Digital Commons Network^™

Bringing Iban To Kosovo / [Presentation Given May 17, 2011], Fisnik Latifi

Theses

In 2010 a conference held under the title “Kosovo in Internet”, funded by the Foreign Policy Club in Prishtina, brought to light a severe problem that Kosovo faces in its international representation on the web. Unlike the United Kingdom (.uk), or Germany (.de), Kosovo cannot use .ks for directing to websites hosted in the territory of Kosovo. These two-letter addressing codes are called country code Top Level Domains (ccTLD), which are assigned by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Under ICANN rules, to be eligible to receive a two-letter ccTLD a country must first have been assigned …

Reporter - May 13th 2011, Rit Reporter Staff

University Publications

No abstract provided.

Scaling-Up In Estuaries: The Feasibility Of Using Small Scale Results To Draw Large Scale Conclusions, Christopher Scheiner

Theses

Estuarine ecosystems are dynamic, heterogeneous ecosystems that are increasingly impacted by human activities, particularly excess nutrient loading and the resulting eutrophication. Much of the descriptive research investigating large-scale eutrophication is performed using field surveys and small-scale, manipulative microcosm experiments. To investigate confounding effects of scale and heterogeneity, we conducted a large-scale field survey of benthic conditions in West Falmouth Harbor (WFH), Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and compared our results to those observed in microcosm studies that utilized sediments and macrofauna from WFH. We used geographic information systems to estimate field condition heterogeneity and design an appropriate sampling strategy, and geostatistical interpolation …

Kindergarten Transition Practices For Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cassandra Mccumber

Theses

The educational classification of Autism has increased significantly in recent years. Schools are now facing new requirements and expectations to provide appropriate services to meet the needs of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The kindergarten transition is the first major educational transition in a student's educational career. It is a particularly important transition for students with ASD because a successful kindergarten transition leads to better academic outcomes and better generalization of skills developed in the preschool setting (McIntyre et al., 2006). However, students with ASD begin with significant risk of an unsuccessful transition to kindergarten to due to qualitative …

School-Based Professionals' Self-Reported Training, Preparation And Confidence In Providing Services To Students With Asd, Kimberly Nosek

Theses

The number of children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has grown

exponentially in recent years (Simpson, 2008). Children diagnosed with ASD have lifelong impairments in three areas: socialization, communication and behavior (AP A, 2000). These along with associated features of the disorder such as difficulties with learning, attention, affect, sensory processing, and regulating emotions and behavior can make creating an educational plan for these students particularly challenging. The current study addressed a number of research questions related to training, preparation and confidence to deliver services to students with ASD among school-based professionals. The study utilized survey-research, targeting school …

Comparison Of Geochemical And Biological Characteristics Of Natural And Constructed Wetlands In Western Ny, Katrina Scheiner

Theses

To protect wetlands and the critical ecosystem functions and services they provide, federal law mandates creation of new wetlands for wetlands that are destroyed. However, we don't yet fully understand if created wetlands are functionally equivalent to their natural counterparts. In this study of two natural (N1, N2) and two created (C1, C2) wetlands in western New York state, interdependent biological and geochemical characteristics were measured to assess equivalency of ecosystem function. With the exception of Typha sp, all wetlands contained unique vegetation zones. We sampled within these vegetation zones during the growing season of 2010. Overall cover of plant …

Flanking Numbers And Its Application To Arankings Of Cyclic Graphs, M. Daniel Short

Theses

Given a graph G with a ranking function, f: V(G) --> {1,2,...,k}, the ranking is minimal if only if G does not contain a drop vertex. The arank number of a graph, [psi]r(G), is the maximum k such that G has a minimal k-ranking. A new technique is established to better understand how to analyze arankings of various cyclic graphs, Cn. Then the technique, flanking number, is used to describe all arank properties of all cyclic graphs fully by proving the following proposition: [psi]r(C_n) = [floor]{log₂(n+1)[floor] + [floor]log₂(n+2/3)[floor] + 1 for all n > 6.

Presence Within Absence, Jennifer Halvorson

Theses

Your grandparents' and parents' values do mark you and continue to mark you as you grow older, cause I think of a lot of things that, oh, I wouldn't do that because grandpa wouldn't do that. He was the neatest thing since sliced bread, as far as I was concerned. Marion Kesner This remark was made by my grandmother in the summer of 2009. It was a closing statement to one of our many discussions revolving around her history. The conversation led me to realize that the connection to the past contributes deeply to our current identity. Through time and …

Are New Media Credible? A Multidimensional Approach To Measuring News Consumers’ Credibility And Bias Perceptions And The Frequency Of News Consumption, Bonnie Mccracken

Theses

An investigation of news consumers' self-reported news source preferences, frequency of media consumption, and perceptions of news bias and credibility was performed to understand where news consumers are receiving news content and judgments of credibility in mainstream and new media. A Web-based survey distributed to the Rochester Institute of Technology community was completed by 107 respondents. Results confirm previous findings that news consumers are more likely to have a higher frequency of consumption of media they perceive as credible. Results confirm the shift to online media where consumers report they are receiving their news. New findings brought forth by the …

Re Learning To Learn, Erika Heffernan

Theses

This thesis follows the personal story of a struggle with a learning disability and the resultant creation of a conceptual body of visual artwork titled "Re Learning to Learn." This work is a celebration of how we all process and interpret information differently. How we learn, comprehend, and interpret information is an internal process, rarely seen from the outside. Through using conceptual art in the form of video, photographs, installation, ceramic, glass, and interactive art this work questions how we are expected to learn, and also the ways we are taught in the classroom. This paper utilizes David Ausubel's theory …

Yard 21, Yunfei Zhang

Theses

Yard 21 by Yunfei Zhang, M.F.A. Thesis, Rochester Institute of Technology 2011 An overview of the process of the proposal, production, and ultimate result of the live-action documentary film，Yard 21. The goal of Yard 21 on the technical level was to generate a story idea, develop the idea, and produce and finish the film. The aesthetic purpose of Yard 21 is to evoke a spiritual response from the audience as they watch these un-acclaimed characters' lives. Included are the original proposal and developed proposal, schedule breakdown, budget, editing schedule, final script, animation sequence samples, and frame style samples.

An Investigation Of Facial Rigging For Animation, Patrick Clarke

Theses

The project " An investigation of facial rigging for animation " explores possible rigging methods for developing a stylistic 3D head that is both expressive and mimics realistic movements with animation. This project is broken into two parts: the modeling and rigging stage where most of the research and exploration takes place, and the animation stage that presents the final result of the rigging exploration. The first stage of this project explores developing an animatable head that resembles all basic emotions of the human face. The main focus of the project is on the formation of joint deformers and blendshapes, …

Nature, Hye Sin

Theses

For years, people have used art to transform images of nature into symbols of life, benevolence, reverence, creation, and death. In my life, nature means freedom. It has offered me meditation and power, and enriched my life. Perfect freedom is my ultimate goal. I have tried to express this in my art forms. Early in my life, I was not skilled at observation. I was not fully aware of many of the intricate details that can be found in the beauty of nature, although I was always surrounded by it. When I lived in Rochester, New York, the landscape had …

Reporter - May 6th 2011, Rit Reporter Staff

University Publications

No abstract provided.

Beauty Of Taiwan, Yu-Chung Chang

Theses

The term "Multimedia" refers to not only the materials used in creating art, but also the devices used for presenting the content. In the present time, artists can practice computer softwares as the media. They use audio and video tracks to display artwork. Various formats of technological or digital multimedia enhance the user's experience in entertainment or art, and transcend everyday experience. "Beauty of Taiwan", my MFA Thesis, is a Flash-based program which offers users interactivity to control the way to view art piece as used in video games. This program allows the presented film, made from my pencil drawings …

Congeniality Of Reading On Digital Devices: Measurement And Analysis Of Reader Experience, Garret Voorhees

Theses

Reading on digital devices is becoming increasingly common. Large markets have developed for both physical reading devices and web-based reading platforms. Each device and platform offers distinct features and supposed advantages, but the experience of reading a printed book is still considered superior by some reviewers. This study sought to identify the strengths and weaknesses of digital reading and to determine whether, or how, design factors influence the reader's experience. An initial evaluation of digital reading devices identified the most common form factors and established parameters to be evaluated by testing subjects in subsequent surveys. Two surveys were conducted, which …

University Magazine Spring 2011, University News Service, Office Of Alumni Relations

University Publications

This is the official magazine for RIT Alumni. Issued thrice a year in spring, fall and winter. Printing began in 1999.

Ntid Focus Spring/Summer 2011, Ntid Marketing And Communications

National Technical Institute for the Deaf Papers

No abstract provided.

Text Detection In Natural Scenes Through Weighted Majority Voting Of Dct High Pass Filters, Line Removal, And Color Consistency Filtering, Dave Snyder

Theses

Detecting text in images presents the unique challenge of finding both in-scene and superimposed text of various sizes, fonts, colors, and textures in complex backgrounds. The goal of this system is not to recognize specific letters or words but only to determine if a pixel is text or not. This pixel level decision is made by applying a set of weighted classifiers created using a set of high pass filters, and a series of image processing techniques. It is our assertion that the learned weighted combination of frequency filters in conjunction with image processing techniques may show better pixel level …

Robust Adaptive Control For A Hybrid Solid Oxide Fuel Cell System, Steven Snyder

Theses

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are electrochemical energy conversion devices. They offer a number of advantages beyond those of most other fuel cells due to their high operating temperature (800-1000 ° C), such as internal reforming, heat as a byproduct, and faster reaction kinetics without precious metal catalysts. Mitigating fuel starvation and improving load-following capabilities of SOFC systems are conflicting control objectives. However, this can be resolved by the hybridization of the system with an energy storage device, such as an ultra-capacitor. In this thesis, a steady-state property of the SOFC is combined with an input-shaping method in order to …

Experimental Study Of Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Enhancement Over Microchanneled Surfaces, Dwight Cooke

Theses

Pool boiling is of interest in heat transfer applications because of its potential for removing large amount of heat resulting from the latent heat of evaporation and little pressure drop penalty for circulating coolant through the system. However, the heat transfer performance of pool boiling systems is still not comparable to the cooling ability provided by enhanced microchannels operating under single-phase conditions. This investigation focuses on the bubble dynamics and heat transfer on plain and structured microchanneled surfaces under various heat fluxes in an effort to understand the underlying heat transfer mechanism through the use of a high speed camera. …

The Vehicle Routing Problem With A Volunteer Workforce, Leonardo Gala

Theses

Non-profit organizations like the Meals on Wheels association of America rely on a volunteer workforce to prepare and deliver meals to approximately one million home-bound citizens nation-wide. At the community level, hundreds of volunteers are routed through rural, sub-urban, and urban sectors daily. These communities can benefit from optimization techniques that effectively route volunteers. Lack of volunteer availability requires Meals on Wheels to maintain a waiting list for people who require meals but cannot be incorporated into the current delivery schedule. The consistency of delivery routes is also of concern, as there are service and operational benefits gained when volunteers …

Tangipaint: Interactive Tangible Media, Anthony Blatner

Theses

Currently, there is a wide disconnection between the real and virtual worlds in computer graphics. Art created with textured paints on canvases have visual effects which naturally supplement simple color. Real paint exhibits shadows and highlights, which change in response to viewing and lighting directions. The colors interact with this environment and can produce very noticeable effects. Additionally, the traditional means of human-computer interaction using a keyboard and mouse is unnatural and inefficient---gestures and actions are not performed on the objects themselves. These visual effects and natural interactions are missing from digital media in the virtual world. The absence of …

Distribution Patterns Of River Otters, Lontra Canadensis, Within Monroe County, New York, Darren Doherty

Theses

River Otters, Lontra canadensis were reintroduced to western NY after being extirpated in the early 1900's. The goal of this project was to understand what environmental variables influence habitat selection of river otters, within Monroe County, New York. Water chemistry and the use of benthic macroinvertebrates were investigated to assess the water quality and human impacts. The research area included three tributaries of the Genesee River: Black, Honeoye, and Oatka Creeks. At identified latrine sites, I collected macroinvertebrates at 9 sites and water chemistry at 30 sites to provide an index of the water quality. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was …

Automatic Registration Of Multi-Modal Airborne Imagery, Xiaofeng Fan

Theses

This dissertation presents a novel technique based on Maximization of Mutual Information (MMI) and multi-resolution to design an algorithm for automatic registration of multi-sensor images captured by various airborne cameras. In contrast to conventional methods that extract and employ feature points, MMI-based algorithms utilize the mutual information found between two given images to compute the registration parameters. These, in turn, are then utilized to perform multi-sensor registration for remote sensing images. The results indicate that the proposed algorithms are very effective in registering infrared images taken at three different wavelengths with a high resolution visual image of a given scene. …

Thermal Profiling In Cmos/Memristor Hybrid Architectures, Cory Merkel

Theses

CMOS/memristor hybrid architectures combine conventional CMOS processing elements with thin-film memristor-based crossbar circuits for high-density reconfigurable systems. These architectures have received an explosive growth in research over the past few years due to the first practical demonstration of a thin-film memristor in 2008. The reliability and lifetimes of both the CMOS and memristor partitions of these architectures are severely affected by temperature variations across the chip. Therefore, it is expected that dynamic thermal management (DTM) mechanisms will be needed to improve their reliability and lifetime. This thesis explores one aspect of DTM--thermal profiling--in a CMOS/memristor memory architecture. A temperature sensing …

Effectively Targeting Older Consumers, Jenna Nichols

Theses

Marketing strategies are used to convey product or service information and value offerings to a defined and specific audience. The ways in which these strategies are realized through graphic design may greatly impact the meaning and success of a marketing message on the intended audience. Some forms of messaging may unintentionally have a negative or positive effect on their viewer. It is important to analyze the types of designed messages being communicated to different age groups. This thesis study focuses on single-page, printed promotional advertisements specifically created to market a product or a service to a Senior demographic, people aged …

Design For Good: The Philosophical Alignment Of The Arts And Crafts, Modernist, And Handmade Movements, Kate Palermo

Theses

The early 1990's marked the beginning of the digital age when a transformation in graphic design technology and practice began to occur. For many graphic designers, the tactile approach to assembling a composition was abandoned as computer software advanced. While this shift in production technique saved time, it contributed (in many cases) to an unfortunate waning of interest in skill and craft. Perhaps as a reaction to this technologically- reliant era of design, many contemporary artists have returned to traditional processes (letterpress, etching, hand-rendered illustration, hand-written type) in order to reconnect with viewers and with their own work. This `Handmade' …

Minimizing Temperature Droop And Power Line Flicker In A Lamp Heated Xerographic Fusing System, Jeffrey Swing

Theses

Fuser roll temperature is one of the most important parameters affecting the performance of a xerographic fusing system. Temperature must be tightly controlled to ensure consistency of image permanence and quality, usually with a heating lamp. To reduce lighting flicker, International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) regulations limit the effects that the heating lamp can have on a mains power system. To meet these constraints, power delivery to the lamp is slowed down and transient performance of the temperature control system is reduced. This is especially prevalent at the start of a print job where the thermal system transitions from a low …

Towards A Human Centered Economy, Joseph Featherall

Theses

Not included