Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A New Credit Scoring Model To Reduce Potential Predatory Lending: A Design Science Approach, Anna Zakowska

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This research examines the potential impact of implementing a novel credit scoring model that integrates attributes beyond the traditional FICO model. It aims to address issues related to predatory lending and the financial exclusion affecting individuals often categorized as 'credit invisible,' 'credit unscorable,' 'unbanked,' and 'underbanked.' These individuals typically face difficulties in establishing or repairing a credit history, which poses a challenge for financial institutions in accurately evaluating their creditworthiness. This gap in the credit assessment process often opens doors to unfair lending practices. To tackle this problem, a systematically designed, built, tested, and evaluated innovative credit scoring model was …

A Framework For And Design Of A Smart Academic Building Using Sensors, Citizen Participation, And Volunteered Geographic Information, Neelam Raigangar

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Population growth and migration patterns have shown an influx of residents from rural to urban environments. To deal with the problems caused by unprecedented urban influx, cities should plan to use technology in a smart and distinctive way. Tackling at the city scale is hard. But a set of smart buildings that are interconnected by technology will lead to smarter communities which are then interconnected to create a smart city. Smart lobby, building, community, or city is distinguished by its application of integrated software, hardware, and network technologies, along with access to real-time data enabling decision-making, facilitating tracing, tracking and …

Machine Learning Methods For The Analysis Of Metagenomes, Vito Adrian Cantu Alessio Robles

CGU Theses & Dissertations

As of October 2020, there are 18.6 × 1015 DNA base pairs publicly available in the Sequence Read Archive and this number is growing at an exponential rate. As DNA sequencing prices continue to drop, many research groups around the world have incorporated high throughput sequencing in their research, giving us access to sequences from many distinct ecosystems. This has revolutionized the field of metagenomics, which aims to fully characterize all organisms and their interactions in a particular system. Nevertheless, the plethora of available data has made its analysis difficult as traditional techniques such as genome assembly or sequence alignment …

On Cluster Robust Models, José Bayoán Santiago Calderón

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Cluster robust models are a kind of statistical models that attempt to estimate parameters considering potential heterogeneity in treatment effects. Absent heterogeneity in treatment effects, the partial and average treatment effect are the same. When heterogeneity in treatment effects occurs, the average treatment effect is a function of the various partial treatment effects and the composition of the population of interest. The first chapter explores the performance of common estimators as a function of the presence of heterogeneity in treatment effects and other characteristics that may influence their performance for estimating average treatment effects. The second chapter examines various approaches …

Qoe Driven Multimedia Service Schemes In Wireless Networks Resource Allocation: Evolution From Optimization, Game Theory, To Economics, Shuan He

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In order to deal with the Quality of Experience (QoE) improvement issue in the wireless networks services. In this dissertation we first investigated the Device to Device (D2D) relaying approach in the conventional Base Station (BS) to User Equipment (UE) two entities multimedia service system. In this part, the Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology will be implemented in the D2D communication. Furthermore, factors such as the multimedia content distribution (i.e., Quad-tree fractal image compression method), the power allocation strategy, and modulation size are jointly considered to improve the QoE performance and energy efficiency. In addition, the emerging Non-Orthogonal Multiple …

Towards A New Gis Maturity Model: An Organizational Usage Perspective, Omer Abdulaziz Alrwais

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The first condition required for an Information Technology (IT) system to produce value is that it be used by its designated target group of users. Despite the prevalence of “system use” in IS literature, it has been often limited to the individual level. The organizational perspective is rarely considered. This dissertation focuses on system usage in the GIS domain through an organizational lens. GIS is a technology with the potential to transform government by enhancing business processes and providing a platform to manage spatial and non-spatial data, which is expected to result in better decision-making. However, little is known about …

Simulated Associating Polymer Networks, Joris Billen

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Telechelic associating polymer networks consist of polymer chains terminated by endgroups that have a different chemical composition than the polymer backbone. When dissolved in a solution, the endgroups cluster together to form aggregates. At low temperature, a strongly connected reversible network is formed and the system behaves like a gel. Telechelic networks are of interest since they are representative for biopolymer networks (e.g. F-actin) and are widely used in medical applications (e.g. hydrogels for tissue engineering, wound dressings) and consumer products (e.g. contact lenses, paint thickeners).

In this thesis such systems are studied by means of a molecular dynamics/Monte Carlo …

Study Of Vortex Ring Dynamics In The Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation Utilizing Gpu-Accelerated High-Order Compact Numerical Integrators, Ronald Meyer Caplan

CGU Theses & Dissertations

We numerically study the dynamics and interactions of vortex rings in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE). Single ring dynamics for both bright and dark vortex rings are explored including their traverse velocity, stability, and perturbations resulting in quadrupole oscillations. Multi-ring dynamics of dark vortex rings are investigated, including scattering and merging of two colliding rings, leapfrogging interactions of co-traveling rings, as well as co-moving steady-state multi-ring ensembles. Simulations of choreographed multi-ring setups are also performed, leading to intriguing interaction dynamics.

Due to the inherent lack of a close form solution for vortex rings and the dimensionality where they live, efficient …

A Secure Behavior Modification Sensor System For Physical Activity Improvement, Alan Price

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Today, advances in wireless sensor networks are making it possible to capture large amounts of information about a person and their interaction within their home environment. However, what is missing is how to ensure the security of the collected data and its use to alter human behavior for positive benefit.

In this research, exploration was conducted involving the "infrastructure" and "intelligence" aspects of a wireless sensor network through a Behavior Modification Sensor System. First was to understand how a secure wireless sensor network could be established through the symmetric distribution of keys (the securing of the infrastructure), and it involves …

Do Facework Behaviors Matter During Conflicts Among Online Discussion Team Members?, Jesus Herman Canelon

CGU Theses & Dissertations

According to researchers, face is an important possession carried by individuals into interactions with others. Face has been studied in diverse areas such as: politeness, compliance gaining, emotional discourse, negotiations, face-negotiation theory, and conflict. Perhaps because of its value, face can be vulnerable during conflict situations. Facework behaviors are the communicative strategies that people use during conflicts to protect face (theirs or others), threaten others' face, and to avoid or resolve conflicts. So far, studies about facework behaviors have focused on face-to-face interactions. Preliminary studies have shown: a. facework behaviors may affect the outcomes of online discussion teams, b. sex …

Eliciting User Requirements Using Appreciative Inquiry, Carol Kernitzki Gonzales

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Many software development projects fail because they do not meet the needs of users, are over-budget, and abandoned. To address this problem, the user requirements elicitation process was modified based on principles of Appreciative Inquiry. Appreciative Inquiry, commonly used in organizational development, aims to build organizations, processes, or systems based on success stories using a hopeful vision for an ideal future. Spanning five studies, Appreciative Inquiry was evaluated for its effectiveness with eliciting user requirements. In the first two cases, it was compared with traditional approaches with end-users and proxy-users. The third study was a quasi-experiment comparing the use of …