Digital Commons Network^™

Flexrender: A Distributed Rendering Architecture For Ray Tracing Huge Scenes On Commodity Hardware., Robert Edward Somers

Master's Theses

As the quest for more realistic computer graphics marches steadily on, the demand for rich and detailed imagery is greater than ever. However, the current "sweet spot" in terms of price, power consumption, and performance is in commodity hardware. If we desire to render scenes with tens or hundreds of millions of polygons as cheaply as possible, we need a way of doing so that maximizes the use of the commodity hardware we already have at our disposal.

Techniques such as normal mapping and level of detail have attempted to address the problem by reducing the amount of geometry in …

Linear Power-Efficient Rf Amplifier With Partial Positive Feedback, Matthew E. King

Master's Theses

Over the last decade, the number of mobile wireless devices on the market has increased substantially. New “multi-carrier” modulation schemes, such as OFDM, WCDMA, and WiMAX, have been developed to accommodate the increasing number of wireless subscribers and the demand for faster data rates within the limited commercial frequency spectrum. These complex modulation schemes create signals with high peak-to-average power ratios (PAPR), exhibiting rapid changes in the signal magnitude. To accommodate these high-PAPR signals, RF power amplifiers in mobile devices must operate under backed-off gain conditions, resulting in poor power efficiency. Various efficiency-enhancement solutions have been realized for backed-off devices …

Physiological Politics: Stress And Dominance Responses To Political News, Erin Strauts

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Local Environmental Quality On International Tourism Demand: The Case Of China, Cong Huang

Master's Theses

Abstract: This paper studies the impact of local environmental quality on international tourism demand based on a panel data set of tourist arrivals from ten foreign countries in 18 typical provinces in China over the period of 1999-2010. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) with different specifications show that the growth of pollution has a negative and significant influence on the international tourism demand. More specifically, the air quality plays a crucial role in this relationship, whereas the water quality does not. In addition, similar results can be found after addressing the potential endogeneity between environmental quality and tourism with the use …

Synthesis Of S-Ribosyl-L-Homocysteine And Analogs Modified At The Homocysteine-C3 Position, Ruoyi Liu

Master's Theses

Quorum sensing (QS) is a process of bacterial cell-to-cell communication that conveys population density information in order to coordinate gene expression to produce synchronized behaviors. QS regulates the expression of virulence genes in many species of bacteria; hence, the manipulation of QS pathways may lead to treatment options against many bacterial diseases. The LuxS enzyme converts S-ribosyl-L-homocysteine (SRH) into homocysteine (HCys) and 4(S),5-dihydroxypentane-2,3-dione (DPD), which is the precursor of autoinducer-2 (AI-2). Thus, inhibitors of LuxS could prevent QS by halting the conversion of SRH to AI-2 rendering the cell “uncommunicative”. This work shows the successful chemical synthesis …

Nonprofit Continuum: Brazilian-Centered Organizations In The Bay Area Of San Francisco, Caroline Rehill

Master's Theses

Brazil has always been a country of immigration. Since the mid 1980s, Brazil has also become a country of emigration. Brazilians have migrated to the United States in large numbers throughout the past decades. In the host country, Brazilians experience the same issues inherent in any immigrant community, such as immigration status, education, health, and socio-economic issues. To address these issues and ease immigrants’ stay in the host country, nonprofit organizations and community groups are created. This thesis project examines, identifies, categorizes, and contextualizes the Brazilian-centered nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Contrary to existing research on …

A Stochastic Simulation Model Of Alarm Response Strategies On A Telemetry Floor, Tasneem M. Pishori

Master's Theses

The large quantity of alarms characteristic of clinical settings have resulted in nursing staff suffering from a phenomenon termed ‘alarm fatigue’. Alarm fatigue is desensitization via habituation – as these commonly heard noises cause caregivers to have delayed or no response to alarms. Alarm management was ranked number one on the annual top ten list of technology hazards afflicting healthcare institutions published by the ECRI Institute for 2012. Several patient safety organizations have established alarm fatigue as a priority concern, and are working to eradicate the issue from the healthcare environment by 2017. To better understand the problem, a simplified …

The Secondary School Football Coach’S Relationship With The Athletic Trainer And Their Perspectives On The Recognition And Prevention Of Exertional Heat Stroke, William M. Adams

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Sudden Death In Sport At The Secondary School Level: A Perspective Of The Head Football Coach, Benjamin Mcgrath

Master's Theses

Context: Prior research has examined the first aid knowledge and decision making among high school coaches, but little is known about their knowledge of sudden death in sport or their relationship with an athletic trainer. Objective: Evaluate the knowledge of the secondary school football coach regarding sudden death in sport and their relationship with their athletic trainer. Results: There were four themes from the data: level of preparedness, misconceptions about sudden death in sport, activity modification strategies, and positive coach/athletic trainer relationships. Conclusion: The secondary coach is unaware of the potential causes of sudden death in sport …

A Spectacle Of Great Beauty: The Changing Faces Of Hagia Sophia, Victoria M. Villano

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Assessing Help-Seeking Attitudes, Service Utilization, And Provider Preferences Among Undergraduate Students With Self-Reported Sexual Functioning Concerns, Ashley M. Reckert

Master's Theses

Researchers who have studied help-seeking for sexual concerns have consistently documented that individuals, couples, and families underutilize services. Additionally, research has demonstrated that individuals endorse myriad barriers to seeking informal and formal help, especially for sexual functioning concerns. This study examined the types of sexual concerns faced by a sample of 347 of undergraduate students, their provider preferences in the past, present, and future, and their help-seeking behaviors for formal and informal help sources. Despite the occurrence of sexual functioning concerns in the current study, services that address sexual concerns were largely underutilized. However, barriers to seeking help and negative …

Raccoon Acclimation Towards Traps And Its Effect On Surveillance And Monitoring Of Zoonotic Diseases, Lindsay Rollend

Master's Theses

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) serve as a source of infection with various pathogens for people, most notably, rabies. Raccoons are specifically targeted for the control of rabies in the United States, primarily due to the 100% fatality rate in humans and animals. There is no cure or treatment for rabies and vaccines may be administered to people if it is administered promptly. In order to evaluate how successful trapping of raccoons is by using conventional methods, motion sensing cameras were placed on traps in order to captured raccoon behaviors. Pictures were coded based on these behaviors (around the trap but not …

Violence During Pregnancy Among Young Married Women In Nepal, Prakrity Silwal

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Mothers Do Not Drive The Development Of Adult Homesign Systems: Evidence From Comprehension, Emily Carrigan

Master's Theses

Studying the communication systems that arise in spontaneously occurring cases of degraded linguistic input can help clarify human predispositions for language. Some deaf individuals born into hearing families, who do not receive conventional linguistic input, develop gestures, called “homesign,” to communicate. We examined homesign systems used by four deaf Nicaraguan adults (ages 15-27), and evaluated whether homesigners’ hearing mothers are potential sources for these systems. Study One measured mothers’ comprehension of descriptions of events (e.g., “A man taps a woman”) produced in homesign and spoken Spanish. Mothers comprehended spoken Spanish descriptions (produced by one of their hearing children) better than …

Eurotech Students In Germany: Preparation, Experience And Outcome, Daisy A. Michaels

Master's Theses

Higher education study abroad programs for U.S. students are on the rise. A variety of undergraduate disciplines are being coupled with international components to bring U.S. students to a higher level of global awareness to meet the demands of today’s economy. The University of Connecticut’s Eurotech Program is an example of this trend. Its students earn degrees in both German and engineering in a five year program. They are given practical training through study and internships in Germany under the auspices of the Baden-Württemberg Exchange Program. One of the Eurotech Program’s major goals is to enhance job opportunities for its …

The United States Military Realignment On Okinawa, Kevin M. Evringham

Master's Theses

The United States maintains military bases in foreign countries in efforts to protect American overseas interests, whether they are economic, diplomatic or for geostrategic purposes. In Japan, where the United States has maintained military installations since the end of World War II, debate over the realignment of forces on Okinawa has caused minor, yet growing, rifts in the stable United States-Japanese alliance. Current plans to shift American military forces from Okinawa to locations throughout the Pacific do not take into account the historical or geostrategic factors for their stationing in Japan. This thesis identifies the geostrategic challenges to the current …

Computer-Aided Engineering Tools For Structural Health Monitoring Under Operational Conditions, Priscilla O. Mensah-Bonsu

Master's Theses

This thesis presents two different applications of computer-aided non-destructive approaches for structures monitored under operational conditions. The first part of the thesis is the development of a graphical user interface (GUI) software for real-time autonomous assessment of structural health condition based on the signature vibration properties of the structure under study. The program, called ConImote2, operates on the wireless sensor network platform called imote2. ConImote2 is created in the Matlab platform for accessibility and to enable extension of its capabilities by the user. The primary goal of creating the program is to overcome the issue of data inundation from SHM …

American Made: Ansel Adams And The Bishop National Bank's "The Islands Of Hawaii", Lauren Walton

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

An Integrated Approach For Developing Adaptation Strategies In Climate Planning: A Case Study Of Vulnerability In Dukes County, Massachusetts, Jonathan Pollak

Master's Theses

Climate Action Plans (CAP’s) are recent innovations in policy that have been catalyzed by a need to adjust the relationship between human activity and the Earth’s climate system. CAP’s often are composed of methods to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in addition to adaptation strategies. Research indicates, however, that many plans focus on mitigation strategies while adaptation policies related to predicted changes caused by climate change are often overlooked. This thesis presents an integrative framework for locating areas that are in need of adaptation strategies through a GIS based decision support system that visualizes vulnerability. It is operationalized through an empirical …

"La Venus Se Fue De Juerga Por Los Barrios Bajos": Nacho López, Mass Culture, And Modernity, Jenifer L. Caneschi

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Oral Health Needs Assessment Of An Inner-City Homeless Population And Follow-Up Of Dental Referrals, Jennifer R. Jaskolka

Master's Theses

Background: The University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Dental Medicine (SODM) routinely recruits dental students and faculty volunteers to conduct no-cost dental health screenings for transient residents at South Park Inn Homeless Shelter in Hartford, CT. Once screened, patients are referred to UConn or another hospital-based dental clinic in the area for treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine the demographics and oral health needs of the homeless population at South Park Inn and referrals to UConn SODM were followed to verify patient presentation at UCONN SODM. Dental students’ attitudes towards working with the underserved were also assessed. …

An Investigation Of Fraxinus Americana Branch Sway Using A 3 Dimensional Motion Capture System, Anna T. Campiformio

Master's Theses

Abstract

Wind is a dominant abiotic factor that a tree experiences throughout its lifetime and can cause severe tree damage, resulting in risk of injury to humans, and economic and ecological losses. It is thought that trees develop structural properties and architectures that help withstand loading conditions by dissipating wind energy through damping mechanisms. The role of branch motion in reducing potential dangerous wind loads has been the focus of relatively few studies. Even fewer studies have examined tree sway response to natural wind loaded conditions. In this investigation, branch frequencies were calculated for three Fraxinus americana using a three-dimensional …

Predicting Quality Of Life Based On Humor Style, Zachary M. Kasow

Master's Theses

Humor is a multifaceted construct commonly used in daily life. For centuries philosophers, healers, and religious figures have extolled humor as the “best medicine” for both the body and the mind. Recent research has shown humor can be adaptive or maladaptive (i.e., contribute to or subtract from well-being; Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, & Weir, 2003). Empirical evidence supporting these claims for humor and physical health has been inconsistent; however, new evidence suggests there may indeed be a connection (Martin, 2001; Martin et al., 2003). At the same time, previous research has consistently supported the notion that using humor is related …

Dsm64: A Distributed Shared Memory System In User-Space, Stephen Alan Holsapple

Master's Theses

This paper presents DSM64: a lazy release consistent software distributed shared memory (SDSM) system built entirely in user-space. The DSM64 system is capable of executing threaded applications implemented with pthreads on a cluster of networked machines without any modifications to the target application. The DSM64 system features a centralized memory manager [1] built atop Hoard [2, 3]: a fast, scalable, and memory-efficient allocator for shared-memory multiprocessors.

In my presentation, I present a SDSM system written in C++ for Linux operating systems. I discuss a straight-forward approach to implement SDSM systems in a Linux environment using system-provided tools and concepts avail- …

Efficiency Performance Improvement Using Parallel Dc-Dc Converters With A Digital Controller, Daniel Forbes

Master's Theses

A system to improve efficiency performance of a DC-DC converter is simulated and built. The proposed system combines multiple DC-DC converters in parallel and implements a digital control scheme and load-share controller. A model of the system is developed in MATLAB Simulink and the model demonstrates the improved converter’s efficiency particularly at low load conditions. This simulation is then designed into a hardware system running three DC-DC converters in parallel, controlled by a microcontroller and a load-share controller. The hardware also confirms the simulation results, although some hardware refinements are evident as simulation results are superior. The system is designed …

Do You See Yourself In The Future Or Past? The Moderating Role Of Cultural Orientation In Explaining Temporal Orientation Of Self-Referencing, Seungae Lee

Master's Theses

A cognitive process where audiences relate incoming information to themselves is self-referencing. Advertising practitioners often assume that the self-referencing strategy is one of the most persuasive advertising strategies. Since the self is one of the most well-developed and frequently used constructs in memory, self-referencing advertisements were expected to be more memorable and persuasive (Meyers-Levy & Peracchio, 1996). Further, this self-referencing strategy can result in different consequences of advertisements evaluation depending on which dimension of the self is activated, because the self is a multi-dimensional construct. The current study investigated different types of self-referencing based on temporal orientation of the self. …

Friend-Zone With Benefits: The Parasocial Advertising Of Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Anette Lueck

Master's Theses

This research focuses on the social media-driven convention of advertising, and seeks to analyze the type of communication that occurs between celebrity endorsers and audiences within social media. Kim Kardashian is used as the most current and successful celebrity endorser. A content analysis, including posts and responses from April and May 2011, is used to analyze the type of advertising messages and celebrity/audience interaction. The goal of the study is to establish whether Parasocial Interaction could improve the effectiveness of advertising. Due to findings that yielded a high amount of endorsements embedded into personal stories, as well as female approval …

Distant Neighbors: Negotiating Space And Urban Development In A Southern Mississippi Community, Kelly Jo Davila

Master's Theses

Through a case study in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, this research explores the need for cultural competence in urban economic development of neighborhoods. I place at the forefront the need for a collective community voice in the discussions and negotiations of future development, and argue that a lack of that voice has contributed to stunted economic growth.

In addition, through this case study I demonstrate that there may be systems in place intended to "solve" the problem of economic underdevelopment, but in reality only perpetuate the lack of economic growth. In this case, a reliance on the local bus system has made …

Nontraditional And Traditional Student Motives To Use Their University Communication Center, Hannah Pritchard Rachal

Master's Theses

Research indicates that nontradifional students differ from traditional ones in many areas of higher education. Recognizing these differences in this growing population of students could impact retention rates for universities. Also, these differences could influence how communication centers deal with nontraditional students in recruiting them for appointments as well as during tutoring sessions. This study explores possible differences in motivations to use communication centers using both traditional and nontraditional students who had used their university's communication center. Students took a survey based on Ajzen's theory of planned behavior to discover if any differences exist and what the differences are. Findings …

Furnish The Balance: The 1863 Roots Of Hard Strategy In The American Civil War, Angela Maria Riotto

Master's Theses

Scholars consider U.S. Major General William T. Sherman's 1864 Meridian campaign as the origin of hard war strategy during the American Civil War. While Sherman's 1864 expedition is a clear demonstration of hard war, it did not begin there. Rather, U.S. Major General Ulysses S. Grant's planned and Sherman's implemented destruction of Jackson, Mississippi in May 1863 was their first use of hard war and is key to understanding the Union's acceptance of hard war strategy. Chapter I and Chapter II of this thesis explore the Army of the Tennessee's march to Jackson and Sherman's destruction of the city, along …