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Exploring 3d User Interface Technologies For Improving The Gaming Experience, Arun Kulshreshth Jan 2015

Exploring 3d User Interface Technologies For Improving The Gaming Experience, Arun Kulshreshth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

3D user interface technologies have the potential to make games more immersive & engaging and thus potentially provide a better user experience to gamers. Although 3D user interface technologies are available for games, it is still unclear how their usage affects game play and if there are any user performance benefits. A systematic study of these technologies in game environments is required to understand how game play is affected and how we can optimize the usage in order to achieve better game play experience. This dissertation seeks to improve the gaming experience by exploring several 3DUI technologies. In this work, …

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Mathematical Modeling Of Carbon Removal In The A-Stage Activated Sludge System, Thomas Nogaj Jan 2015

Mathematical Modeling Of Carbon Removal In The A-Stage Activated Sludge System, Thomas Nogaj

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research developed a dynamic activated sludge model (ASM) to better describe the overall removal of organic substrate, quantified as chemical oxygen demand (COD), from A-stage high rate activated sludge (HRAS) systems. This dynamic computer model is based on a modified ASM1 (Henze et al., 2000) model. It was determined early in the project that influent soluble COD, which is normally represented by a single state variable in ASM1, had to be subdivided into two state variables (SBs and SBf, or slow and fast fractions) to simulate the performance of A-stage systems. Also, the addition of state variables differentiating colloidal …

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The Early Modern Space: (Cartographic) Literature And The Author In Place, Michael C. Myers Jan 2015

The Early Modern Space: (Cartographic) Literature And The Author In Place, Michael C. Myers

HIM 1990-2015

In geography, maps are a tool of placement which locate both the cartographer and the territory made cartographic. In order to place objects in space, the cartographer inserts his own judgment into the scheme of his design. During the Early Modern period, maps were no longer suspicious icons as they were in the Middle Ages and not yet products of science, but subjects of discourse and works of art. The image of a cartographer’s territory depended on his vision—both the nature and placement of his gaze—and the product reflected that author’s judgment. This is not a study of maps as …

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Recursive Behavior Recording: Complex Motor Stereotypies And Anatomical Behavior Descriptions, Nathaniel Bobbitt Jan 2015

Recursive Behavior Recording: Complex Motor Stereotypies And Anatomical Behavior Descriptions, Nathaniel Bobbitt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A novel anatomical behavioral descriptive taxonomy improves motion capture in complex motor stereotypies (CMS) by indexing precise time data without degradation in the complexity of whole body movement in CMS. The absence of etiological explanation of complex motor stereotypies warrants the aggregation of a core CMS dataset to compare regulation of repetitive behaviors in the time domain. A set of visual formalisms trap configurations of behavioral markers (lateralized movements) for behavioral phenotype discovery as paired transitions (from, to) and asymmetries within repetitive restrictive behaviors. This translational project integrates NIH MeSH (medical subject headings) taxonomy with direct biological interface (wearable sensors …

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Socioeconomic Status, Instrumental Music Participation, And Middle School Student Achievement, Michael Antmann Jan 2015

Socioeconomic Status, Instrumental Music Participation, And Middle School Student Achievement, Michael Antmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in growth on the reading and mathematics FCAT 2.0 across varying levels of instrumental music participation by both low- and high-socioeconomic status (SES) middle school students, and to determine whether or not there is a relationship between instrumental music participation and socioeconomic status. The differences between instrumental music participation groups were not found to be statistically significant for both the reading and mathematics FCAT 2.0 growth by high-SES status students, and for reading FCAT 2.0 growth by low-SES status students. The differences between groups were found to be significant for …

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Perceptions Of Secondary Education Teachers Working In An Inclusive Setting, Destiny Pacha Jan 2015

Perceptions Of Secondary Education Teachers Working In An Inclusive Setting, Destiny Pacha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation in practice addresses the continuous underperformance of students with disabilities (SWD) on standardized assessments when compared to their non-disabled peers. This dissertation on the complex problem of practice investigates secondary education teachers' perceptions of students with disabilities and their ability to be included in the general education classroom. The purpose of this research is to develop a professional development framework to enhance inclusive practices. Students with disabilities nationwide are increasingly taught in the general education classroom in order to provide them access to their least restrictive environment and instruction of the general education curriculum. The beliefs held by …

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Gestures And Mental Models: A Triple Coding Hypothesis, Maura Austin Jan 2015

Gestures And Mental Models: A Triple Coding Hypothesis, Maura Austin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gestures and speech have been intertwined since the beginning of human communication. Recently the role of gestures in cognition and learning has become a topic of interest in both cognitive and educational psychology. Some researchers have speculated that gestures inherently communicate information that is not provided in purely verbal communication, and that this supplemental information can lead to more thorough mental models in the receiver by acting on a physical/motor modality in addition to the two modalities proposed in the dual code hypothesis. To further understand this issue, in this study, we examined the effects of watching a gesturing or …

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Literate Citizenship: The Culture Of Literacy In Inclusive Middle School Social Studies Classrooms And Students With Intellectual Disabilities, Kathleen Becht Jan 2015

Literate Citizenship: The Culture Of Literacy In Inclusive Middle School Social Studies Classrooms And Students With Intellectual Disabilities, Kathleen Becht

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As more and more students with intellectual disabilities are included in the general education middle school setting, the culture and context of the literacy instruction they are receiving is severely limited in the existing literature. In this study, the researcher employed an ethnographic research design to observe the literacy culture of two middle school general education social studies teachers in the context of a district and school that had focused on more inclusive practices over the past five years. The learning environment and the general education teachers* perceptions and expectations of the nature of literacy for students with intellectual disabilities …

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Modeling And Analysis Of A Three-Species Food Web With Facilitated And Intraguild Predation, Joshua Castro Jan 2015

Modeling And Analysis Of A Three-Species Food Web With Facilitated And Intraguild Predation, Joshua Castro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biotic interactions are known to shape natural community assemblages and biodiversity. Positive interactions such as facilitation have recently received attention in ecological food webs. Mechanistic models have improved our understanding of these complex food web interactions. Here, focus is given to a three-species food web system with a beach dune natural community in mind. In the last decade, there has been a series of studies investigating intraguild predation between two major loggerhead sea turtle nest predators, North American raccoons and Atlantic ghost crabs. Studies have also highlighted that ghost crab predation assists raccoons in finding nests (i.e., facilitated predation). However, …

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The Effect Of Allocated Assessment Time And Allocated Instructional Time On Student Achievement In Small, Medium, And Large School Districts In Florida, Samuel Crupi Jr. Jan 2015

The Effect Of Allocated Assessment Time And Allocated Instructional Time On Student Achievement In Small, Medium, And Large School Districts In Florida, Samuel Crupi Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To date, there is little current research which explores the effect of allocated assessment time and allocated instructional time as related to student achievement (Spanjers, Burns, & Wagner, 2008). Current educational reform has placed accountability and assessment at the forefront of public education (Hirsh, 2007; Jennings, 2012; Kallemeyn, 2009; NCLB, 2001; Supovitz, 2009). Research of time on task has demonstrated that there may be a positive correlation between the amount of time on task in learning activities and student achievement (Fredricks, McColskey, Meli, Mordica, Montrosse, & Mooney, (2011). There is current legislation to increase the time demands of assessment and …

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An Examination Of Administrators' Knowledge Of The Standards For Mathematical Practice - A Think Aloud, Vernita Glenn-White Jan 2015

An Examination Of Administrators' Knowledge Of The Standards For Mathematical Practice - A Think Aloud, Vernita Glenn-White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Administrators who observe mathematics teachers need to have knowledge and an understanding of mathematics teaching and learning to effectively evaluate teachers and how their instructional practices relate to student thinking. This research study was conducted to illustrate the importance of understanding the thought process of administrators as they make decisions about teacher effectiveness based on what they notice during observations of mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this study was to examine what administrators attend to in the instructional environment and how what they notice influences their ability to identify the Common Core State Standards, Standards for Mathematical Practice. A purposive …

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Liquid Crystal-Based Biosensors For The Detection Of Bile Acids, Sihui He Jan 2015

Liquid Crystal-Based Biosensors For The Detection Of Bile Acids, Sihui He

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bile acids are physiologically important metabolites, which are synthesized in liver as the end products of cholesterol metabolism and then secreted into intestine. They are amphiphilic molecules which play a critical role in the digestion and absorption of fats and fat-soluble vitamins through emulsification. The concentration of bile acids is an indicator for liver function. Individual suffering from liver diseases has a sharp increase in bile acid concentrations. Hence, the concentration level of bile acids has long been used as a biomarker for the early diagnosis of intestinal and liver diseases. Conventional methods of bile acid detection such as chromatography-mass …

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Resistive Pulse Study Of Vesicles And Liposomes, Yuqing Lin Jan 2015

Resistive Pulse Study Of Vesicles And Liposomes, Yuqing Lin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this work, the properties of the liposomes, the artificially created vesicles by various methods, are explored by a resistive pulse method using micropipettes. The fact that vesicles are fundamental in the wide range of functionalities they fulfill as organelles strengthen the desire of understanding the properties of them. The motivation of this work comes from the significant roles that liposomes play in the development of targeted drug delivery systems. Among other significant variables, the size of liposomes is found to be one of the dominating parameters in liposome based drug delivery, and the correlation between liposome size and delivery …

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Bridging Discourse: Connections Between Institutional And Lay Natural Philosophical Texts In Medieval England, Alayne Lorden Jan 2015

Bridging Discourse: Connections Between Institutional And Lay Natural Philosophical Texts In Medieval England, Alayne Lorden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Translations of works containing Arabic and ancient Greek knowledge of the philosophical and mechanical underpinnings of the natural world—a field of study called natural philosophy—were disseminated throughout twelfth-century England. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, institutional (ecclesiastical/university) scholars received and further developed this natural philosophical knowledge by reconciling it with Christian authoritative sources (the Bible and works by the Church Fathers). The subsequent discourse that developed demonstrated ambivalence towards natural philosophical knowledge; institutional scholars expressed both acceptance and anxiety regarding the theory and practice of alchemy, astrology/astronomy, and humoral/astrological medicine. While the institutional development and discourse surrounding natural philosophical thought …

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Classroom Error Climate: Teacher Professional Development To Improve Student Motivation, Sean O'Dell Jan 2015

Classroom Error Climate: Teacher Professional Development To Improve Student Motivation, Sean O'Dell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Student motivation and achievement are often low for students from low socioeconomic status households and may decline when children from all walks of life enter middle school. Despite years of studies describing these declines and efforts to improve learning outcomes, the trends continue. Motivation has been studied from several theoretical standpoints, among them, self-efficacy, beliefs, goal orientations, and emotions. This dissertation introduces error orientation: how teachers and students react to and use errors in the classroom. A positive error orientation, one that views errors as opportunities to learn rather than punishments, may help improve students* emotions, self-efficacy, and future goal …

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Farm To Fork: A Culinary- And Farm-Enhanced Nutrition Education Program, Vivian Ray Jan 2015

Farm To Fork: A Culinary- And Farm-Enhanced Nutrition Education Program, Vivian Ray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With obesity in adolescents becoming a major health problem in the United States, there has been an expansion in the use of nutritional education programs as intervention. Effective nutrition education can decrease the incidence of obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases, type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. This dissertation in practice proposes to design a nutrition education program, integrating farm and culinary activities into a nutrition education curriculum. The program is designed as a stand-alone program, but for this practice, implementation integrates the nutrition education program into the Film @ 6 after-school program – a STEM-focused program designed to assist …

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Nonlinear Optical Response Of Simple Molecules And Two-Photon Semiconductor Lasers, Matthew Reichert Jan 2015

Nonlinear Optical Response Of Simple Molecules And Two-Photon Semiconductor Lasers, Matthew Reichert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates two long standing issues in nonlinear optics: complete characterization of the ultrafast dynamics of simple molecules, and the potential of a two-photon laser using a bulk semiconductor gain medium. Within the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, nonlinear refraction in molecular liquids and gases can arise from both bound-electronic and nuclear origins. Knowledge of the magnitudes, temporal dynamics, polarization and spectral dependences of each of these mechanisms is important for many applications including filamentation, white-light continuum generation, all-optical switching, and nonlinear spectroscopy. In this work the nonlinear dynamics of molecules are investigated in both liquid and gas phase with the recently …

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A Quasi-Experiment Examining Expressive And Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge Of Preschool Head Start Children Using Mobile Media Apps, Angela Vatalaro Jan 2015

A Quasi-Experiment Examining Expressive And Receptive Vocabulary Knowledge Of Preschool Head Start Children Using Mobile Media Apps, Angela Vatalaro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The American Academy of Pediatrics (1999, 2011) recommends no screen time for children under two years and limited screen time for three- and four-year-olds. Despite these recommendations, most young children have easy access to various types of screens. In particular, children*s use of mobile media, including tablets and other touch screen devices, is increasing (Common Sense Media, 2013). Even though scholars have highlighted positive uses for mobile media (Christakis, 2014; Radesky, Schumacher, & Zuckerman, 2015) and there are recommendations in place for using mobile media with young children in active, open-ended ways (NAEYC & Fred Rogers Center, 2012), there has …

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Optical Fibers For Space-Division Multiplexed Transmission And Networking, Cen Xia Jan 2015

Optical Fibers For Space-Division Multiplexed Transmission And Networking, Cen Xia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Single-mode fiber transmission can no longer satisfy exponentially growing capacity demand. Space-division multiplexing (SDM) appears to be the only way able to dramatically improve the transmission capacity, for which, novel optical fiber is one of the key technologies. Such fibers must possess the following characteristics: 1) high mode density per cross-sectional area and 2) low crosstalk or low modal differential group delay (DMGD) to reduce complexity of digital signal processing. In this dissertation, we explore the design and characterization of three kinds of fibers for SDM: few-mode fiber (FMF), few-mode multi-core fiber (FM-MCF) and coupled multi-core fiber (CMCF) as well …

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The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Statistics, Fall 2015, Patti Mccall Jan 2015

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Statistics, Fall 2015, Patti Mccall

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

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The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Engineering And Computer Science, Fall 2015, Ven Basco Jan 2015

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Engineering And Computer Science, Fall 2015, Ven Basco

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

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The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Chemistry, Fall 2015, Patti Mccall Jan 2015

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Chemistry, Fall 2015, Patti Mccall

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

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The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Physics, Fall 2015, Patti Mccall Jan 2015

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Physics, Fall 2015, Patti Mccall

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

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High Efficiency And Wide Color Gamut Liquid Crystal Displays, Zhenyue Luo Jan 2015

High Efficiency And Wide Color Gamut Liquid Crystal Displays, Zhenyue Luo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Liquid crystal display (LCD) has become ubiquitous and indispensable in our daily life. Recently, it faces strong competition from organic light emitting diode (OLED). In order to maintain a strong leader position, LCD camp has an urgent need to enrich the color performance and reduce the power consumption. This dissertation focuses on solving these two emerging and important challenges. In the first part of the dissertation we investigate the quantum dot (QD) technology to improve the both the color gamut and the light efficiency of LCD. QD emits saturated color and grants LCD the capability to reproduce color vivid images. …

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Mid-Infrared Plasmonics, Farnood Khalilzadeh Rezaie Jan 2015

Mid-Infrared Plasmonics, Farnood Khalilzadeh Rezaie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports investigations into materials for, and applications of, infrared surface plasmon polaritons (SPP). SPPs are inhomogeneous electromagnetic waves that are bound to the surface of a conductor. Tight confinement of electromagnetic energy, the primary virtue of SPPs for so-called "plasmonic" applications, requires plasma frequencies for the conductor near the intended infrared operational frequencies. This requires carrier concentrations that are much less than those of usual metals such as gold and silver. I have investigated the optical properties and SPP excitation resonances of two materials having infrared plasma frequencies, namely the semimetal bismuth and the transparent conducting fluorine-doped tin-oxide …

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Electromechanical Lifting Actuation Of A Mems Cantilever And Nano-Scale Analysis Of Diffusion In Semiconductor Device Dielectrics, Imen Rezadad Jan 2015

Electromechanical Lifting Actuation Of A Mems Cantilever And Nano-Scale Analysis Of Diffusion In Semiconductor Device Dielectrics, Imen Rezadad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents experimental and theoretical studies of physical phenomena in micro- and nano-electronic devices. Firstly, a novel and unproven means of electromechanical actuation in a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) cantilever was investigated. In nearly all MEMS devices, electric forces cause suspended components to move toward the substrate. I demonstrated a design with the unusual and potentially very useful property of having a suspended MEMS cantilever lift away from the substrate. The effect was observed by optical micro-videography, by electrical sensing, and it was quantified by optical interferometry. The results agree with predictions of analytic and numerical calculations. One potential application …

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Entanglement And Coherence In Classical And Quantum Optics, Kumel Kagalwala Jan 2015

Entanglement And Coherence In Classical And Quantum Optics, Kumel Kagalwala

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We explore the concepts of coherence and entanglement as they apply to both the classical and quantum natures of light. In the classical domain, we take inspiration from the tools and concepts developed in foundational quantum mechanics and quantum information science to gain a better understanding of classical coherence theory of light with multiple degrees of freedom (DoFs). First, we use polarization and spatial parity DoFs to demonstrate the notion of classical entanglement, and show that Bell's measure can serve as a useful tool in distinguishing between classical optical coherence theory. Second, we establish a methodical yet versatile approach called …

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Autonomous Quadcopter Videographer, Quiquia Rey Coaguila Jan 2015

Autonomous Quadcopter Videographer, Quiquia Rey Coaguila

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the interest in quadcopters as a robotics platform for autonomous photography has increased. This is due to their small size and mobility, which allow them to reach places that are difficult or even impossible for humans. This thesis focuses on the design of an autonomous quadcopter videographer, i.e. a quadcopter capable of capturing good footage of a specific subject. In order to obtain this footage, the system needs to choose appropriate vantage points and control the quadcopter. Skilled human videographers can easily spot good filming locations where the subject and its actions can be seen clearly in …

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Modeling User Transportation Patterns Using Mobile Devices, Erfan Davami Jan 2015

Modeling User Transportation Patterns Using Mobile Devices, Erfan Davami

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Participatory sensing frameworks use humans and their computing devices as a large mobile sensing network. Dramatic accessibility and affordability have turned mobile devices (smartphone and tablet computers) into the most popular computational machines in the world, exceeding laptops. By the end of 2013, more than 1.5 billion people on earth will have a smartphone. Increased coverage and higher speeds of cellular networks have given these devices the power to constantly stream large amounts of data. Most mobile devices are equipped with advanced sensors such as GPS, cameras, and microphones. This expansion of smartphone numbers and power has created a sensing …

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Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition Of Functional Oxide Materials For Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells, Kristopher Davis Jan 2015

Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition Of Functional Oxide Materials For Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells, Kristopher Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Functional oxides are versatile materials that can simultaneously enable efficiency gains and cost reductions in crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells. In this work, the deposition of functional oxide materials using atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) and the integration of these materials into c-Si solar cells are explored. Specifically, thin oxide films and multi-layer film stacks are utilized for the following purposes: (1) to minimize front surface reflectance without increasing parasitic absorption within the anti-reflection coating(s); (2) to maximize internal back reflectance of rear passivated cells, thereby increasing optical absorption of weakly absorbed long wavelength photons (? > 900 nm); (3) …

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