Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluation Of Four Novel Broad-Host-Range Antimicrobial Agents., Jiahui Guo

Theses

The overall objective of this thesis was to evaluate the antimicrobial effects of four novel broad-host-range antimicrobial agents. The first was a milk-derived lipoprotein developed by Westgate Biologicals with the support of Enterprise Ireland. This lipoprotein which was designated LactiSAL, was evaluated against a wide range of bacterial species associated with humans. Essentially, the LactiSAL was incorporated at a variety of concentrations into agar media, which were appropriate for cultivation of the different genera. Agars were examined for colony formation, after which it was possible to quantify the minimal inhibitory concentration for each genus. Subsequently, LactiSAL was incorporated at levels …

Comparison Of Efficiency Of An Advanced Oxidation Process For Degrading Major Classes Of Dyes, Fatima Hasan Abdullah Ai-Hamedi

Theses

Synthetic dyes are a major part of our life. Products ranging from clothes to leather

Accessories to furniture all depend on extensive use of organic dyes.

There are numerous classes of these dyes. However, azo, anthraquinonoid,

Triarylmethane, diarylmethane, acridine, quinine, xanthane and nitro represent the major

Classes and are most commonly used dyes.

An unfortunate side effect of their widespread use is the fact that up to 12% of these dyes are

Wasted during the dyeing process, and that approximately 20% of this waste enters the environment (mostly in water supply). The effluents from these industries cause the water bodies …

Visualization Analysis Of Astrophysics N-Bodied Problem Using Image Morphological Processing Techniques, Thomas J. Borrelli

Theses

This project’s primary goal is to detect points of interest within the output data resulting from running a simulation of the Astrophysics N-Bodied problem (GRAPEcluster). Morphological Image Processing techniques will be applied to the visualized data in order to detect areas of interest within the original data. Several Morphological Image Processing techniques will be used and the results compared in the analysis. The final output of the VRAD (Visualization of Raw Astrophysics Data) System will be two-fold: first, the VRAD system will output a text file that contains the x, y and z coordinates of each region of interest in …

How Ehs Managers Can Influence Environmental Excellence Within Their Organization, Joseph Whitaker

Theses

The objective of this work is to evaluate the various management styles and systems applicable to the Environmental, Health, and Safety ('EHS') profession; furthermore, it will present ways in which managers will discover how to understand and evaluate projects from a 'business' point of view, allowing them to compete within their organization for capital and human resources. ... This paper will also discuss various evaluations used to ensure proper buy-in from management -- a process that will facilitate the allocation of human and financial resources to environment, health, and safety projects. The evaluation will focus on two primary elements. The …

Effective Approaches To Minimize The Problem Of Pharmaceuticals And Other Personal Care Products In The Environment, Papun Pramanick

Theses

Studies have shown that pharmaceuticals and other personal care products (PPCPs) are present in the environment, especially in water, due to different human activities. Some of these compounds are toxic to our eco-system. Although there is no evidence of adverse human health effect from the presence of PPCPs in the environment to date , some adverse effects on aquatic life cycle already have been found. Therefore, protecting our environment as well as human health from adverse effect(s) of PPCPs is a growing concern. The objective of this thesis work was to collect information about the principal approaches available to pharmaceutical …

Using Eye Tracking To Understand Banner Blindness And Improve Website Design, Chad Lapa

Theses

Banners, as a form of advertising on the web, are important for businesses. Conversely customers want to navigate the site without being distracted by irrelevant or annoying ads. Design and placement of banners is not well understood and "banner blindness", which occurs when users overlook the banner entirely, is what causes the ineffectiveness of the banner. This study employs eye tracking to investigate how banner background color and the banner’s relevance to users’ tasks influence banner blindness. Eye movements were collected for users performing several tasks and viewing banners in a task-free context. Different banners were counterbalanced with task order. …

Using Organic Modeling Techniques To Create Scientific Models For Flow Analysis In Biomechanical Research: Exploring 3-D Software Typically Used In Creative Media For Model Creation., Jessica L. Weisman

Theses

Biomedical Engineering research utilizes digital three-dimensional models of human anatomical systems that are used as components in specific types of simulation. The data collected from the simulations provide quantifiable information that has a physical basis. The use of the digital models allows engineers the freedom of experimentation that may not be possible in the real world and allows them to quickly change the parameters. Although these models can provide reliable information, the models represent a mechanical ideal and therefore do not accurately represent organic matter. The consequence of using an ideal model to represent tissue may give flawed data, since …

Applying User-Centered Design In The Development Of A Software Application For The Treatment Of A Mental Health Disorder, Stacey L. Meacham

Theses

The research that follows will provide a process for applying a user-centered design methodology to the development of a virtual environment software application for the treatment of a mental health disorder, specifically post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The goal is to create a screen-based virtual environment product that focuses on the end user rather than the technological aspects of the system. Moreover, past and present treatments in the mental health and healthcare fields and their effectiveness will be analyzed through an extensive literature review.

Implications Of Reading Assessments: Investigating The Developmental Reading Assessment And Dynamic Indicators Of Basic Early Literacy Skills - Oral Reading Fluency As Related To The Terranova 2nd Edition Vocabulary And Comprehension Tasks For Third-Grade Students, Courtney Wheeler

Theses

The present study investigated the relationship between Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Oral Reading Fluency and the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) as related to the TerraNova 2nd Edition Vocabulary and Comprehension. Historical test data gained from 46 third grade participants during 2004- 2005 school year from an urban elementary school was utilized. The DRA protocols were coded and correlations were run to determine the relationship between the three tests. Significant correlations were found consistently between the DIBELS scores with DRA Phrasing and Fluency and DRA Story Level. Of particular interest, the overall best predictor for DIBELS scores …

Captivated In Time, Melissa S. Newcomb

Theses

Not included.

Online Structure, Parameter, And Utility Updating Of Bayesian Decision Networks For Cooperative Decision-Theoretic Agents, Iheanyi Umez-Eronini

Theses

Multi-agent systems, systems consisting of more than one acting and decision making entities, are of great interest to researchers because they have advantages for some specific tasks where it would be more effective to use multiple small and simple robots rather than a large and complex one. One of the major problems with multi-agent systems is developing a means to organize or control the overall behavior of the system. Typically, multi-agent control involves one of two structures. In some designs, there is a hierarchy with some robots being leaders and other followers. Other designs involve robot specialization towards one particular …

Determination Of The Fundamental Image Categories For Typical Consumer Imagery, Kenneth N. Fleisher

Theses

Many tasks in imaging science are image-dependent. While a particular dependency might simply be a function of certain physical attributes of an image, often it is closely related to the perceived semantic category. Therefore, a thorough understanding of image semantics would be of substantial practical value. The primary goal of this research was to determine the fundamental semantic categories for typical consumer imagery. Two psychophysical experiments were performed. Experiment I was a Free Sorting Experiment where observers were asked to sort 32 1 images into piles of similar images. Experiment II was a Distributed Experiment conducted over the internet which …

Sift The Rabble, Stephanie Benvenuto

Theses

A descriptive narration of a project to create a short 2-D hand-drawn (with some digital effects) animated film featuring the adventures of a young boy as he discovers objects in a junkyard that lead to flights of his imagination. Includes original thesis proposal, storyboard, and screen shots.

Conservation Of The Brca1 Gene, Matthew Gary Wronkowski

Theses

Most research has been conducted on the structure and function of many individual genes as well as complementary proteins. Many of these studies look at specific population groups' country of origin, geographic location, or ethnicity but do not correlate findings between these groups. In this project I attempted to associate the structural and functional consequences of individual mutations in Human BRCA1 to other organisms. My findings suggest a strong correlation between human geographical isolation and mutation exclusivity. Furthermore strong sequence and mutation conservation as well as structural homology exist between many species.

Beetle Blasphemy, Ferris Webby

Theses

A descriptive narration of a project to create a 3D animated short comedy film, "Beetle Blasphemy," featuring a beetle who believes himself to be the Messiah. Includes original proposal, timeline, budget, original script, original storyboards, and film stills.

Mutually Adaptive Distributed Heterogeneous Agents For Data Classification, Joshua Alan Harlow

Theses

Efficient and effective data classification is one of the most fundamental problems of computer science due to a huge number of important applications. As such, there have been many models that are capable of doing some form of data classification using a large number of varied algorithms and architectures. However, few share properties that implicitly take advantage of the distributed environment where classification has its most potential.

Therefore, to resolve this dilemma in this thesis a generic classification architecture com posed of mutually adaptive distributed heterogeneous agents was designed, implemented and experimentally analyzed. The system defined creates a multi-agent distributed …

Personality, Perception, Perseverence And Peers - Managing The Transition From Year 10 General Education To A Residential Agricultural Course In The Upper Secondary Years, Francis W. Donohoe

Theses

This intensive single-site case study has taken the entering cohort of Year 11 students in the year 2000 and has used: Point-of-entry and post-experience interviews of students admitted to the course, Parallel entry and on-course surveys, On-course administration of the well-credentialed Adolescent Coping Scale (Frydenberg and Lewis, 1993), and Staff interviews to identify and describe the environmental, personal and contextual factors that are associated with a student’s completion/non-completion of the two year Course and thereby help the College Administration address the on-going unacceptably high numbers of students not completing the Course. By making extensive use of the Adolescent Coping Scale …

Nietzsche’S Conception Of Friendship, Ryan C. Kinsella

Theses

Interpreting Friedrich Nietzsche’s unorthodox conception of friendship is the focus of the following dissertation. In couching his conception of friendship within his naturalistic philosophy of the human person and his morality, I aim to establish the central importance of friendship in Nietzsche’s philosophy. An equally important second aim is to demonstrate how Nietzsche’s philosophy of friendship is distinctly constructive in contrast to other aspects of his philosophy. These aims are addressed in three chapters: in the first chapter I examine how Nietzsche discusses friendship in his works, in what tone he discusses friendship, and I will briefly discuss how his …

Formulations, Stefan Petranek

Theses

How do we define nature on an intimate level? How do we ascribe value to the myriad processes which surround us on a daily basis? Through conceptual explorations in the mediums of photography, video, and sculptural installation, my artwork touches on the remarkable presence these natural phenomena can have in our lives and questions whether our cultural, scientific, or otherwise logical rationalizations of nature have the potential to fully recognize our relationship to it. Through the discussion of human logic schemes such as the objective observer, our scientific capacity to model nature and our cultural codification of natural law, this …

Displacement, Lila Mandzyk

Theses

Not Included

Assessment Of Marine And Coastal Pollution A Long The Eastern Coast, United Arab Emirates (Uae), Shaheera Ali Juma Ali Bahwan

Theses

The present study aims to quantifying and assessing the orgasmic and

Inorganic pollutants extents along eastern side of the United Arab

Emirates UAE offshore on the Gulf of Oman, which consist of Fujairah,

Khor Fakkan and Kalba. Rapid development and the highly usage of the

coastal region for industrial activities, sewage disposal and marine

transportation has led to obvious changes in sediments quality of the

marine environment. Twelve coastal sampling stations were selected to

cover the maximum area of the eastern side, three sampling stations were

selected from marine sediments and six sampling collected from spilled

oil near investigated area. …

Case Study: Enhancing The Customers Product Experience Through Package Revision, Keith J. Vent

Theses

This thesis is a case study to illustrate the importance of a products packaging related to the customers and consumers overall product experience. A company launched a new contact lens product in Europe a year after the product was introduced ... in North America. The lens was manufactured using the company's low-cost, daily disposable lens platform to enable a 10 to 20% cost benefit over the competition. However the new lens was not as well received in Europe as it was in the United States. To identify potential impacts to market acceptance, a third party marketing research firm conducted focus …

Information Visualization For Business Applications, Ramesh Gopalakrishnan

Theses

Business applications are generating ever-increasing amounts of data, and more and more of [these] data are in real-time data. Data mining is a standard feature in most data management system[s] for retrieving complex information but the challenge is about how to represent [this] information in an effective way for better analysis and decision making. With this rich information, the challenge still remains to derive the most business value from [an] ever-increasing amount of available information. Information visualization can significantly solve this problem for handling such complex and high volumes of data to be represented in business applications. Through this research, …

Quarry, Matt Kleis

Theses

A descriptive narration of a project to create a 3-D computer animated film, "Quarry," about a gargoyle in a big city and a little girl who comes to have a special bond with him. Includes original proposal, storyboard example, production stills, script, and set design and character.

Typographic Decision-Making: Children's Book Design, Christina R. Fisher

Theses

Most children's first encounter with words and the act of reading is in the form of having a children's book read to them. Whether it is a cardboard book with only a sprinkling of words, an illustrated storybook with more narrative, or an independent reader with a few images and a larger concentration of words, children's books are essential to developing a child's reading ability and to fostering an enthusiasm for reading. Despite the importance of these books, their typographic design is often neglected. Little attention is paid to the integration of text and image, and typographic variables are often …

Preternatural Fauna, Stephen J. Shachtman

Theses

Not Included

Jack, Han-Yi Tseng

Theses

Not Included

Ambivalence & Hope, Jeremy C. Stipano

Theses

A descriptive narration of the creation of the artist's thesis exhibition, the central pieces of which are Ambivalence, a walnut and zebrawood sculpture, and Hope, a mahogany and canary wood sculpture. Other pieces and materials surrounding Ambivalence and Hope include mono-prints made with paint and found objects, ink drawings, and two experimental multimedia sculptures, Inner Hope and External Ambivalence.

Fin To Feather, Rebecca L. Rogers

Theses

A descriptive narration of a project to create a computer animated film, "Fin to Feather." This film utilizes a mix of 3D and 2D techniques to tell the story of a fish and a bird in a pet shop who fall in love. Includes original proposal, pre-production notes and conceptual art, storyboards, models and texture maps, sheet music and composer's notes, production stills, and credits.

Parallelizing The Cluster Rank Analysis Application, Anthony G. Esposito Jr.

Theses

A wide range of researchers is beginning to utilize customized statistical methods for analyzing data as hardware and software become cheaper and more widely available. Cluster Rank Analysis (CRA) is an existing multivariate statistical algorithm that existed as an inefficient service-oriented application. Here it is described how CRA was optimized and parallelized using an available computing cluster and both open source and custom software. This was followed by the development of a command-line submission system for CRA jobs, as well as a Web retrieval system for the results of analyses. A subsequent timing study revealed speedup that quickly rose to …