Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Persuasive Communication On Intention To Save Energy: Punishing And Rewarding Messages, Michell Patricia Garcia Mera

Theses

Communication can be used to persuade individuals to change their intentions. This study analyzes the use of rewarding and punishing messages for the purpose of changing intention towards energy saving. It also analyzes the use of social and individual rewards and punishments and their effects in motivating behavioral change positively towards energy saving. Results show that while reward and punishment are both effective in manipulating intention positively towards energy saving behaviors, overall there is no significant difference between the two. However, when individual reward was compared to individual punishment, individual punishment was found to be more effective than reward in …

Effect Of Simulated Canopy Cover On Created Vernal Pools In The Northeastern Us, Elizabeth Anne Bruen

Theses

Vernal pools in the Northeastern United States are small, forested wetlands characterized by ephemeral flooding. These unique ecosystems provide critical habitat for both terrestrial and aquatic organisms, abate seasonal flooding, and are biogeochemical hotspots. Vernal pools may be created to maintain key ecosystem services associated with loss of natural wetlands. In many instances, however, created pools do not mimic the ecological functions and services of extant vernal pools due to shortcomings associated with the surrounding land use and canopy cover, hydrology, or invasion by opportunistic plants. Because of the importance of these systems to regional biodiversity, understanding the conditions required …

See A Different World: Interactive Storytelling For Children To Raise Awareness Of Color Blindness, Dan Yu

Theses

Children play with interactive applications to gain knowledge in their daily life. There are different kinds of interactive applications that help educate children through visual storytelling. In reviewing the current apps available, few of them were written or designed for children with disabilities, especially children with color blindness. Through research, it was discovered that children lack an awareness of color blindness. This thesis aims to design an effective, interactive visual storytelling application to raise awareness of color blindness for elementary school aged children. The project helps children gain knowledge about color blindness through reading and playing activities within the app. …

Oil Painting 3d Scene: A Desert Survival Game Environment, Chien Hui Jarvis

Theses

Oil Painting 3D Scene: A Desert Survival Game Environment is a hand-painted, stylized game level. The whole environment includes desert, animals, plants, rocks, small particle effects and a shack built in Unreal Engine.

This report outlines the whole production process, from the very beginning of visual development stage till completion, and illustrates my ideas, sketches, obstacles, tests, design choices, failures and successes, as well as technical specifics.

Full Measures, Xuejing Xu

Theses

“Full Measures” is a 3D Animated Short Film about a pianist’s struggle writing the music he desires before his deadline. With musical creatures taunting him, will he defeat his nightmares in time?

“Full Measures” has two meanings, it’s literally definition is “to perform a task as well as possible.” The second definition is a play on words meaning “Passages with heavily written music.” It’s a phrase I found through speaking with musician at the Eastman School of Music.

In life we all aspire to achieve what we want to create. Often the greatest obstacles are constructs in our minds. We …

Neural Networks For Autonomous Control Of Unmanned Helicopters, Padraig M. Moriarty

Theses

Landing a helicopter on a ship in high seas can be a dangerous endeavour. This thesis proposes to examine the possible uses of Artificial Neural Networks (A.N.N.) in the aiding and/or the landing of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (U.A.V.). It proposes that this procedure can be segregated into three distinct phases. The data for the A.N.N. training and testing sets is generated through simulation in the Unity cross-platform game engine. Phase 1 is intended to convert video images from an on-board camera to a set of numeric outputs suitable for use in Phase 2. Phase 2 estimates the current relative …

Training Deictic Relations To Children With Developmental Delays Through The Use Of The Peak Relational Training System, Dena Larae Kime

Theses

Children with developmental delays often do not acquire perspective taking skills without training. These skills are imperative to the ability to relate to others socially and the development of appropriate social behavior. They may lack the ability to recognize that another person’s view may differ from their own, or that reality may differ from appearance. This study used deictic relational training to aid in the development of a ‘Theory of Mind’ and the acquisition of perspective taking skills. The PEAK relational training system was used in a special education classroom to train YOU and I relations, as well as YOU …

Sophorolipid Production From Lignocellulosic Biomass Feedstocks, Abdul Samad

Theses

The present study investigated the feasibility of production of sophorolipids (SLs) using yeast Candida bombicola grown on hydrolysates derived lignocellulosic feedstock either with or without supplementing oil as extra carbon source. Several researchers have reported using pure sugars and various oil sources for producing SLs which makes them expensive for scale-up and commercial production. In order to make the production process truly sustainable and renewable, we used feedstocks such as sweet sorghum bagasse, corn fiber and corn stover. Without oil supplementation, the cell densities at the end of day-8 was recorded as 9.2, 9.8 and 10.8 g/L for hydrolysate derived …

A 3d Biomechanical Model For Analysis Of Upper Jaw Protrusion In Carassius Auratus (Goldfish), Seldon Tenzin Tselung

Theses

This thesis studies upper jaw protrusion in carassius auratus (goldfish), a type of Cypriniformes. The presence of a unique sesamoid bone called kinethmoid, suspended by a network of ligaments, allows for more flexibility and longer periods of sustained suction flow speeds in Cypriniformes. Previous researchers used XROMM software to visualize highly accurate (±0.1 mm) re-animations of a carp’s 3D bones in vivo and EMG graphs to visualize muscle activation patterns. Based on those results, this thesis takes a reverse approach by building a working 3D model of a goldfish’s mouth and simulating it using Adams, a multibody dynamics software program. …

Left Ventricle Myocardium Segmentation From 3d Cardiac Mr Images Using Combined Probabilistic Atlas And Graph Cut-Based Approaches, Aditya Daryanani

Theses

Medical imaging modalities, including Computed Tomography (CT) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Ultrasound (US) are critical for the diagnosis and progress monitoring of many cardiac conditions, planning, visualization and delivery of therapy via minimally invasive intervention procedures, as well as for teaching, training and simulation applications.

Image segmentation is a processing technique that allows the user to extract the necessary information from an image dataset, in the form of a surface model of the region of interest from the anatomy. A wide variety of segmentation techniques have been developed and implemented for cardiac MR images. Despite their complexity and performance, …

Mist, Huan Abby Liao

Theses

Mist is an abstract, animated graduate thesis film with a duration of five minutes. It is an extremely personal film, which is inspired by my childhood memories and Chinese culture. It is a reflection of my own life, which just like the fluid ink in the film, reacts with the environment naturally and leaves distinct marks on the paper of my life.

This is a live action and 2D animation mixed film that was produced with After Effects and Premiere software. The primary plan was to produce this film in 3D. However, in order to achieve a more dynamic look, …

Potter Priest, Tianhe Han

Theses

"Potter Priest” is an animated graduate thesis film. The entire animation including credits was 8 minutes long by the time of my thesis screening at SOFA, RIT. The story was developed to show the sublimation of the spirit of an old blind potter by realizing worship the god is more about caring the livings rather than praying to the statue. The story takes place in an ancient Pottery Kiln used by the old man as a shrine. A weasel comes in and interrupts the rite. While teasing the old man the weasel disrupts the balance of strings and get trapped …

The Blue Sweater, Dhaneesh Kooliyath Jameson

Theses

‘The Blue Sweater’ is a journey through memories of a place and way of life that no longer exists. Memories that are now fading away and some I have already lost. I travelled back in my memory and gathered all that I remembered of living in my village. While we embraced development, we lost a lot too. Bridges sprung up connecting the islands of the coast to the city, machines began plying the land, and alongside, trees and animals started disappearing. My memories are now a mixed bag of vivid imageries of an actual tropical village that used to be, …

Open Up, Mahima Tuladhar

Theses

pen up is a graduate 2D animation thesis with a run time of 6 minutes and 27 seconds. It explores the strained relationship between a boy and his father. In amidst of a fight between the two the boy run’s out of the house following a light wisp. It leads him to a cliff where a woman in a black cloak stands. She gives the boy a very magical experience and a reminder of the love he once had with his family. He goes back home where he reminds his father about the love they once had and that they …

Quantitative Analysis Of The Total Bacteria, Lactobacillus, And Bifidobacterium Colonic Microflora In Rats Fed Conventional, Prebiotic, And Probiotic Soy Diets, Deborah Osterholm Jung

Theses

Research suggests that specific compositions of gut microbiota can directly affect energy harvesting and fat storage, which may indicate a potential role of intestinal bacteria in the regulation of body weight (i.e., obesity). The purpose of the current study was to determine if prebiotic- and probiotic-based diets modify gut microbiota in genetically obese rodents. For this, female Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats were assigned diets containing fructooligosaccharides (FOS), Bifidobacterium (BIF), or Lactobacillus (LAC) for three weeks. qPCR was then used to measure levels of colonic Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, and total bacteria. At termination, there was no significant difference in Lactobacillus levels …

Understanding Chytridiomycosis Resistance By Investigating The Cutaneous Defense Mechanisms Of Marsupial Frogs, David Burkart

Theses

Anurans are declining worldwide because of the spread of Batachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), the fungus that causes chytridiomycosis. However, some frogs are resistant to this disease, and understanding why may be critical to saving those that are susceptible. In Peru, Gastrotheca excubitor is resistant to chytridiomycosis while Gastrotheca nebulanastes is susceptible. Two anuran skin defenses, symbiotic bacteria and antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), have demonstrated the ability to inhibit Bd in vitro when isolated from certain frogs. We tested if these defenses can explain the difference in susceptibility between the two Gastrotheca species. The cutaneous bacteria and AMPs of both species were collected, …

Fat Boy Can't Fly, Tianyu Yang

Theses

“Fat Boy Can’t Fly” is a 3 minutes 52 seconds long animated graduate thesis film. It tells an inspiring story about how a boy whose particular flaw prevents him from flying his sword to the mountaintop along with the others, but turns his weakness in to a strength to finally reach the peak of the mountain.

By combining 2D and 3D techniques, this film creates a relatively unique visual effect with vivid animation. It helps audiences go into the world to understand the characters and story.

This paper outlines the whole film creation process from the very beginning of an …

Out Of Sync: Live Visual Performance Design, Charles Miller

Theses

Live visual performances are often combined with and serve as enhancement to musical performances. As a result, visual content is informed by, and responds to audio content. How does the situation change if the performance is based around visuals? Can audio accompaniment be performed independently, and the two come together during performance? Without a musical subtext, what form will the visuals take? What would be the ideal performance environment for optimal creative freedom and control of performance parameters?

Getting Back The Lost, Wanru Liu

Theses

Getting Back the Lost is an animated graduate thesis film with a total running time of 7 minutes and 13 seconds. The film is about a girl seeking hope in a ruined and destroyed environment.

Nowadays, the global environmental problem, which is due to human activities, is becoming increasingly serious. Human beings have overused natural resources in a continuous and reckless way, without caring about their harmful and detrimental effects on this earth. Getting Back the Lost is a story that takes place in a former land of oil extraction and production. It is a place that represents what the …

A Game-Based Learning Model, Fatmah Mohamed Ali Ramsi

Theses

The purpose of this research is to design a conceptual model and develop an implementation as a proof of concept of game-based learning (GBL)to support linguistic skills acquisition. Our model lays the foundations of game-based learning by defining methods, processes, and procedures to support the development of game-based learning systems. Integration of learning and gameplay raises various issues, among them the learning process, learning content, and game characteristics. Language competency is fundamental to academic and social success. Vocabulary acquisition is a primary basis for language competency. Word lists and dictionaries have been used as a resource to enrich vocabulary. The …

Aflatoxin Level In Selected Spices In Abu Dhabi Markets, Salma Ibrahim Al Hammadi

Theses

Aflatoxins (AF) are toxic secondary metabolites secreted by the fungi Aspergillus or Penicillium. Four aflatoxins (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2) are common in foods and feeds produced or stored under unfavorable conditions of humidity and temperature AFB1 is considered the most toxic.

Spices are significant ingredients in the UAE cuisine, used for the purpose of seasoning, coloring, and flavoring. In this research, 94 samples of spices (including pepper, chili, coriander, fennel seeds, paprika, turmeric, zataria, and mixed spices) purchased from different markets in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, were analyzed for their contents of AF. Sample were analyzed using high-performance …

Molecular Targets Of Manuka Honey In Human Breast Cancer, Sarah Saif Al Qubaisi

Theses

The medicinal properties of Manuka honey have been extensively studied, particularly in terms of its wound healing and antimicrobial activities. We have previously demonstrated that Manuka honey also has anti-cancer properties against a variety of cancer cell types in vitro as well as in preclinical cancer models. The cellular targets of the anti-cancer activity of Manuka honey, however, remain unknown. For the present study, we selected the triple negative human breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231, to investigate susceptibility to Manuka honey and to identify the potential signaling pathways affected. MDA-MB-231 cancer cells are known to constitutively express activated STAT3 transcription …

Designing Eye Tracking Algorithm For Partner-Assisted Eye Scanning Keyboard For Physically Challenged People, Zeenat S. Al-Kassim

Theses

The proposed research work focuses on building a keyboard through designing an algorithm for eye movement detection using the partner-assisted scanning technique. The study covers all stages of gesture recognition, from data acquisition to eye detection and tracking, and finally classification. With the presence of many techniques to implement the gesture recognition stages, the main objective of this research work is implementing the simple and less expensive technique that produces the best possible results with a high level of accuracy. The results, finally, are compared with similar works done recently to prove the efficiency in implementation of the proposed algorithm. …

Investigation Of Groundwater Quality Of Al Hayer Area, (North Of Al Ain City) Using Hydro Geochemical Approach, Mohammed Hosny Ibrahim Gadalla

Theses

Al Hayer is located in the northeast of Al Ain area, Eastern region of the United Arab Emirates. Groundwater abstraction for domestic, agricultural and industrial uses has led to major depletion in the aquifer resulting in groundwater quality deterioration. This study aims to identify the factors affecting the groundwater quality in this area, and to determine the recharge mechanism for the study area to understand the behaviour of major ions in regional groundwater by using hydrogeochemical and isotopic approaches. The hydrochemical analysis of 37 collected samples of groundwater revealed that the groundwater is characterized by moderate salinity and high concentrations …

Virtual Screening Of Phytochemicals For Cancer Therapy, Asma Ahmad Al Haddad

Theses

Cancer is one of the leading cause of deaths in the world. Vast majority of contemporary cancer therapies have side effects. Dietary plants and plant-based products have been shown to reduce the severity of the condition with minimal or no side effects. However, the precise molecular interactions that lead to this are largely unknown. In this study, several target proteins in cancer pathways were chosen and a collection of chemical derived from plants, or phytochemicals, were virtually screened in silico using molecular docking techniques. Furthermore, the docking modes were subjected to extended molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The pharmacokinetic properties of …

An Ambulance Made Of Whiskey, Maria Victoria Mejia Yepes

Theses

An Ambulance Made of Whiskey is the story of Sven, a famous writer who loses his inspiration. He becomes a target of bullying by his fans and falls into a deep depression, shutting himself off completely from the public and from his family. He tries to commit suicide several times with no success.

Suddenly, after overdosing on a mixture of drugs, he enters into a surreal world in which he is confronted with his own death. While he is hallucinating, he is traveling in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. This affects his perception, mixing with the parallel …

Latin On The Walls, Kent Walker

Theses

A dysfunctional family in rural southeastern Missouri learn to cope with death. During the fortification period after the invasion of Iraq, a soldier plays into the banality of war, pranks, drugs, and inspections create tension in an already tense environment.

Discovery And Metabolic Engineering Of Steroid Alkaloid Biosynthetic Genes From (Veratrum Californicum), Megan M. Augustin

Theses

The steroid alkaloid cyclopamine has shown much promise as a treatment for cancers in which aberrant hedgehog signaling plays a role. The compound, originally discovered due to its teratogenic effects in sheep, binds to the hedgehog signaling receptor Smoothend and prevents downstream activation. As this pathway is primarily active during embryonic development, overactivation later in life can lead to tumor formation and proliferation. Several studies have shown that cyclopamine can inhibit and even reverse tumor growth, but limited supply will prevent widespread use upon FDA approval of it or any of its semi-synthetic analogs. As high value plant medicinal compounds …

Visualizing The News: An Analysis Of A Year In Interactive News From The New York Times And The Washington Post, Maria T. Olivo

Theses

In the past decade, newsrooms have been struggling to remain relevant while trying to keep and attract new audiences. Access to diverse online tools and big data has expanded the use of infographics and data visualization in news stories, increasing reader engagement with complex content. The increase of interactive visual content in journalism requires rethinking how journalistic and design elements are incorporated in a story. This study explores how The New York Times and The Washington Post incorporate principles of design and data visualization to present complex information for their readers. Using a mixed method approach, a sample of 275 …

Data Mining Nhanes: Utilizing A Genetic Algorithm To Detect Correlation Between Birth Sex Ratio And Epidemiological Factors, Christopher F. Fucile

Theses

In the past several decades there has been increasing research into factors that may affect the birth sex ratio of parents. These can range from nutrition to hormone levels to psychological factors. The National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) is a broadly encompassing governmental survey that captures some of these aspects making it a rich and easily exploitable data set for these purposes. In this study we utilize custom Perl scripts written to extract such information and attempt to find correlations using a genetic algorithm. Mothers are first identified through inferred relationships within the database. Variables are then analyzed …