A Survey And Use-Wear Analysis Of Wickliffe Thick Pottery In The Southeastern United States, Anthony P. Farace

Theses

The Wickliffe Thick pottery type, an unusual vessel with a globular body, thick wall, and funnel-like opening at the bottom, has been assumed to be related to salt production and/or juice pressing. The following project presents the results of a use-wear analysis in order to understand Wickliffe Thick’s possible uses demonstrating that past conclusions likely need revision. A systematic, macroscopic analysis of ceramic sherds from more than 20 Mississippian sites throughout Kentucky, Missouri, and Illinois are included in the study. Use-wear on the samples occur in a low frequency. Although other factors such as a white efflorescence, and Wickliffe Thick’s …

Flightfit: An Application Enabling Air Travelers To Do Stretches Onboard, Ninglin Jiang

Theses

Currently, with the development of economy and the improvement of people's living standards, more people would prefer traveling by air. However, sitting for extended periods of time on a long flight would be an uncomfortable joyless experience and it may have negative implications for health. A study from the World Health Organisation confirmed that the risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE) approximately doubles after travel lasting four hours or more. So carrying out some stretches frequently as well as standing up and moving around as often as possible under permitted conditions would help to improve blood circulation and relieve muscle …

Tone Reproduction In Virtual Reality, Antara Mishra

Theses

High dynamic range imaging has become very popular over the years in the field of computer graphics and games. The process of tone reproduction compresses the dynamic range of brightness in a scene to the lower range of display devices, thus making it an essential process in the graphics rendering pipeline. Various tone mapping operators have been tested for static viewing conditions. However, perceptual and temporal adaptation may vary for immersive viewing in a Virtual Reality environment. This thesis implements Ward et al. model (1994), Ward et al. model, Histogram Adjustment (1997) and Irawan, Ferwerda and Marschner model (2005) for …

Embedded Cyclegan For Shape-Agnostic Image-To-Image Translation, Ram Longman

Theses

Image-to-Image translation is the task of translating images between domains while maintaining the identity of the images. The task can be used for entertainment purposes and applications, data augmentation, semantic image segmentation, and more. Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), and in particular Conditional GANs have recently shown incredible success in image-to-image translation and semantic manipulation. However, such methods require paired data, meaning that an image must have ground-truth translations across domains. Cycle-consistent GANs solve this problem by using unpaired data. Such methods work well for translations that involve color and texture changes but fail when shape changes are required. This research …

Looking Past The Images: Art And Film As Propaganda Apparatuses, Alexander Schumm

Theses

This paper aims to show that art and film can operate as propaganda in subtle and unintentional ways. Jacques Ellul called such propaganda “sociological propaganda.” Recent work in philosophy has relied on the notion of intention in defining how propaganda works to affect the beliefs and attitudes of its recipients. This paper argues that intention is not a necessary condition for messages to be propagandistic and works to decouple propaganda from intention. Because our current models rely on intention in defining propaganda, recent work in philosophy cannot account for sociological propaganda. Ellul’s gestures toward defining propaganda explicitly feature intention as …

Gone To Ground, Brian Blair

Theses

Gone to Ground is a collection of short stories that explores the possibilities beyond the edge of the everyday. They are an attempt to peek beyond the imaginary boundaries we erect for ourselves in the name of danger or the unknown. Each story is an opportunity to see our own familiar humanity in others, no matter the accidents of fortune that separate us. Though the stories in Gone to Ground often touch the surreal or the magical, they are firmly rooted in what could be out there, on the other side of our walls, whether real or imagined. These are …

Behrdie, Brendan T. Murphy

Theses

Humans are and always will be consumers. They have utilized goods to solve problems and explore creative ideas. As cultures evolved, new products came about with increasing complexities and functions. People began to consume products for their meaning rather than for the service the objects provided. Currently, products dominate human life, a culture of materialism driving incredible consumption rates. Excessive consumption creates problems for the environment and human well-being. Many strategies have been proposed to reduce the rapid accumulating of products, however, as they do not address consumers, but instead producers, lasting impact has yet to be found. A solution …

Temporal Changes In The Diversity And Composition Of Tropical Andean Forest Communities, Claudia Andrea Aparicio-Chavez

Theses

During the last few thousand years, human population growth and resource use has been reshaping the planet’s nutrient cycles, climate and biodiversity and might be causing significant changes to spatial and temporal patterns in the distribution of species, and a general erosion of biodiversity at global scales. Many studies have been looking to model and predict how species could respond to actual rates of change on environmental conditions, with a high interest in terms of species distribution and richness with potential extinctions. However, how global change impact local communities still remains unclear. Moreover, previous research suffers from a significant bias …

Trēfolio: Protecting Trees Through Emotional Connections And Greater Awareness, Surudhakeerthi Sivakumar

Theses

Trees are being burned, degraded, and logged at astonishing rates. 80% of the world’s forests are already destroyed. It is estimated that within 100 years there will be no rainforests left. Urbanization, Mining, Fires, Logging, and Agricultural activities are all to blame for this destruction (Vidal 2017).

The first step in solving this problem is to raise awareness. Each tree is unique, and every tree has an interesting story to tell. When people realize this and start building a personal connection with the trees around them, they will naturally develop a protective instinct towards the trees they like. The goal …

Rover: A Virtual Reality Puzzle Game About Creating An Experience That Helps The Player Rediscover Something About Themselves, Like Dream And Family., Shengjie Liu

Theses

With the development of virtual reality technology, VR is currently replacing old systems and modifying practices and processes in many fields, such as automotive, healthcare, training and psychological therapies (Salanitri et al., 2018). Amongst these fields, the industry of games particularly enjoys an increasingly mature technique in virtual reality technology. It is in no small part because such technology provides an immersive experience during the games, and it in turn enhances players’ comprehension upon the affections incurred in the games. Encountered with such an emerging visual carrier, many products and programs await creation. Throughout this project, motion patterns and visual …

Understanding Culture Through Traditional Chinese Fairy Tales: A Study On The Effects Of Chinese Fairy Tale Characters On Audience Perception Of Culture, Bochuan Li

Theses

Classic of Mountains and Seas is probably one of the most ancient books about geography. The history of this book dates back to the Zhou Dynasty (1134 BC to 256 BC) or even earlier. Classic of Mountains and Seas is structured with 18 fascicles and has remained generally unaltered since the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). This book is not a narrative; it details descriptions of locations in the mountains, seas, lands, and wilderness. The descriptions are usually about medicines, monsters, and geological features. Many of the descriptions are very mundane. Chapters follow the same pattern, and the whole book consists of …

The Use Of Bacteriophages To Control Legionella Spp. In Environmental Water Samples, Naama Abdulla Ali Al-Kaabi

Theses

Legionnaires' disease is a potentially fatal form of pneumonia which can affect human, but principally affects those who are susceptible and predisposed to infection due to old age, illness, immunosuppressed and patients at risk. Legionnaires' disease is caused by Gram-negative rod bacteria called Legionella pneumophila. An estimation of 8,000 to 18,000 are actually confirmed cases of Legionnaires' disease per year in the USA. In the UAE, there has been an increase in the number of cases of Legionnaires’ disease which are associated with recent travel to Dubai. Incidents doubled between October 2016 and August 2017. Legionella pneumophila is found …

Multi-Modal Learning Using Deep Neural Networks, Dheeraj Kumar Peri

Theses

Humans have an incredible ability to process and understand information from multiple sources such as images, video, text, and speech. Recent success of deep neural networks has enabled us to develop algorithms which give machines the ability to understand and interpret this information. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have become a standard in extracting rich features from visual stimuli. Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) and its variants such as Long Short Term Memory (LSTMs) units have been highly successful in encoding and decoding sequential information like speech and text. Although these networks are highly successful when applied to narrow applications, there is …

Evaluating Different Densities Of Lettuce (Lactuca Sativa L) With Varying Levels Of Feeding Regimes On Tilapia Fish (Oreochromis Niloticus L) In Aquaponics System, Ahmed Salem Mohammed Suhail Alkaabi

Theses

Aquaponics uses waste generated by fish as plant nutrients within a re-circulating system that returns clean water back to the fish. The purpose of this study was to cultivate the high quality of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L.) production in an integrated aquaponic system with recirculating aquaculture system in the UAE climatic condition on three different densities and feeding regimes. An experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions in the United Arab Emirates in 2016 (from April to August). The evaluation of the production was based on three parameters viz., head of the …

Mathematical Modeling Of Corona Virus In The United Arab Emirates, Alya Saif Ahmad Alshehhi

Theses

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a viral in-fectious disease that can be transmitted to humans through interaction with infected ani-mals or humans. The Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is still one of the main public health concerns in the Gulf region including United Arab Emirates. The fact that diseases have been imported into other parts of the world show the possibility of has a MERS pandemic. In this work, we are aiming to study a mathematical model of the MERS transmission among the UAE population and camels. The goal is to determine what are the paths of …

A Transparent Square Root Algorithm To Beat Brute Force For Sufficiently Large Primes Of The Form P = 4n + 1, Michael R. Spink

Theses

Finding square roots in the modular integers is a well known problem that is the basis for many modern cryptosystems. For primes of the form p=4n+3, given C\in\mathbb Z_p^\times , finding solutions to x^2\equiv C \pmod{p} is deterministic. For primes of the form p=4n+1, no known deterministic computation exists for determining x given C. Tonelli (later improved by Shanks,) Cipolla, and Pocklington, among others, found sophisticated algorithms to perform this task. Brute force is a transparent approach, but offers no insights into the problem. In this thesis, we produce a transparent approach to this problem, visualized using a model built …

Forensic Art In Law Enforcement: The Art And Science Of The Human Head, Kourtnei F. Rodriguez

Theses

Forensic art is a highly specialized career field, but there are very few full-time forensic artists working today. There is only one school in the world that offers a degree in forensic art and it is located in Dundee, Scotland at the University of Dundee. The university’s School of Science and Engineering offers a Master of Science (MSc) in Forensic Art and Facial Identification. However, there have been a variety of training courses and workshops provided for individuals interested in studying forensic art locally throughout the United States. Some people may have heard the term used before, but they still …

Evolution Of Garamond: An Interactive Timeline Demonstrating The Evolution Of Garamond, Yeseul Son

Theses

Typography is an essential subject that every visual communication design (VCD) student should learn to be a professional. The knowledge and skill of typography can be required in any type of VCD project such as in branding, interaction, or motion graphics design. In consequence, even when VCD students focus on specific fields, polishing their knowledge and skills of the subject can help them become thriving practitioners. This thesis aims to pique their interests in typography, which could help motivate them to self-study the subject, by illustrating the evolution of Garamond: a name of typeface that is descended from letters designed …

How Architecture Can Promote A Sustainable And Therapeutic Experience For Patients In Psychiatric Hospitals In China, Xili Li

Theses

Mental, physical and social health are the interwoven strands of well-being for all individuals’ lives. Mental health, in particular, is crucial to the overall robustness of humans, as it enables individuals to realize their abilities, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively, and contribute to their communities. Unfortunately, mental disorders have suffered the stigma of disgrace. Although the world has long struggled to understand, identify, and treat mental illnesses, the quality of relative facilities and treatments lags far behind other medical fields. The conditions of mental healthcare facilities are especially inadequate in developing countries, like China.

The author’s …

For That What Didn't, Sue Britt

Theses

ABSTRACT The work of this book was pursued with the objective of exploring psychological and sociological causes and effects of the human condition with themes including family, love, solitude, loss, abandonment, estrangement, maternity, sex, and gender power dynamics--especially that of male dominance of women and varying female responses to this sociological organization--using characters, animals, settings and voices in the artistic medium of poetry. The assembly of the book is in the style of novel structure, but neither story nor chronology were considered in the order of organization as each poem is an independent piece. Epigraphs were used at the beginning …

The Effects Of Density Gradients On The Distribution And Behavior Of Copepods, Connor Cayson

Theses

Observations of fine-scale behavioral dynamics of zooplankton may shed insight into much larger-scale ecosystem patterns and phenomena. Some zooplankton, such as copepods, are known to aggregate near density gradients; however, it is not clear the extent to which density gradients alone affect copepod distribution and behavior, since these gradients are often associated with phytoplankton layers. In this study, we investigated the behavior of Calanus pacificus in response to salinity gradients through laboratory experiments observed with high-resolution video and analyzed using computational techniques. Image data were collected using two cameras recording continuously for a duration of 30 minutes or more, allowing …

The List, Joseph C. Bellavia

Theses

The List is a feature film script about Jacob, a dejected teen, during a cold spring break, decides to protect his friend Benny from his abusive father by exploring the city he once thought of as nothing but boring. This feature film script is a boy coming-of-age that incorporates elements of the hero’s journey. The characters deal with the real-world problems of single-parent families, peer pressure, bullying, and abuse while escaping into the world of experiencing their surroundings. It is a prevailing thought by teens that they are growing up in the most boring place. This story unveils that the …

Professional Heartbreakers: Male Entertainers And The Divide Between Popular Culture And History In Japan, Meradeth Lin Edwards

Theses

While prostitution in Japan is widely studied, there are seldom specific examinations of males in these roles. This paper uses primary sources and secondary sources to study men as purchasable commodities, and how these roles have shaped the fictional world as well as the real world in Japan.

Bubble Stream Production By Belugas (Delphinapterus Leucas), Megan Slack

Theses

Bubble stream production in belugas has been poorly characterized and its function is not well understood. I examined behavioral states when producing bubble streams (“bubbling”), and when bubbling calls, to determine whether bubbling was significantly associated with a particular call category or behavioral state. Using 19 hours of video and audio recordings collected over a two-day period, I quantified bubble streams of a 4-month old calf and an unrelated adult female housed together. Based on the overall activity budgets and pool of vocalizations for both animals, I calculated the expected counts of bubble streams with and without vocalizations, assuming that …

Characterization Of Shear-Induced Hemolysis In Rotational Medical Devices, James A. Krisher

Theses

The implantation of a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) is a rapidly growing means of treatment for a large variety of heart ailments. These blood pumps necessarily exert some degree of shear stress on blood passing through them, which, over time, may cause the rupture of red blood cells, coagulation, thromboses, and bleeding. This limits their use as long term treatment and therapy. While the relationship of fluid shear to blood damage has been demonstrated previously, there is significant variance in the reported levels of damage. Were these stresses and subsequent damage to be well understood and related, existing and …

A Habitat Suitability Model For Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa Umbellus) In New York State Department Of Environmental Conservation Region 8, Austin Groff

Theses

Shrubland, young forest, and other types of early successional habitats have historically declined due to a lack in anthropogenic and natural disturbances. This decline in disturbance-dependent habitats has impacted the populations of a variety of species, with some of conservation concern, such as the Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus). Using an iteration-reduction method for this project, a Habitat Suitability Model was created in ArcGIS Pro to assess NYSDEC Region 8 for potential habitat, and to assist with determining where the potential habitat was located within the area of interest. These potential habitat areas were ranked from “POOR” to “PRIME” based on …

Succession Of An Upland Oak/Hickory Forest In The Central Hardwood Region, Nathan Hoover

Theses

For the last 9,000-10,000 years the Central Hardwood Region (CHR) has been primarily composed of a mosaic of mesophytic communities in climax and communities of successional forest types dominated by oak (Quercus Linnaeus) and hickory (Carya Nuttall). Shade intolerant oak/hickory dominated forest types have been maintained by natural disturbance processes in synergy with anthropogenic causes, resulting in a large composition of communities which are neither at climatic nor edaphic climax. Reduction in fire events, thinning, forest grazing, and other disturbance processes over the last 80-100 years have coincided with decreased regeneration of shade intolerant species due to lack of adequate …

Prediction Of Clinical Symptoms And Psychological Flexibility Using A Novel Values Card Sort Activity, Ryan S. Kimball

Theses

Values are directly relevant in a number of theoretical orientations in psychology, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). In ACT, clarification of one’s personal values is paramount. The present study examined the ability to predict clinical symptoms and psychological flexibility using variables derived from one’s performance on the ACT Values Card Sort (ACT-VCS), a novel values clarification exercise. The independent variables, obtained from the ACT-VCS, included 1) the number of values endorsed as very important in the initial sort (i.e., valuing propensity), 2) the number of values domains represented in the final sort (i.e., values diversity), and 3) the extent …

The Development Of 800 Days Of Solitude: A Conjuring: A Playwriting Thesis, David Dudley

Theses

This thesis document is a presentation of the process and production of my play, 800 Days of Solitude: A Conjuring, which was presented in the Moe Theater Lab March 22 through 25 2018. This play endeavored to tell the story of a young man who was wrongfully imprisoned, and then forced into solitary confinement. Chapter 1 contains a detailed account of the pre-writing process, including early inspirations, impressions of what the play might be, and character bios. Chapter 2 is a narrative account of the writing of 800 Days of Solitude: A Conjuring, along with key inspirations and how I …

Migration Patterns, Habitat Use, Prey Items, And Hunter Harvest Of Long-Tailed Ducks (Clangula Hyemalis) That Overwinter On Lake Michigan, Luke J. Fara

Theses

The long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis; hereafter LTDU) breeds on the arctic tundra across Alaska and Canada and winters south of the ice edge along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, as well as on the Great Lakes. Data suggest that LTDU populations are in decline and, as a result, efforts have been made to better understand their population distributions through satellite telemetry studies. Radio-marked LTDUs from previous studies have shown very little use of Lake Michigan, even though aerial surveys indicate that large concentrations of this species overwinter there. LTDUs using Lake Michigan face a host of conservation issues, such as …