Digital Commons Network^™

Bubble Boy, Tang Tao

Theses

Love is always unpredictable, especially for those who don't believe this. The story happens in an anti-physics universe, everyone lives in a separate planet. A lonely boy tried different ways to get a girl's attention. He truly believed the girl would notice him. "Bubble Boy" is a three-minute thesis animation. It is a 3D animation that was mostly produced in MAYA 2012. This paper delineates the whole process of making this animation, from the early stage till the final. It describes my innovations, obstacles, effort, sadness and happiness in this entire production.

Comparison Of Media Selection In The U.S. And Indian Advertising Industries, Yashashree Potdar

Theses

Advertising is necessary to establish a brand and to increase the sale of the products. Media planning is an important phase of any advertising campaign. The purpose of this study was to determine the media types used in the advertising industries in India and in the U.S. Media professionals from five Indian advertising agencies and five U.S advertising agencies were interviewed to find out the media selection in both countries. The identification of media was then followed by the comparison of media selection in India and the U.S. The secondary research was carried out to find out media environment in …

Ntid Focus Spring 2013, Ntid Marketing And Communications

National Technical Institute for the Deaf Papers

No abstract provided.

Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing: A Survey Of Consuming Perceptions, Albert Blankley

Theses

INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE

New technology presents difficulties for policy makers in that it is impossible to determine every subsequent impact of a novel technology when it is introduced to society. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing exemplifies this problem while presenting the additional complication of having an impact on both individual and public health. Little research has been done on what consumer perceptions of information presented to them are. Some studies have demonstrated a need for further work and expert consensus has identified issues with advertisements but no research has been

done on consumer perceptions.

METHODOLOGY

A cohort of faculty and staff …

An Efficient Interaction Framework For Mobile Web Services, Abdullah Almuaibid

Theses

Having the latest technological devices is becoming more of a necessity these days rather than a luxury as it was only a decade ago. Among these advancements, the smart phone has grown in popularity significantly. This is due to a variety of reasons but it would have to be said that the access to mobile internet service it provides is a strong motivator for acquiring one. As might be expected the increased number of smart phone users requesting information from the internet has resulted in times when the average access time (the time a user must wait to download his/her …

Automated Sleep Classification Using The New Sleep Stage Standards, Elizabeth Fehrmann

Theses

Sleep is fundamental for physical health and good quality of life, and clinicians and researchers have long debated how best to understand it. Manual approaches to sleep classification have been in use for over 40 years, and in 2007, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) published a new sleep scoring manual. Over the years, many attempts have been made to introduce and validate machine learning and automated classification techniques in the sleep research field, with the goals of improving consistency and reliability. This thesis explored and assessed the use of automated classification systems with the updated sleep stage definitions …

Investigation Of The Intermediate And High End Initial Mass Function As Probed By Near-Infrared Selected Stellar Clusters, Christine Trombley

Theses

Young stellar clusters serve as powerful natural laboratories for studying the intermediate to high mass end of the initial mass function. The purpose of this dissertation is to measure the slope of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) over the intermediate to high mass range. Previous measurements are consistent with a "canonical" value over this mass regime, though the young massive star population in the Galactic Center may have a "top-heavy" distribution. In order to probe the IMF in stellar clusters that are preferentially more distant and more massive than the majority previously studied in the literature, the cluster sample …

Pupil Wavefront Manipulation For The Compensation Of Mask Topography Effects In Optical Nanolithography, Monica Sears

Theses

As semiconductor optical lithography is pushed to smaller dimensions, resolution enhancement techniques have been required to maintain process yields. For some time, the customization of illumination coherence at the source plane has allowed for the control of diffraction order distribution across the projection lens pupil. Phase shifting at the mask plane has allowed for some phase control as well. However, geometries smaller than the imaging wavelength introduce complex wavefront effects that cannot be corrected at source or mask planes. Three dimensional mask topography effects can cause a pitch dependent defocus (δBF), which can decrease the useable depth of focus (UDOF) …

Developing Kosovo’S Intergovernmental System For Improving Regional Cooperation / [Presentation Given February 20, 2013], Arta Efendija

Theses

This capstone project addressed the important issues of regional cooperation amongst the countries of South East Europe. The main challenges are assessed for promoting the development of an intergovernmental system for effective coordination and greater cooperation between the regional countries. The project highlights the main difficulties of participation of the Kosovo representatives at the regional meetings. Most of the project survey work report the top three problems are related to political, visa and financial issues. These are the assessments from 30 senior governmental officials across several government ministerial departments. The results from the project suggest that three very important requirements …

Human Resource Planning In Kosovo Aeronautical Institutions With The Special Focus On Civil Aviation Authority Caa / [Presentation Given February 20, 2013], Diana Pacolli

Theses

Globally, Civil Aviation is a highly complex and safety sensitive process. This capstone project addresses the significant challenges related to human resource planning of Aeronautical Authorities in the Republic of Kosovo. The major challenges for Kosovo are in three main areas. These are (i) sustainable Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) funding, (ii) attracting and remuneration of professional staff, and (iii) retaining skilled, committed, and experienced aviation professionals ... The four main recommendations of this capstone project are: 1. The CAA dedicated revenues should be spent for capacity building and filling key related aviation positions in order to be capable of accomplishing …

Eat A Peach, Lisa Adamucci

Theses

Eat a Peach focuses on the members of my immediate family and each individual's relationship to our small southern New Jersey peach farm. There are seven of us: my mother and father, my four brothers, and me. Growing up, I never gave the farm much thought, treating it as a place where my family lived and nothing more. When I began photographing the members of my family the farm took on a life of its own, like a long-lost family member I wanted to get reacquainted with. I became more curious about the business, history, and daily routines of the …

Imaging Methods For Understanding And Improving Visual Training In The Geosciences, Brandon May

Theses

Experience in the field is a critical educational component of every student studying geology. However, it is typically difficult to ensure that every student gets the necessary experience because of monetary and scheduling limitations. Thus, we proposed to create a virtual field trip based off of an existing 10-day field trip to California taken as part of an undergraduate geology course at the University of Rochester. To assess the effectiveness of this approach, we also proposed to analyze the learning and observation processes of both students and experts during the real and virtual field trips. At sites intended for inclusion …

Unit, Shuang Chang

Theses

It is a basic concept in Taoism that "personal infinity" can be achieved by visualizing the process where human bodies unify with the Universe through Taoism study and practice. This project, Unit is an animated adaptation of drawings created by my mother, Mrs. Hanjinying, who is writing and painting for a textbook on Taoism. It is a visualized journey of a Taoism experience featuring two characters who are different manifestations of the same self that unite and connect to nature and the Universe through their spiritual development. The animation is four minutes in length. The imagery consists of 2D based …

Route-Based Transportation Network Design, Lifan Zhang

Theses

Given shipment demand and driving regulations, a consolidation carrier has to make decisions on how to route both shipments and drivers at minimal cost. The traditional way to formulate and solve these problems is through the use of two-step models. This thesis presents a heuristic algorithm to solve an integrated model that can provide superior solutions. The algorithm combines a slope scaling initialization phase and tabu search to find high-quality solutions. The performance of the proposed heuristic is benchmarked against a commercial solver and these results indicate that the proposed method is able to produce better quality solutions for the …

Reporter - February 15th 2013, Rit Reporter Staff

University Publications

No abstract provided.

Examination Of Interactive Experience: Construction Of Physical And Social Presence In Virtual Environments, Malwina Buldys

Theses

Interactivity seems to be a familiar concept, which partially explains its frequent use in discussions about new communication technologies and what they can bring to communication studies. However, interactivity research has yet to reach a comprehensive and concrete consensus concerning the antecedents and consequences of interactive experiences. The main objective of this research is to determine the factors responsible for fostering the interactivity experience in the multiuser virtual environments and to observe how this variance in interactivity will affect the formation of physical and social presence. The study also examines the possible relationship between physical and social presence via correlation …

Reporter - February 8th 2013, Rit Reporter Staff

University Publications

No abstract provided.

Internet Marketing Trends: An Analysis Of Website And Social Media Use In New York State’S Equine Industry, Jessica Hooper

Theses

The Internet has evolved into a resource recognized by businesses and consumers as an effective means of marketing products and services. The rate at which businesses adopt online innovations, such as websites and social media varies based on factors such as comfort level and interest, and can be linked to Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation theory. This study investigates the extent to which horseback riding stables in New York State utilize websites, Facebook, and Twitter to market and promote equine services to consumers. General usage numbers are significantly higher than the 30% Internet use by farm businesses, which is likely a …

Reporter - February 1st 2013, Rit Reporter Staff

University Publications

No abstract provided.

Flexible Hw-Sw Design And Analysis Of An Mmt-Based Manet System On Fpga, Huixiang Yi

Theses

Recently there has been a rapid growth of research interests in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs). Their infrastructureless and dynamic nature demands that new strategies be implemented on a robust wireless communication platform in order to provide efficient end-to-end communication. Many routing algorithms have been developed to serve this purpose. This thesis investigated Multi-Meshed Tree (MMT) algorithm, an integrated solution that combines routing, clustering and medium access control operations based on a common "multi-meshed tree" concept. It provides the robustness and redundancy inherent in mesh topologies and uses the tree branches to deliver packets. MMT is the first of its kind …

Memento Mori, Vidhya Sukumaran

Theses

As with all children, cartoons enthralled me. I cannot identify any point in my life when I got out of this fascination. To this day I watch animations of all descriptions, savor them, fantasize over making them myself and derive considerable vicarious satisfaction. I never wavered from my fascination with animation. I carried my passion forward and made a decision to pursue animation... making it my reality. My first tangible practical step in this direction was to enroll in the Master of Fine Arts program in the School of Film and Animation at Rochester Institute of Technology. It was my …

Feasibility Of Capturing Circulating Tumor Cells With A Magnetized Device, Jay Wheaton

Theses

A standard inferior vena cava (IVC) filter is plated with Nickel in order to be rendered magnetizable. In the presence of an applied magnetic field, the IVC filter has a strong magnetic gradient near the surface that captures circulating tumor cells (CTCs) tagged with paramagnetic nanoparticles. Particle motion and capture includes a balance of the magnetization force and hydrodynamic drag force. ANSYS Fluent CFD software and ANSYS Workbench Magnetostatics were used independently to obtain fluid velocity and magnetic field intensity solutions. The separate solutions were combined in Matlab for numerical particle tracking. Empirical capture efficiency was determined using in-flow spectrometer …

Tree-Structured Small-World Connected Wireless Network-On-Chip With Adaptive Routing, Andrew Benjamin

Theses

Traditional Network-on-Chip (NoC) systems comprised of many cores suffer from debilitating bottlenecks of latency and significant power dissipation due to the overhead inherent in multi-hop communication. In addition, these systems remain vulnerable to malicious circuitry incorporated into the design by untrustworthy vendors in a world where complex multi-stage design and manufacturing processes require the collective specialized services of a variety of contractors. This thesis proposes a novel small-world tree-based network-on-chip (SWTNoC) structure designed for high throughput, acceptable energy consumption, and resiliency to attacks and node failures resulting from the insertion of hardware Trojans. This tree-based implementation was devised as a …

A Novel Approach To A Wearable Eye Tracker Using Region-Based Gaze Estimation, Aun Kei Hong

Theses

Eye tracking studies are useful to understand human behavior and reactions to visual stimuli. To conduct experiments in natural environments it is common to use mobile or wearable eye trackers. To ensure these systems do not interfere with the natural behavior of the subject during the experiment, they should be comfortable and be able to collect information about the subject's point of gaze for long periods of time. Most existing mobile eye trackers are costly and complex. Furthermore they partially obstruct the visual field of the subject by placing the eye camera directly in front of the eye. These systems …

Warranty Prediction During Product Development: Developing An Event Generation Engine, Sivakumar Sundar

Theses

In 2010, high tech industries including computer makers, peripherals manufacturers, and medical equipment manufacturers spent a total of $8 billion on warranty. Reducing warranty costs improves the manufacturer's profit and helps to reduce the overall cost of the product. An often cited principle is that approximately 80% of the eventual product cost is 'locked in' during the very early stages of product development, however, traditional methods of warranty analysis are not well suited to predict the warranty costs during these early stages. Thus, product development personnel need better tools to make good predictions about the warranty costs so that they …

Tsv Placement Optimization For Liquid Cooled 3d-Ics With Emerging Nvms, Sundararaman Mohanram

Theses

Three dimensional integrated circuits (3D-ICs) are a promising solution to the performance bottleneck in planar integrated circuits. One of the salient features of 3D-ICs is their ability to integrate heterogeneous technologies such as emerging non-volatile memories (NVMs) in a single chip. However, thermal management in 3D-ICs is a significant challenge, owing to the high heat flux (~ 250 W/cm2). Several research groups have focused either on run-time or design-time mechanisms to reduce the heat flux and did not consider 3D-ICs with heterogeneous stacks. The goal of this work is to achieve a balanced thermal gradient in 3D-ICs, while reducing the …

A Computational Study Of Branching Rules For Multi-Commodity Fixed-Charged Network Flow Problems, Sheetal Murkute

Theses

Branch and bound based algorithms are used by many commercial mixed integer programming solvers for solving complex optimization problems. In a branch and bound based method, a feasible region is divided into smaller sub-problems. This is called branching and various branching strategies have been developed to improve the performance of branch and bound based algorithms. However, their performance has primarily been studied on general mixed integer programs. Thus, in the first phase of this thesis, we study the performance of these branching strategies on a specific, structured mixed integer program, the capacitated multi-commodity fixed charge network flow (MCFCNF) problem. We …

Gas Mask X, Yoon-Ha Noh

Theses

Gas Mask X is a 21-minute psychological genre, short narrative film by Yoon-ha Noh that was completed and premiered in November 2012. The film is about a character, Gas Mask X who carries the guilt and trauma about his mother and father's deaths. Gas Mask X's mother died when she was giving birth to him, and his father committed suicide in front of him when Gas Mask X was only 10 years old. His horrible memories have continually `suffocated' him, so he has worn a gas mask since after the death of his father. Gas Mask X reveals how the …

Condition Monitoring Of Reciprocating Compressor Valves Using Analytical And Data-Driven Methodologies, Christopher Guerra

Theses

Condition-based health monitoring systems are a very important addition to machinery to monitor the system and assure it is running at the peak efficiency, to schedule maintenance, and prevent catastrophic failure. Many times these systems are combined with different sensors to predict when service is required for different wear parts and this keeps the machine running optimally. An accurate prediction of health is accomplished by measuring and analyzing different critical parameters and detecting when these parameters deviate from the nominal values. Recently, these systems have started to become more common on industrial compression technology. Typically, reciprocating compressor health monitoring systems …

Android Forensics: Automated Data Collection And Reporting From A Mobile Device, Justin Grover

Theses

As Android smartphones gain popularity, industry and government will face increasing pressure to integrate them into their environments. The implementation of these devices on an enterprise can save on costs and add capabilities previously unavailable; however, the organizations that incorporate this technology must be prepared to mitigate the associated risks. These devices can contain vast amounts of personal and work-related data that can impact internal investigations, including (but not limited to) those of policy violations, intellectual property theft, misuse, embezzlement, sabotage, and espionage. Physical access has been the traditional method for retrieving data useful to these investigations from Android devices, …