Digital Commons Network^™

Capturing The Student Perspective Through The Eyes Of An ‘Expert’ And Professor, Tony Lowe

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of The Impact Of Summer Steam Programs On High School Participants’ Content Knowledge And Attitude Towards Steam Careers, Marcelo Caplan

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

For the past five years, the Science and Mathematics Department at Columbia College Chicago, in collaboration with After School Matters (ASM) from the city of Chicago, offers two, six-weeks summer programs for high school and rising high school students interested in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) fields. During this period (June through August), 80 students spend six weeks on the college campus participating in one of the two following programs: 1) 30 students participated at the Junior Research Scientists and 2) 50 students participated at the Comed Youth Ambassadors. Both programs were designed by faculty and staff …

Using A Lightboard To Enhance And Retrofit An Existing Course, Nicholas S. Rosasco

ASEE IL-IN Section Conference

IT 642 is a graduate information technology course that addresses a mix of technical and conceptual topics that has been delivered in both in-person and on-line formats. After several semesters of the course being offered in both on-line and in-person formats, the lack of human connection between instructor and students became a concern with the online versions. The need to bridge this gap became an opportunity to use Birdwell and Peshkin’s Lightboard design for video teaching. The experiences of the staff and faculty involved confirms the low barrier to entry they describe for using this technology and also demonstrate utility …

Intellectual Philanthropy: The Seduction Of The Masses, Aurélie Vialette

Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures

What's in a nineteenth-century philanthropist? Fear of an uprising. But the frightened philanthropist has a remedy. Aware that the urban surge of the working-class masses in Spain would create a state of emergency, he or she devises a means to seduce the masses away from rebellion by taking on himself or herself the role of the seducer: the capitalist intellectual hero invested in the caretaking of the unpredictable working class. Intellectual Philanthropy examines cultural practices used by philanthropists in modern Iberia. It explains the meaning and role of intellectual philanthropy by focusing on the devices and apparatuses philanthropists devised to …

Cross-Scene Trajectory Level Intention Inference Using Gaussian Process Regression And Naive Registration, Debasmit Das, C.S. George Lee

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technical Reports

Human intention inference is the ability of an artificial system to predict the intention of a person. It is important in the context of human-robot interaction and homeland security, where proactive decision making is necessary. Human intention inference systems at test time is given a partial sequence of observations rather than a complete one. At a trajectory level, the observations are 2D/3D spatial human trajectories and intents are 2D/3D spatial locations where these human trajectories might end up. We study a learning approach where we train a model from complete spatial trajectories, and use partial spatial trajectories to test intention …

Lifelong Kindergarten: Cultivating Creativity Through Projects, Passion, Peers, And Play, Jiangmei Yuan, Robin T. Bowen

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Carbohydrates On The Gut Microbiome, Maciej Filar, Mohit S. Verma

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The microbiome within the gut is directly linked to biological processes within a person, influencing factors such as metabolism, signaling pathways, and available nutrients. Long term dieting is known to alter ecological conditions within the gut, allowing certain types of microbes to flourish. Therefore, the overall health of an individual is ultimately influenced by shifts in the microbial community state caused by persistent dieting. This study investigates the connection between diet and the microbiome and draws an understanding of how common carbohydrates in food can affect bacterial composition. Using KBase software, anaerobic bacterial growth was investigated for bacteria subject to …

Investigation Of The Effects Of Oxidizer Temperature On The Stability Of A Gas-Centered Swirl Coaxial Injector, William Zach Hallum

Open Access Dissertations

Rocket engines achieve extraordinary high energy densities within the chamber in the form of high pressure turbulent combustion. Successful design of these engines requires sustained, stable operation of a combustor exposed to extreme thermal loads. Slight deviations in operating conditions can then incur consequences ranging from reduced performance up to catastrophic failure in the face of excess heat loading. Sustained periodic oscillations, termed combustion instabilities, are often encountered during development, as fluctuations produced by combustion noise couple with heat release modes by way of modulation of the feed system, injector hydrodynamics, chemical kinetics, and mixing and atomization process. Successful development …

Enhancing User Experience: A Multifaceted Approach To Designing Better User Experiences Using Compassionate Design Thinking, Socially Conscious Design And Psychophysiological Measures, Priya Seshadri

Open Access Dissertations

The goal of this research is to help in creation of better user experience (UX) by enabling engineers and designers to get a deeper understanding of the users by focusing on the users’ needs, emotions, experiences and social issues. The main research question that guides this work is: How can engineers and designers better understand their users to create designs that aim at enhancing user experiences? Understanding the users and UX has many facets and dimensions. The users make decisions based on emotions and experiences, which also determine the value they associate with a design. Experiences are related to the …

Exploring The Cognitive Tasks Surrounding Professional Horse Judging Practices In Stock- Type Halter Classes, Paige Marie Arehart

Open Access Theses

A standardized procedure for how and why professional equine judges approach their practice in a specific way has yet to be documented. Learning the background, approach, processes, and procedures taken by professional horse judges when engaged in stock-type halter classes is important for establishing a training protocol that can be used in coaching and/or training situations.

This study applies cognitive task analysis to the concepts, processes, and principles of professional horse judges in stock-type halter classes to develop a teaching and learning resource for novice and trainee judges of various ages. Specifically, an action and decision chart that details the …

Optimization Of Zein Based Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Biosensor For The Detection Of Gliadin As A Marker For Celiac Disease, Emma A. Barber

Open Access Theses

Biosensors are a growingly popular alternative to chemical sensors. With their fast detection time and portability, biosensors have the ability to be applicable in a number of different industries. The current methods for allergen and toxin detection in the food industry often require highly trained personnel and can be very time consuming. These disadvantages plus the growing desire for the consumer to make more informed choices about what they eat, shows a need for an easy to use, rapid, and specific method of detection for analytes of interest to the food industry (Alocilja and Radke 2003). In this thesis, a …

Understanding The Relation Between Sexual Objectification And Ostracism, Maayan Dvir

Open Access Dissertations

Ostracism – being ignored and excluded – and sexual objectification – when an individual is regarded only as an object that exists for the use and pleasure of others – are conceptually related, yet the connections between the two phenomena have yet to be examined empirically. Both involve aspects of the self being ignored by others. Sexual objectification involves attention that focuses on one’s appearance while other characteristics of the individuals are ignored. This fits within the parameters of the definition of “partial ostracism” – in which the individual is acknowledged and included in some ways (or times), but not …

Co-Design Of Reconfigurable And Multifunction Passive Rf/Microwave Components, Mohamed F. Hagag

Open Access Dissertations

In order to meet the market demands, multi-band communication systems that are able to accommodate different wireless technologies to be compatible with different wireless standards should be investigated and realized. Multifunction and multi-band RF front-end components are promising solutions for reducing the size and enhancing the performance of multi-band communication systems. This dissertation focuses on the design and implementation of different multifunction and tunable microwave components for use in multi-standard, flexible transceiver.

For frequency-domain duplexing (FDD) communication systems, in which the uplink and downlink channels are carried on different RF frequencies, a diplexer is an essential component to separate the …

The Intimate Partner Violence Experience Of Arab Immigrant Women In The U.S., Aieyat B. Zalzala

Open Access Dissertations

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant problem for immigrant women in the U.S. There are a number of unique risk factors and help-seeking barriers (e.g., patriarchal beliefs, lack of social support, immigration status, language as a barrier, limited knowledge about and access to resources) that contribute to the likelihood of immigrant women being in and remaining in violent relationships. As a result, immigrant women often feel isolated, alone, and silenced in their attempt to address their IPV. However, we know less about the IPV experience of Arab immigrant women in the U.S. as these women hold multiple marginalized identities …

Producing Nanoscale Laser Spot And Its Applications, Anurup Datta

Open Access Dissertations

Driven by the exponential growth in the field of nanotechnology in the last few decades, there has been a huge impetus in the design and production of subwavelength nanoscale laser spot which has found wide range of applications in different fields such as nanofabrication and data storage, among others. Limited by the diffraction limit of light when using conventional optics, generally metallic nano-apertures and nano-antennas are used for producing sub-100 nm spots. Design of such types of nano structures typically involves the use of surface plasmons to effectively collect and concentrate light below the diffraction limit. This work discusses the …

Detecting Popularity Of Ideas And Individuals In Online Community, Chien-Yi Hsiang

Open Access Dissertations

Research in the last decade has prioritized the effects of online texts and online behaviors on user information prediction. However, the previous research overlooks the overall meaning of online texts and more detailed features about users’ online behaviors. The purpose of the research is to detect the adopted ideas, the popularity of ideas, and the popularity of individuals by identifying the overall meaning of online texts and the centrality features based on user’s online interactions within an online community.

To gain insights into the research questions, the online discussions on MyStarbucksIdea website is examined in this research. MyStarbucksIdea had launched …

Guided Data Fusion, Romila Pradhan

Open Access Dissertations

While the volume and variety of data furnished by disparate data sources has rocketed over the years, often there is little to no restraint over the quality of data available on the Internet; data sources often provide conflicting information for the same data item (a real-world entity or event).

Recent years have witnessed a number of data fusion systems that propose solutions to consolidate multiple instances of a data item, distinguish correct from incorrect information and present a unified, consistent and meaningful record to users. Most of these fusion systems are focused on automatically identifying correct information for data items. …

Efficacy Of Listeria Phage In Reducing Listeria Monocytogenes Under Both Experimental And Food Processing Conditions, Jia Liu

Open Access Theses

Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) is a foodborne pathogen able to flourish in different food processing environments. Bacteriophages are viruses that target bacteria and may be effective in controlling bacterial contamination in different environments. In 2006, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a six-Listeria phage product for use as a food additive in controlling Listeria contamination in ready-to-eat meat and poultry products. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of bacteriophages in controlling Listeria monocytogenes growth on non-food contact surfaces under different conditions.

Stainless steel coupons or sterilized bags were inoculated with Listeria monocytogenes (LM94 or LM-GFP) and a cocktail …

Chromatin Remodeling In Early Embryogenesis, Bethany Weldon

Open Access Theses

Epigenetic marks are globally remodeled during mammalian embryo development. Chromatin remodeling mediated by the SWI/SNF (Switch/Sucrose non-fermentable) complexes can participate in epigenetic remodeling during cleavage development. SWI/SNF complexes are multi-subunit complexes that contain a core catalytic subunit (SMARCA4 or SMARCA2) and a collection of additional subunits that guide the complexes to their appropriate loci. It has been reported that discrete SWI/SNF subunits adopt different intracellular localization patterns as porcine embryos proceed through cleavage development. In the work presented here, we investigated how these SWI/SNF subunits are trafficked during embryo development. We hypothesized that the localization patterns of the SWI/SNF chromatin …

Village In The City: Collective Efficacy And Neighborhood Stability On Chicago’S Far Southwest Side, Joy L. Kadowaki

Open Access Dissertations

The theory of collective efficacy highlights the importance of community members’ shared expectations for social control and their trust and cohesion with one another for predicting neighborhood variation in crime and other social outcomes. Researchers have found that neighborhood collective efficacy is largely stable over time and predicts future variation in crime and other social outcomes, independently of neighborhood social composition. An expansive body of quantitative research has made a very compelling case for the durability of collective efficacy as an important neighborhood process, but a number of questions remain regarding the social mechanisms by which it operates. This dissertation …

A Model Based Iterative Reconstruction Approach To Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Tomography, Zeeshan Nadir

Open Access Dissertations

Tunable diode laser absorption tomography (TDLAT) has emerged as a popular nonintrusive technique for simultaneous sensing of gas concentration and temperature. The gas concentration and temperature is computed by making light absorbance measurements using tunable diode lasers. Major challenges of TDLAT imaging include a highly nonlinear measurement process and availability of only a few light absorbance measurements. Therefore, TDLAT imaging of concentration and temperature is an ill-posed, nonlinear inverse problem. Conventional approaches to TDLAT primarily consist of making restrictive assumptions about the gas flow to simplify the problem.

In this thesis, we study the problem of reconstruction of TDLAT measurements …

Proton Doping And Characterization Of Rare Earth Nickelates, Derek Karl Wittenburg Schwanz

Open Access Dissertations

Perovskite rare earth nickelates with formula RNiO3 (R = trivalent rare earth element) feature exceptional electrical behavior and performance in a wide variety of functional applications due to their unique metal-insulator transition. This distinctive phase transition is caused by charge disproportionation as the crystal structure distorts upon temperature change and electron-electron interactions result in a modified band structure. However, electron doping of the same nickelate systems has created a more pronounced phase transition wherein unprecedented resistivity changes on the order of 1010 Ω*cm are achieved through the opening of a wide bandgap. In this work, a new method for inducing …

A Model And Measure Of Parental Vaccine Hesitancy: A Basis For The Development Of Future Health Campaigns, Jessica Hample

Open Access Dissertations

The “anti-vaccination,” or vaccine hesitancy, phenomenon has attracted the attention of many researchers in recent years. A significant amount of research has focused on identifying, categorizing, and measuring the beliefs common to vaccine-hesitant individuals. However, prior attempts to identify these beliefs have suffered from potential biases that call into question both the validity and comprehensiveness of our existing understanding of vaccine hesitancy. This dissertation project attempts to improve our understanding of vaccine hesitancy by systematically collecting beliefs held by vaccine-hesitant parents in the USA and using those beliefs to create a measure and model of vaccine hesitancy. Exploratory and confirmatory …

Incorporating Multicultural Education Into A Church Small Group Bible Study, Shalyse Iseminger

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation research was to understand how a group of Evangelical Christians made meaning of their experiences in a small group Bible study that employed a multicultural education curriculum focused on race and ethnicity. In this research, I used a case study as the methodology for data collection. Over the course of twelve weeks, I explored the experiences of the participants through interviews, observations, and document analysis. After analyzing the data through the lenses of Critical Whiteness studies and Critical Race Theory, I found that although participants acknowledged racism and the existence of White privilege and recognized …

Care Givers: Motivating And Enhancing Non-Profit Caregivers’ Experiences, Mingchu Cong

Open Access Theses

The challenges of the aging world population continue to become more and more serious. Caregivers play a very important role in the caregiving system. There are different types of caregivers: family caregivers, who are typically a patient's family member; and professional caregivers, who are trained and paid to care for their assigned patients. Another group yet are volunteer caregivers, the primary targeted user group of this research. Volunteer caregivers are both dramatically overlooked and making significant contributions to society. People who work as volunteer caregivers are mostly motivated by their kindness. Volunteer caregiving is typically a part-time job provided by …

Development Of Tools To Reduce Risk Of Nosocomial And Foodborne Pathogens Exposure, Paula A. Duarte-Guevara

Open Access Theses

Transmission pathways of pathogenic bacteria are one of the most relevant fields of research because of its direct impact not only on the public health but also on the economy. Identifying the critical factors for bacteria spreading through the population provide new tools for the prevention of disease and risk management. Clostridium difficile is the primary causative of antibiotic-associated diarrhea in healthcare settings. C. difficile infection (CDI) symptoms range from mild diarrhea to pseudomembranous colitis and can result in death. Awareness of the microorganism is extremely low, and the understanding of it is far from complete. Because of this, the …

Biodynamic Imaging System: A Novel, Noninvasive Method For Assessing Embryo Viability., Natalie Ehmke

Open Access Theses

In vitro embryo production is the foundation of most assisted reproductive technologies, yet efficiency of these technologies is relatively low due to the lack of a reliable method for measuring embryo viability. Current methods to evaluate the viability of in vitro derived embryos are invasive or expensive to perform. In order to create a reliable system to assess the developmental potential of the embryo, a novel optical approach known as BioDynamic Imaging (BDI) has been proposed for application. BDI is able to measure dynamic processes inside an embryo encompassing a broad range of motions that relate directly to functional developmental …

Who Are We Now? Examining Internal Organizational Communication During Crisis, Elizabeth England

Open Access Theses

Organizational Communication scholars have thoroughly researched communicative processes and phenomena during times of organizational crisis. However, little research aims to understand the extremely important employee perspective during such hardships. In this study, through in-depth qualitative interviews, I investigated employees’ reports of their roles in renegotiating organizational identity, preferred sensemaking tactics, and dissemination of communication during their company’s private financial crisis. I found employees generally failed to recognize their roles in renegotiating organizational identity, instead viewing organizational identity maintenance as a responsibility of leadership. Employees also reported engaging in a number of sensemaking tactics to understand their crisis situation, such as …

The Female Threat: Reactions To Increased Representation Of Women In Traditionally Male-Dominated Domains, Laura Hildebrand

Open Access Theses

A burgeoning literature indicates that people experience threat when presented with information about increasing diversity. Yet, most of this literature has focused on increasing racial diversity. In the present research, we examine how people respond to increased representation of women in traditionally male-dominated domains, including (a) what type of threat is elicited and (b) who is most likely to experience this threat. Men and women participants completed several sexism measures and read that the number of women was increasing (versus a neutral condition) in politics (Study 1) and engineering (Study 2). Then participants completed measures of realistic, group status, prototypicality, …

Understanding The Collaboration Difficulties Between Ux Designers And Developers In Agile Environments, Yun-Han Huang

Open Access Theses

With the growing number of UX designers in tech companies in the U.S., the collaboration between UX designers and developers in Agile environments has become a new challenge in the industry. This research study aims to understand the collaboration difficulties between UX designers and developers in Agile environments and further provides insights from the results. The research method was semi-structured interview. A total of five professional UX designers and five professional developers in the industry were interviewed about topics surrounding their collaboration difficulties. The results indicated that UX designers integrating in Agile environments and factors related of organizational context are …