Digital Commons Network^™

A Study Of Sintered Copper Porous Surfaces For Pool Boiling Enhancement, Felix Liu

Theses

Miniaturization in microelectronics demands effective thermal management from high energy density devices. While current cooling solutions employ single-phase heat transfer, they are often limited by high fluid temperature differences and pressure drops. Alternatively, two-phase cooling schemes offers attractive solutions to dissipate high heat fluxes at small temperature differences. Specifically, pool boiling has the potential to dissipate high heat fluxes without using pumps and other complex header configurations.

Two performance criterion that govern the heat transfer in pool boiling systems are the (i) Critical Heat Flux (CHF), and the (ii) Heat Transfer Coefficient. The CHF is the upper limit in nucleate …

Developing A Measurement System To Assess Line Profile Retention In 3d Printing, Heng Li

Theses

Manufacturing three-dimensional (3D) objects with methods adapted from conventional digital printing have propelled the development of additive manufacturing. In this process, the printing devices directly deposit or fuse materials to form 3D solid objects in a layer-by-layer fashion, thereby creating the additive approach of fabrication.

As additive manufacturing (AM) has been increasingly adopted for rapid prototyping and part manufacturing, the need to determine the part quality which results from the processes becomes crucial (Monzón, Ortega, Martínez, & Ortega, 2015). There is a lack of quantifiable measurement systems to define a printer’s ability to resolve systematic and geometric features and dimensionalities …

Thesis Inquiry & Process: Something About Reality, Blayke Mackenzie Morrow

Theses

This thesis documents the employment of a system of Process and Inquiry as it serves as a structural foundation for an investigation of the manner in which Reality is represented in visual portraiture. Through a vigorous exploration of the concept of Reality and its singular nature, it is hypothesized that intrinsically unique experiences could potentially be communicated through the perceptive abilities of the emotional quotient. The effects of media, timing, complexity, abstraction, and authenticity are examined for their effect on the apparent clarity of concepts transmitted in this manner. The inquiry ultimately manifests in the daily creation of self-portraiture, as …

Not A Prediction Of The Future: Believable Sci-Fi Character Design Based On Present Day Technology, Kun Dong

Theses

In recent years, many character designs made for movies and video games have been carried out using complex computer-based processes. User-friendly software has made it easier to produce high computation artwork and multiple texture maps.

With higher graphic performance provided by rapidly improving hardware, the continuing demand for innovation poses new requirements for the entertainment industry.

Science fiction (sci-fi) in video games and movies has limitless capabilities, and can be created to achieve a wide variety of visual goals.

One important argument presented in this thesis is that science fiction stories, unlike the related genre of fantasy, have historically intended …

Face To Face Communicating Area Design, Yuhan Wei

Theses

More and more people are using digital technology and social media in their daily lives. As a result, it seems like there is a lack of emotional interaction with each other. For example, more people prefer to stay at home and just connect with the outside world through the Internet and their digital devices. Even when they have dinner with others, they often focus on their smartphones and seldom talk with each other. Unfortunately, these scenarios indicate that many people can only communicate electronically, which is very common nowadays.

This project is focused on creating a way of communicating that …

Circular Economy And System Thinking Framework In Design; Food System Design, Mehrafza Mirzazad Barijugh

Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to bring the circular economy framework and system thinking into the process of design thinking. The traditional design process is made up of five steps: 1) Discover a challenge. 2) Interpret the challenge. 3) Create opportunities and ideas. 4) Develop a solution and experiment with it. 5) Evolve the idea. This project is structured upon a methodology generated to apply a circular system framework in design that begins with taking a holistic view of topic. This methodology structured into five phases. The first phase is referring to this approach as moving from Macrocosm to …

An Examination Of Accessible Hands-On Science Learning Experiences, Self-Confidence In One’S Capacity To Function In The Sciences, And Motivation And Interest In Scientific Studies And Careers., Mick D. Isaacson, Cary Supalo, Michelle Michaels, Alan Roth

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

This study examined the potential relationship of accessible hands-on science learning experiences to the development of positive beliefs concerning one’s capacity to function in the sciences and motivation to consider science as a college major and career. Findings from Likert survey items given before and after engaging in accessible hands-on science laboratories show that students who were blind or had low vision (BLV) were more likely to agree with the following items after engaging in accessible science experiences: 1) I plan on enrolling as a science major in college; 2) My educational experiences, so far, have given me the …

Tribological Study Of Textured Surfaces Created Using Modulation Assisted Machining For Steel-Aluminum Contact, Paarth Mehta

Theses

One of the major problems the world faces currently is the loss of energy and mechanical efficiency in machine components due to friction. Also, surface damage due to friction and resulting part repairs and replacement has cost US industries a reportedly US $280 billion/year. Recent work in the field of surface modification and texturing has shown, that, artificially created micro textures significantly reduce friction and wear of lubricated surfaces. Micro-scale artificial textures in friction paring contacts acts as lubricant reservoirs and wear particle receptacles to boost hydrodynamic pressure, which influences the lubrication regimes. In this study, the Stribeck curve of …

Get Pretty, Hye Sook Choi

Theses

I want to investigate the concepts of modern beauty and how it has an influence on people, particularly women in their 20s and 30s in contemporary Korean society. As society changes, the standard of beauty changes and the social expectations for beauty grow. In general women are more concerned about their looks than men are, because beauty plays a major role in their life through first impression and social status. However, with a strong focus on consumerism and society’s standard of beauty, women have turned to materialistic goods, especially purses and high heels, to satisfy the artificial ideal beauty. It …

Zen Design: Applying Zen Principles To Brand Identity In Contemporary Graphic Design, Yun Zheng

Theses

Relaxing and finding inner balance is extremely important to those of us who live in a fast-paced, modern world. Zen has become more and more popular in different cultures and we can see the shadows of it in many of the products we interact with and use in daily life. It is being used in branding intentionally and unintentionally in some form but very few of these efforts are effective.

Through research and informational analysis, this thesis provides a simple way to understand Zen principles from psychological and aesthetic perspectives, and also identifies the similarities and differences between Modernism and …

Technological, Policy, And Organizational Issues In The Response To Biological Emergency Incidents In The Us Food Supply, Kristina J. Owens

Theses

Numerous emergency incidents in U.S. food supply occur each year. Incidents include invasive pests and diseases impacting agriculture crops and foodborne pathogens contaminating meat and poultry. An effective response is not just dependent on the technology that is being used, but also policy and organizational factors. This research is a cross-case analysis of two federal regulatory and emergency response agencies under the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). This research analyzes how each agency uses technology, policy and organizational factors to responds to their respective emergencies. This study also …

Thin Bopp Barrier Films Barriers Against Mineral Oil, Flavours & Gases, Ulrich Reiners Dr., Francesca Piasente

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

Protection against mineral oil is the subject of intense ongoing public debate. In addition, aroma barriers are increasingly becoming the focus of advanced packaging materials. BoPP films possess almost no barriers against mineral oil, flavors and gases. Therefore, a co-extruded and 50 times biaxial oriented multilayer thin BoPP film was developed. It has a well-protected inner barrier layer, which delivers protection against mineral oil and flavors as well as oxygen. The achieved film is far more robust for printing and lamination than comparable coated barrier films, a fact confirmed by several flexible film converters. During the development phase, it became …

Packaging Film Impact On Food Organoleptic Properties: An Experimental Study, Stefano Tamarindo, Carine Pastore

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

Most packaged food products deteriorate in quality due to mass transfer phenomena such as moisture absorption, oxygen invasion, flavor loss, undesirable odor absorption and packaging material migration. An approach to increase the shelf life of the packaged food, while exploiting the advantages of flexible packaging, is to use flexible multi-layer polyethylene (PE)-based films including a barrier layer. This paper reviews different oxygen barrier layers used in Doy Pack flexible pouches for fruit puree and presents the impact of storage conditions on the organoleptic properties. In this study, the performances of five types of PE film pouched filled with fruit puree …

Transfer Learning For High Resolution Aerial Image Classification, Yilong Liang, Sildomar T. Monteiro, Eli S. Saber

Presentations and other scholarship

With rapid developments in satellite and sensor technologies, increasing amount of high spatial resolution aerial images have become available. Classification of these images are important for many remote sensing image understanding tasks, such as image retrieval and object detection. Meanwhile, image classification in the computer vision field is revolutionized with recent popularity of the convolutional neural networks (CNN), based on which the state-of-the-art classification results are achieved. Therefore, the idea of applying the CNN for high resolution aerial image classification is straightforward. However, it is not trivial mainly because the amount of labeled images in remote sensing for training a …

Multi-Modality American Sign Language Recognition, Chenyang Zhang, Yingli Tian, Matt Huenerfauth

Presentations and other scholarship

American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual gestural language which is used by many people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. In this paper, we design a visual recognition system based on action recognition techniques to recognize individual ASL signs. Specifically, we focus on recognition of words in videos of continuous ASL signing. The proposed framework combines multiple signal modalities because ASL includes gestures of both hands, body movements, and facial expressions. We have collected a corpus of RBG + depth videos of multi-sentence ASL performances, from both fluent signers and ASL students; this corpus has served as a source for …

A Zebra In The Infield, Nelson R. Robinson Iv

Theses

“A Zebra in the Infield” is a dark comedy about a young African American man named Rotavious from the inner-city. Rotavious is a recent college graduate and he is venturing into the suburbs to purchase a car. After catching a bus to the predominantly Caucasian side of town, he is profiled and harassed by police officer Colescott. Officer Colescott searches Rotavious and finds the money that Rotavious has allocated for his new car, he seizes it as drug money. During a struggle for the money Officer Colescott is shot and Rotavious flees in fear. In his haste to flee he …

The Transverse Musculocutaneous Gracilis Flap For Breast Reconstruction Educational Illustration Series, Ryan Steenberg

Theses

Advancements in medicine have allowed surgeons a menu of options in post-mastectomy breast reconstruction. A conundrum exists, however, in flap selection when faced with varying patient body types. In the case of the athletic patient who does not have the appropriate amount of donor site tissue to warrant a Transverse Rectus Abdominus Musculocutaneuos Flap (TRAM) the Transverse Musculocutaneous Gracilis Flap (TMG) is an appropriate alternative due to its functional and aesthetic benefits. An intricate and timely process, the TMG procedure can be difficult to understand for the layperson. Therefore, a need for a condensed and standardized description exists. By breaking …

Libdetector: Version Identification Of Libraries In Android Applications, Zhihao Mike Chi

Theses

In the Android ecosystem today, code is often reused by developers in the form of software libraries. This practice not only saves time, but also reduces the complexity of software development. However, like all other software, software libraries are prone to bugs, design flaws, and security vulnerabilities. They too undergo incremental updates to not only add/change features, but also to address their flaws. Unfortunately, the knowledge gap between consumers and maintainers of software libraries presents a barrier to the timely adoption of important library updates.

Therefore we present LibDetector, a tool for identifying the specific version of Java libraries used …

Hyperspectral Vehicle Brdf Learning: An Exploration Of Vehicle Re Ectance Variation And Optimal Measures Of Spectral Similarity For Vehicle Reacquisition And Tracking Algorithms, Joseph Svejkosky

Theses

The spectral signatures of vehicles in hyperspectral imagery exhibit temporal variations due to the preponderance of surfaces with material properties that display non-Lambertian bi-directional reflectance distribution functions (BRDFs). These temporal variations are caused by changing illumination conditions, changing sun-target-sensor geometry, changing road surface properties, and changing vehicle orientations. To quantify these variations and determine their relative importance in a sub-pixel vehicle reacquisition and tracking scenario, a hyperspectral vehicle BRDF sampling experiment was conducted in which four vehicles were rotated at different orientations and imaged over a six-hour period. The hyperspectral imagery was calibrated using novel in-scene methods and converted to …

Development Of A Graduate Course On The Transition To Internet Protocol Version 6, Venu Gopal Kakarla

Theses

Internet and mobile connectivity has grown tremendously in the last few decades, creating an ever increasing demand for Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. The pool of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses, once assumed to be more than sufficient for every person on this planet, has reached its final stages of depletion. With The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority’s (IANA) global pools depleted, and four of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIR) pools down to the their last /8 block, the remaining addresses will not last very long.

In order to ensure continuous growth of the internet in the foreseeable future, we …

The Opportunity: A 3d Animation About Karma, Mark J. Reisch

Theses

The Opportunity is a three dimensional animation that illustrates the idea that by helping others you can inadvertently help yourself. The story is told using an animated sunflower, bees, tulip, and farmer. In a sunflower garden, a sunflower tries to entice a bee to pollinate it, but a tulip (that is not supposed to be in the sunflower garden) attracts all of the bees. The tulip sees the farmer coming to weed out any unwanted plants. Seeing the fear in the tulip’s eyes, the sunflower helps disguise the tulip. The farmer is tricked and the tulip is saved. With the …

Close Your Legs, Dear, Narin Shech

Theses

close your legs, dear examines the notion of an internal gaze, or self-regulation, through the subjective experience of the pursuit of a feminine ideal and the underlying emotional disquietude that accompanies that pursuit. This body of work primarily utilizes self-portraiture through time-based moving images to examine the a-priori fragmentation of the body in the subject. This fragmentation of the body is also a metaphorical fragmentation of the ego, which becomes a host to obsessive, self-observation and self-regulation vis-à-vis the feminine ideal.

Each moving image exhibits varying degrees of subtle motion, primarily gestures that the female subject performs in repetition, which …

Retopologizing Mri And Diffusion Tensor Tractography Datasets For Real-Time Interactivity, R. Scott Riddle

Theses

Current technology allows MRI and other patient data to be translated into voxel-based 3D models for the purpose of visualization. However, these voxel models are extremely complex and are not suitable for rapid real-time manipulation. For true “on-the-fly” interactivity, polygon-based models must be hand-built using other methods and imported into a game engine.This project develops an algorithm to translate complex datasets into optimized models for real-time interactivity without sacrificing accuracy of the original imaging modality. A working prototype, ready for integration into game engines, has been built with brain tumor data exported from OSIRIX1 and 3D Slicer2 via Mudbox3, retopologized …

Bayesian Inference With Combined Dynamic And Sparsity Models: Application In 3d Electrophysiological Imaging, Jingjia Xu

Theses

Data-driven inference is widely encountered in various scientific domains to convert the observed measurements into information that cannot be directly observed about a system. Despite the quickly-developing sensor and imaging technologies, in many domains, data collection remains an expensive endeavor due to financial and physical constraints. To overcome the limits in data and to reduce the demand on expensive data collection, it is important to incorporate prior information in order to place the data-driven inference in a domain-relevant context and to improve its accuracy.

Two sources of assumptions have been used successfully in many inverse problem applications. One is the …

Modelling Of Information Flow And Resource Utilization In The Edge Distributed Web System, Bryan Thomas Meyers

Theses

The adoption of Distributed Web Systems (DWS) into modern engineering design process has dramatically increased in recent years. The Engineering Design Guide and Environment (EDGE) is one such DWS, intended to provide an integrated set of tools for use in the development of new products and services. Previous attempts to improve the efficiency and scalability of DWS focused largely on hardware utilization (i.e. multithreading and virtualization) and software scalability (i.e. load balancing and cloud services). However, these techniques are often limited to analysis of the computational complexity of the algorithms implemented.

This work seeks to improve the understanding of efficiency …

Deadly Pleasure, Chunhui Bao

Theses

In this work, a girl’s father is one of the victims in the mass political persecution by Emperor Yongzheng, 18 A.D., and he is killed in front of his family. The Emperor is present during his murder and he notices the girl and her gorgeous, long hair. Because of this the girl survives the massacre of her entire family and is sent away and trained to become a concubine. It becomes the goal of the girl to work hard to become a chosen concubine by the Emperor so she can avenge the murder of her family with her gorgeous, magical …

Bioclimatic Design For Global Projects: The Case Of Maranatha One-Day Church, Cibele Eller Rodrigues

Theses

Bioclimatic design is an effective architectural approach for creating environmentally responsive buildings, improving comfort and quality of life for its users while using fewer resources. However, globalization of construction strategies and standardized systems are often applied to various locations without considering the specificity of each climate and site. Thus, working contrary to bioclimatic premises and reducing the overall building performance. This work analyzes the case of the One-Day Church (ODC) global project from Maranatha Volunteers International (MVI), which consists of building churches around the world using a standard roof and frame kit, and local materials. It proposes design improvements for …

Joint Source-Channel Coding Optimized On End-To-End Distortion For Multimedia Source, Ebrahim Jarvis

Theses

In order to achieve high efficiency, multimedia source coding usually relies on the use of predictive coding. While more efficient, source coding based on predictive coding has been considered to be more sensitive to errors during communication. With the current volume and importance of multimedia communication, minimizing the overall distortion during communication over an error-prone channel is critical. In addition, for real-time scenarios, it is necessary to consider additional constraints such as fix and small delay for a given bit rate. To comply with these requirements, we seek an efficient joint source-channel coding scheme.

In this work, end-to-end distortion is …

Candelaria Hot Dog, Alexander Montoya

Theses

Candelaria Hotdog is a short animated film that attempts to show a personal perspective of a city’s landscape and culture. It’s a journey through the eyes of a person who treasures a simple memory and wants to make the best out of it by sharing it in a unique and comprehensible way.

La Candelaria is a historic neighborhood in Bogota Colombia, characterized by a constant display of a variety of street artists, musicians and beautiful locations that portray many of the local traditions and artistic styles of Colombia. The architecture from La Candelaria is primarily distinctive of the Spanish colonial …

Moovy: Sensorial Communication Device, Mariana Pinheiro

Theses

Over time humans evolved and perfected their communication tools. The world today is more connected than ever, and we are able to reach people all over the world using handheld technology such as smartphones, computers, and tablets. Society is living in a digital era and many negative side effects are being identified. The excess of digital immersion can lead to physical harm, such as neck injuries caused by poor postural habits, as well as psychological and social consequences.

Inspired by the historical evolution of communication and concerned about the impacts in social behaviors, this thesis proposes a new language of …