulation Properties Of Polyelectrolyte Complex Micelles, Sachit Shah
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Charged therapeutics such as nucleic acids and proteins can treat a vast range of human diseases that are traditionally undruggable. Their broadness in treating disease is due to their ability to influence cellular function. However, their high charge density and physiological barriers such as enzymatic degradation, hinder the deliverability of these molecules to the sites of disease. Polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) micelles are core-corona nanostructures that can encapsulate charged molecules and offer a platform for delivery. PECs form the core, when two oppositely charged polyelectrolytes are mixed in an aqueous solution, and the micelle corona is a neutral hydrophilic polymer that …
Studying Users Interactions And Behavior In Social Media Using Natural Language Processing, Sultan Alshamrani
Studying Users Interactions And Behavior In Social Media Using Natural Language Processing, Sultan Alshamrani
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Social media platforms have been growing at a rapid pace, attracting users' engagement with the online content due to their convenience facilitated by many useful features. Such platforms provide users with interactive options such as likes, dislikes as well as a way of expressing their opinions in the form of text (i.e., comments). As more people engage in different social media platforms, such platforms will increase in both size and importance. This growth in social media data is becoming a vital new area for scholars and researchers to explore this new form of communication. The huge data from social media …
An Exploration Of Enrollment And Graduation Rates As A Result Of Title V Funding At Hispanic-Serving Four-Year Universities, Kelly D'Agostino
An Exploration Of Enrollment And Graduation Rates As A Result Of Title V Funding At Hispanic-Serving Four-Year Universities, Kelly D'Agostino
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
While the Latinx population continues to grow faster than any other racial population in the United States, Latinx students are graduating from four-year institutions at a rate 12 percent lower than their White peers (Excelencia in Education, 2020b). As first defined in 1992 by the Higher Education Act reauthorization, Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) are accredited, degree-granting, non-profit institutions with undergraduate populations made up of at least 25 percent Latinx students. The role of HSIs is important because the majority (66 percent) of Latinx students enrolled in college attend an HSI (Excelencia in Education, 2019). The problem under investigation is that HSI …
Directional Spectral Solar Energy For Building Performance: From Simulation To Cyber-Physical Prototype, Joseph Del Rocco
Directional Spectral Solar Energy For Building Performance: From Simulation To Cyber-Physical Prototype, Joseph Del Rocco
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The original research and development in this dissertation contributes to the field of building performance by actively harnessing a wider spectrum of directional solar radiation for use in buildings. Solar radiation (energy) is often grouped by wavelength measurement into the spectra ultraviolet (UV), visible (light), and short and long-wave infrared (heat) on the electromagnetic spectrum. While some of this energy is directly absorbed or deflected by our atmosphere, most of it passes through, scatters about, and collides with our planet. Modern building performance simulations, tools, and control systems often oversimplify this energy into scalar values for light and heat, when …
Bringing Instagram Posts Into Being: A Study Of Fyc Students' Self-Sponsored Posting Practices And Transfer Opportunities, Jessica Kester
Bringing Instagram Posts Into Being: A Study Of Fyc Students' Self-Sponsored Posting Practices And Transfer Opportunities, Jessica Kester
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Social media platforms have offered students—and all of us—more opportunities for self-sponsored writing. In response to calls from researchers to explore students' 21st-century writing practices and their relevance to college writing instruction, this dissertation articulated and applied a feminist teacher research methodology and a mixed-methods research design to explore first-year composition (FYC) students' self-sponsored writing practices, attitudes, and transfer opportunities on a popular, albeit under-examined, social media application: Instagram. This study found that students have developed elaborate, rhetorical, multimodal composing processes that include planning, drafting, evaluating, selecting, and styling images as well as planning, drafting/revising, and styling captions. Additionally, though …
Synthesis And Assessment Of Sustainable Fuels For Transportation And Space Exploration, Katerina Chagoya
Synthesis And Assessment Of Sustainable Fuels For Transportation And Space Exploration, Katerina Chagoya
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
As global energy sources transition towards renewable energy, the demand for sustainable fuels has never been greater. The sheer scale of this transition will require numerous solutions to accommodate for the diverse and complex situations worldwide. This dissertation will discuss 3 studies: the utilization of CO2 waste gas to produce fuels sustainably, characterizing biofuels for efficient use in automobiles, and developing a solid, emissonless fuel intended for spaceflight but also applicable on Earth. The hydrogenation of CO2 into value-added molecules could reduce greenhouse gas emissions if waste stream CO2 were captured for conversion. We found that atomic vacancies induced in …
A Mixed-Methods, Grounded Theory Study Of Online Meaning-Making During The Pandemic, Kaitlyn Montcrieff
A Mixed-Methods, Grounded Theory Study Of Online Meaning-Making During The Pandemic, Kaitlyn Montcrieff
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
To be human is to seek to understand the known and unknown world. The Covid-19 pandemic offers researchers the opportunity to examine online meaning-making on a more ubiquitous magnitude than ever experienced in history, without positioning the digital world as less authentic, or distinct, from the physical. Using mixed-methods grounded theory, this study posed the research question: (RQ) How do high school parents use an online community to (re)conceptualize aspects of contemporary society? The NRC Emotion Intensity lexicon (Mohammed, 2018) was used to score online forum posts from 2018-2021 using eight emotions to quantitatively represent changes over time. The qualitative …
Creativity As A Resource: How Creativity Influences The Appraisal Of Work Stressors And Subsequent Strain, Alyssa Perez
Creativity As A Resource: How Creativity Influences The Appraisal Of Work Stressors And Subsequent Strain, Alyssa Perez
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Although creative behaviors are known to have positive effects on general well-being, little research has looked at the relationship between an individual's creativity and stress within the context of work. This research explored how creativity may work as a buffer against the strain of job stressors. In study 1, six vignettes were developed using Role Stressor Theory (Kahn et al., 1964) and the Challenge/Hindrance Framework of stress (Cavanaugh et al., 2000). A sample of 164 undergraduate students responded to the vignettes and results showed that trait-level creativity was directly related not only to the creativity of the solutions the participants …