Digital Commons Network^™

Prevalence, Antibiotic-Resistance And Growth Profile Of Vibrio Spp., Isolated From Imported Fish In The Local Markets, Tarfa Ali Mohamed

Theses

Seafood and fish are important food components for a large section of the world population. Seafood is prone to bacterial contamination, many are pathogenic to human and marine animals, and three species, Vibrio mimicus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and Vibrio vulnificus, are responsible for most cases of seafood-related human illness caused by Vibrio species. The study on the prevalence of these microorganisms in seafood of the United Arab Emirates is vital due to the cultural background of the Emiratis as a coastal heritage. A study was conducted to assess the prevalence of Vibrio spp. in imported fishes from local …

Home Energy Management System For Demand Response Purposes, Isra Adam Hussein Haroun

Theses

The growing demand for electricity has led to increasing efforts to generate and satisfy the rising demand. This led to suppliers attempting to reduce consumption with the help of the users. Requests to shift unnecessary loads off the peak hours, using other sources of generators to supply the grid while offering incentives to the users have made a significant effect. Furthermore, automated solutions were implemented with the help of Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) where the user can remotely manage household loads to reduce consumption or cost. Demand Response (DR) is the process of reducing power consumption in a response …

The Distribution And Demography Of The Invasive Pacific Oyster, Crassostrea Gigas, And Native Olympia Oyster, Ostrea Lurida, In The San Diego River, Jason Langevin

Theses

Even though the introduction of the Pacific Oyster, Crassostrea gigas, to the west coast of North America, happened roughly a century ago, it has only been in the past 15 to 20 years that C. gigas has started to become an established and conspicuous species along Southern California’s coast. The establishment of C. gigas in Southern California has the potential to heavily influence many native species, as it has done globally. In Southern California, this invasion is particularly relevant for the native Olympia Oyster, Ostrea lurida. The Olympia oyster has both historical and present-day threats to its population, …

Guide For Sustainable Design Of Neom City, Khaled Fallatah

Theses

Urban planners and architects have concerned about the architectural style and theme of the NEOM city, because most of the new cities in the area seemed to be a generic city, no one wants to have another Dubai, Manhattan and Singapore. So what is the best code or development guideline should a new city in the area of Saudi Arabia should fallow to become the most sustainable city without losing the Saudi’s identity? This thesis research will provide a form-based code guide for sustainable development of NEOM City in Saudi Arabia for architectural character based on research and analysis of …

Vector Spaces For Multiple Modal Embeddings, Sabarish Gopalakrishnan

Theses

Deep learning has enabled great advances in the field of natural language processing, computer vision and pattern recognition in general. Deep learning frameworks have been very successful in performing classification, object detection, segmentation and translation. Before objects can be processed, a vector representation of that object needs to be created. For example, sentences and images can be encoded with a sent2vec and image2vec function respectively in preparation for input to a machine learning framework. Neural networks are able to learn efficient vector representation of images, text, audio, videos and 3D point clouds. However, the transfer of knowledge from one modality …

The Legend Of Whales, Bingjie Xiao

Theses

The Legend of Whales is a 2D animated graduate thesis film. The entire film, including the credits, is 7 minutes 20 seconds long. The duration of the production went from September 2018 to May 2019.

This is a story about the cycle of destiny which takes place in an ancient Viking-inspired fishing village. The main character, Bion, is born with a special connection with the enemy of the village, a species of whale. One day he meets a beluga whale and is immediately drawn to the beautiful creature. After a friendly meeting, they build up a bonded relationship, even though …

Unfold—An Interactive Experience On Mixed Reality Platform To Solve Communication Problems Faced By Children With Asd In The Age Group Of 4-7 Years., Akanksha Vishwakarma

Theses

Improving communication with a child with ASD has become an indispensable need in order to make the life smooth for the special child. Research has shown that communication gets driven by mood dynamics, non-verbal interactions, gestural communication and expressions. With the growth in technology, mixed reality and eye tracking are playing a major role in imparting experiences and making us learn about an environment without having to physically be in them. This research work explores how mixed reality can take a child with ASD through an experience that could help them open up and communicate well with others both with …

Kick Boxing Coaching System, Wentian Chen

Theses

There are three key considerations when training for kickboxing; correct body position, motivation, and how to achieve different training goals. Training gear available on the market does not provide enough relevant feedback to the user to validate the effectiveness of their training. I will design a coaching system for recreational and avid kick boxers that records user input while also providing an interactive experience that tracks training in a more meaningful way. This is a project focused on user experience and product testing. User Experience requires me to study the response of the human body when it is hit, and …

Community Participation In City Planning And Development: Towards Enhancing The Pedestrian Experience, Amro Anabtawi

Theses

This project is about developing a digital platform that facilitates collecting, processing, and utilizing input from community members to enhance the quality and experience of their own built environment based on their life pattern, preferences, or aspiration and in consideration of the urban requirements that are associated with their needs. As such, the platform is meant to enhance public participation in planning and urban development decisions and practices aiming to meet the needs of the community members. Focused on the pedestrian experience, the proposed platform is meant to complement the ordinary channels of communication between community members and city planning …

Feng Shui: A Comparison Of The Original Concept And Its Current Westernized Version, Shih-Jung Wu

Theses

Feng Shui is an ancient art, science, and philosophy that originated in China 3000 years ago. Followers of Feng Shui believe that they can find a better place or create a better living environment through the Feng Shui principles. Feng Shui is not only popular in China and Asia; its popularity also has dramatically increased in Western countries. Architects, interior designers, and landscape architects in the West have used Feng Shui as a design guideline for pursuing a harmonious living environment for many years. However, the different cultural backgrounds, the lack of basic knowledge of its true principles, and the …

Human Auditory Discrimination Of Bottlenose Dolphin Signature Whistles Masked By Noise: Investigating Perceptual Strategies For Anthropogenic Noise Pollution, Evan L. Morrison

Theses

Anthropogenic masking noise in the world’s oceans is known to impede many species’ ability to perceive acoustic signals, but little research has addressed how this noise pollution affects the detection of bioacoustic signals used for communication. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) use signature whistles which contain identification information. Past studies have shown that human participants can be used as models for dolphin hearing, but most previous research investigated echolocation. In Experiment 1, human participants were tested on their ability to auditorily discriminate among signature whistles from three dolphins. Participants’ performance was nearly errorless (M = 98.8%). In Experiment 2, participants identified …

The Influence Of A Growing Urban Tree Canopy On Municipalities And Urban Stormwater: A Cost Analysis, Lisa Rain

Theses

As many cities and local municipalities face the increasing problems associated with climate change, many are turning to trees to rebuild the natural environment and ecosystems within their urban cores. Many are choosing to increase their tree canopies in order to conserve energy, remove carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the air, provide habitat for animals, and much more. While urban tree canopies have countless benefits, and should be protected and expanded, they also have costs. These costs are often direct dollar values that fall onto the responsibility of the local municipalities. Costs include maintenance, debris cleanup, irrigation, infrastructure repair, …

Integrated Marketing Communication Project For American Aerogel, Samary De La Cruz Rosado

Theses

This project created a marketing plan for a specific company “American Aerogel” to increase sales and to penetrate Clinical Research Organizations; thus, the project considered the comprehensive integrated marketing communication in the company. A survey was used to determine whether the marketing strategy selected for the project—direct marketing email—would be beneficial for the company to help it increase brand awareness in the clinical research field. More specifically, emailing a marketing campaign to a specific target audience is likely to increase results. Therefore, data from 150 surveys about email marketing was collected and analyzed to determine the usefulness of email marketing …

Aventurescence, Gracia E. Nash

Theses

Aventurescence explores ideas of comfort and identity through glass and the body. I am interested in the material qualities and limitations of glass, including luminosity, flexibility, and fragility; and the ways in which these can be expressed and communicated through the body. To expand the material’s flexibility I used a combination of multiple glass bodies and silicones to create glass textiles and objects with flexible surfaces. I also used traditional fusing methods and alternative glasses (reflective glass beads) to create sheets and screens. These objects and textiles parallel skin, and communicate with the body through object, performance, and the consequent …

Water Quality And Algal Bloom Sensing From Multiple Imaging Platforms, Ryan Ford

Theses

Harmful cyanobacteria blooms have been increasing in frequency throughout the world resulting in a greater need for water quality monitoring. Traditional methods of monitoring water quality, such as point sampling, are often resource expensive and time consuming in comparison to remote sensing approaches, however the spatial resolution of established water remote sensing satellites is often too coarse (300 m) to resolve smaller inland waterbodies. The fine scale spatial resolution and improved radiometric sensitivity of Landsat satellites (30 m) can resolve these smaller waterbodies, enabling their capability for cyanobacteria bloom monitoring.

In this work, the utility of Landsat to retrieve concentrations …

Population Genetics Of Rice Rats (Oryzomys Palustris) At The Northern Edge Of The Species Range, Phillip Conrad Williams

Theses

The marsh rice rat (Oryzomys sp.) is a semiaquatic rodent native to wetlands in the southeastern United States. The northwestern-most part of the rice rat’s range extends to Illinois where rice rats are found in wetlands across the southern part of the state. Recent studies have shown that rice rats in the United States can be divided into two species: O. palustris and O. texensis, but the taxonomic status of rice rats in Southern Illinois is unclear. To resolve this, I sequenced cytochrome-b and the control region, two regions of mitochondrial DNA, for 16 rice rats and constructed a phylogeny …

Factors Influencing Farmers’ Adoption And Intentions To Adopt Pollinator Conservation Programs And Practices In Illinois, U.S.A., Christopher M. Sedivy

Theses

Due to the growing recognition of the social and ecological consequences of the global decline in pollinator species, the need for more effective policies for the conservation of pollinator habitat is now more than ever. These trends call for research that provides a deeper understanding of farmers' decision-making processes. In this regard, this study tested a modified version of the Theory of Planned Behavior as a conceptual model for explaining farmers' perceptions and behavior regarding the adoption of pollinator conservation programs and practices. Specifically, the study tested how farmers' perceived behavioral control, attitudes, subjective norms, concern about herbicide resistance issues, …

Implantable Microsystem Technologies For Nanoliter-Resolution Inner Ear Drug Delivery, Farzad Forouzandeh

Theses

Advances in protective and restorative biotherapies have created new opportunities to use site-directed, programmable drug delivery systems to treat auditory and vestibular disorders. Successful therapy development that leverages the transgenic, knock-in, and knock-out variants of mouse models of human disease requires advanced microsystems specifically designed to function with nanoliter precision and with system volumes suitable for implantation. The present work demonstrates a novel biocompatible, implantable, and scalable microsystem consisted of a thermal phase-change peristaltic micropump with wireless control and a refillable reservoir. The micropump is fabricated around a catheter microtubing (250 μm OD, 125 μm ID) that provided a biocompatible …

The Relationship Between Religion And Diet-Related Disparities In African American Men., Joel Hamilton

Theses

This study utilized a cross-sectional design to report quantitative results. Equal numbers of African American men, religious and non-religious, were sought out for comparison. Participants must have identified as African American, been 30 years of age or older, and lived within 10 miles of Carbondale, IL during the time of the study. African American men are at an increased risk of developing many diet-related disparities. This study aimed to see if religion influenced these factors.

A Preliminary Investigation Of A Values Intervention And A Values Reminder On Clinically Relevant Outcomes, Bruce Clark

Theses

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is designed to target psychological flexibility, broadly defined as engagement with personal values regardless of the presence of difficult private events. As engagement with valued behaviors is imperative to psychological flexibility, clarification of values is an essential skill for clients to learn. Practicing of skills in treatment has historically been a difficult hurdle for clinicians to implement between sessions for clients as well. The present study examined the utility of a novel values card sort activity, as well as the utility of a rubber band to act as a reminding agent for engagement with values. …

An Evaluation Of The Impact Of Anger On Aggression In Pretend Play And The Role Of Pretend Play In Regulating Anger In Preschoolers, Kristen Boog

Theses

Multiple studies have supported the link between anger and aggression. It is not uncommon for anger to result in aggressive acts, especially in children still learning socially appropriate ways of coping. Furthermore, childhood aggression is typically viewed as a concerning act that should be reduced or eliminated. However, some research shows that within pretend play, aggression can be adaptive. Studies have supported the Mastery/Catharsis hypothesis, the theory that aggression in pretend play acts as a release of emotions and processing of events, by showing that children who exhibit more aggression within their pretend play exhibit less aggression outside of play. …

A Microchemical Analysis Of Native Fish Passage Through Brandon Road Lock And Dam, Des Plaines River, Illinois, Claire Snyder

Theses

Modifications to Brandon Road Lock and Dam (BRLD), located on the Des Plaines River in northeastern Illinois, have been proposed to prevent the upstream transfer of aquatic invasive species, particularly Asian carps, into the Great Lakes Basin. These modifications, including the installation of an electric barrier, acoustic fish deterrent, and air bubble curtain, are designed to completely eliminate all upstream fish passage and may negatively impact native fish populations in the Des Plaines River by reducing upstream movement and potentially fragmenting populations. BRLD is situated just 21 km upstream of the Des Plaines River mouth, and fish are only able …

Spatial And Temporal Variation In The Diet Composition Of Zooplankton In Mission Bay, Bryanna Paulson

Theses

Analyses of quantitative data on zooplankton diets are vital for understanding the drivers of zooplankton abundance within an ecosystem. Such analyses also provide insight into trophic pathways within the lower planktonic food web, which support populations of higher trophic level species. This study used carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios of size-fractionated plankton in Mission Bay, San Diego, CA to examine the spatial and temporal variation in zooplankton trophic ecology and determine potential environmental drivers of zooplankton community structure. Carbon stable isotopes reflect primary production sources in an organism’s diet, and nitrogen stable isotope ratios can be used to estimate …

Plasmid Mediated Colistin Resistance In Enterobacteriaceae Isolated From Feces Of Broiler Chicken In The United Arab Emirates, Sara Abdelkafi Mahmoud Ali

Theses

Although human infections with colistin-resistant Mcr-producing Enterobacteriaceae have been reported from the Arabian Peninsula, the presence of mcr gene in strains of animal origin has not been studied.

Ten composite faecal samples were collected in each of four geographically distant poultry farms in Abu Dhabi Emirate. Ten colonies from McConkey agar containing 1 mg/L colistin from each sample were PCR-screened for mcr-1, mcr-2, MCR-3, mcr-4, mcr-5. Of the positive ones, one isolate representing each distinct plasmid profile was selected for susceptibility testing and for whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Transfer of the MCR-1 gene into Escherichia coli …

Predicting The Emotional Intensity Of Tweets, Intisar M. Alhamdan

Theses

Automated interpretation of human emotion has become increasingly important as human-computer interactions become ubiquitous. Affective computing is a field of computer science concerned with recognizing, analyzing and interpreting human emotions in a range of media, including audio, video, and text. Social media, in particular, are rich in expressions of people's moods, opinions, and sentiments. This thesis focuses on predicting the emotional intensity expressed on the social network Twitter. In this study, we use lexical features, sentiment and emotion lexicons to extract features from tweets, messages of 280 characters or less shared on Twitter. We also use a form of transfer …

The Dynamic Roles Of Red Blood Cell In Microcirculation, Sitong Zhou

Theses

Erythrocytes (otherwise known as red blood cells (RBCs)), are the most common cell type in the body. They are responsible for oxygen (O2) transportation as well as carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange. Different from most cells, red cells have no nuclei in mammals due to the enucleation during the maturation. The structure of erythrocytes was shown to have a phospholipid bilayer membrane, membrane proteins and cell skeleton. It provides the stability that RBCs need for the circulation in the body systems. Also, this well-established structure makes it possible for them to accomplish ion and gas exchange, which therefore keeps the osmolality …

Methodology For The Integration Of Optomechanical System Software Models With A Radiative Transfer Image Simulation Model, Keegan S. Mccoy

Theses

Stray light, any unwanted radiation that reaches the focal plane of an optical system, reduces image contrast, creates false signals or obscures faint ones, and ultimately degrades radiometric accuracy. These detrimental effects can have a profound impact on the usability of collected Earth-observing remote sensing data, which must be radiometrically calibrated to be useful for scientific applications. Understanding the full impact of stray light on data scientific utility is of particular concern for lower cost, more compact imaging systems, which inherently provide fewer opportunities for stray light control. To address these concerns, this research presents a general methodology for integrating …

Numerical Model To Predict Hemolysis And Transport In A Membrane-Based Microfluidic Device, Matthew D. Poskus

Theses

Microfluidics has become an increasingly popular tool in the design and development of medical devices and artificial organs. Two promising applications of microfluidics are dialyzers and oxygenators. As a step toward portable dialysis treatment, continuous microfluidic dialysis may resolve many clinical issues with current dialysis treatments. Additionally, commercially available oxygenators exceed the blood volume of neonatal patients; low-volume microfluidic devices may safely deliver oxygen to these patients. Two critical parameters in the development of these devices is mechanical hemolysis and membrane diffusion, which are intricately connected to the geometry, flow rate, properties of the membrane, and each other. A computational …

Functional Comparison Of Current Software Tools For Genomic Assembly From High Throughput Sequencing Data, Lars J. Olsen

Theses

De novo genomic sequencing, which is the process of discovering the sequence of a genome which has not previously been elucidated, provides unique challenges, especially for larger genomes. Modern high-throughput sequencing technologies have addressed the issue of covering the entire genome in a reasonable time by fragmenting the genome into portions that can be examined in a massively-parallel approach. While these have saved considerable time and cost for the chemical process of determining the sequence of a genome, they result in sets of many tens of millions of sequence fragments called reads, each of which is typically on the order …

Breaking The Stigma: Major Depressive Disorder, Joanna Cox

Theses

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a mood and mental disorder affecting the brain; it is caused by the reduction of three monoamine neurotransmitters: serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine (Rot, M. A., Mathew, S. J., & Charney, D. S. 2009). MDD is one of the world’s most common mental disorders, affecting a predicted 4% of the world’s population and roughly 16.1 million adults in United States alone (Major Depression. 2019; Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. 2018). The concentrations of these neurotransmitters are reduced in the brains of people with MDD due to their increased reabsorption from synapses in the brain back into …