Digital Commons Network^™

Targeted, Neha Joshi

Theses

The document is about the impact of targeted advertising on individuality and the loss of privacy. I describe my personal experience of being influenced by advertisements and how it led me to question my identity. I highlight how algorithms use personal information to categorize people and target them with specific ads, leading to a loss of privacy. I also argue that the internet has provided us with platforms to promote ourselves, but we lose our identity in the process of being boxed up and targeted by advertisements. I conclude by emphasizing the importance of recognizing and spreading awareness about the …

Electricity Theft And Energy Fraud Detection, Ali Jassim Rajab

Theses

Electricity theft is a widespread problem with significant negative economic and financial impacts. This problem is still a challenge for energy utilities all around the world. Estimates place the cost of power theft and fraud in the energy sector at $96 billion yearly, with costs of up to $6 billion in only the United States, making it the third largest form of theft in the country. Therefore, tackling electrical fraud and theft is more necessary now than ever.

Different methods are being used or developed to detect this practice and lessen its effects. The project aims to detect electricity theft …

Renewable Energy In Water Desalination: Route Of Technology, Vulnerabilities And Solutions Towards Cyber Intrusion, Aya Elshinawy

Theses

The diminishing of fossil fuels is inclining day by day which poses a huge dilemma that possesses a challenge for researchers to try and unlock the key for advanced technologies where energy is sustainable. Mankind was created in a self-sustaining planet where the Sun is the peak of the energy chain which branches out many renewable and sustainable energy sources. Scientists have been exploring the possibilities of exploiting the energy of the sun in many different ways including, photovoltaics for electricity generation, solar thermal applications for heating as well as electricity generation, energy storage applications and Desalination. Water scarcity is …

Workforce Management For Salik Call Center, Alaa Seder, Rawan Alnasser

Theses

Salik is the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority’s (RTA) automated toll collection system. Salik uses tag technology that must be registered for each vehicle either online or through an authorized dealer. With this tag, you can drive freely in the Emirate without having to stop at any toll booth. Salik means "open" or "clear" in Arabic, meaning that there are no toll booths, barriers, or physical gates. As a customer- focused organization, RTA Salik can only thrive if we truly understand the needs of our customers and provide them with the service, they want using the highest quality standards.

Prediction …

Lwir Spectral Variability Integration And Improvements To An Earth Observing Statistical Performance Model, Runchen Zhao

Theses

Remote sensing systems can be used to identify objects without physical contact. In hyperspectral remote sensing systems, pixels from a 3D hypercube can be described as a one-dimensional spectra. This one-dimensional spectrum can contain information about surface reflectance and emissivity variation as a function of wavelength, and is often thought of as the materials spectral signature or fingerprint. This spectral signature can be used in applications such as spectral target detection. To study the spectral signatures variation and its impact on target detection, for example, a parameter trade- off study is often needed. In this research, a full-spectrum spectral imaging …

Shiftable Load Forecasting And User-Centric Demand-Side Optimization For Nanogrid, Akash Kumar

Theses

Increased focus on sustainability and energy decentralization has positively impacted the adoption of nanogrid (NG). Despite its perceived advantages, NG’s high load volatility poses risk not only to its stability but also to the associated network. This is further exacerbated by the user’s transient moods and the probabilistic nature of metrological events. Moreover, unoptimized operation of electrical appliances in a NG, especially in peak hours, raises the energy cost substantially. Thus, for risk aversion and cost savings, day-ahead demand-side optimization is highly required, especially for shiftable loads. Moreover, most load centers, aspiring to be NGs, have either limited or no …

Glass, Danielle Tonnessen

Theses

This project is a full walking simulator video game and includes a demonstration of a variety of game design and development skills, including pre-development documentation, narration, game design audio, graphics, post-processing, UI elements and animation. Additionally, the project promotes the author’s ability in creative writing, and involves mental health subject matter with a focus on trauma processing, hypnosis, and survivor’s guilt.

Bridge: A Thoughtful Workflow, Isabella Rainey

Theses

The creative workspace is filled with all walks of life – from right to left brains, different personality types, mental health setbacks, and differences in neurodivergencies. While the differences amongst employees can be a huge asset, it can also create a struggle to have productive and inclusive workflows – specifically in relation to project life cycles. These types of differences can create a gap in regards to healthy communication, which can lead to lesser productivity in the long run due to a disconnect with employees battling mental health setbacks. There are many tools out there already that focus on productivity, …

A Study Of Wicca And Art, Shannon Hillyer

Theses

Art can be interpreted from a religious perspective given knowledge of the artist’s present or past religious affiliations. The photo series presented in this paper was part of a survey that asked participants to consider their own religious backgrounds and to determine the inspiration for the photo series. This project utilized introspection, autoethnographic research, and formalist analysis to determine if viewers could pinpoint the artist’s religious affiliation based on the themes present in the photo series. Most participants identified mythological themes were present in the series but didn’t connect those to Wicca unanimously. Art can be interpreted from a religious …

End-To-End Network Slicing Using Hypergraph Theory, Omar Abdul-Latif

Theses

Network slicing is the practice of implementing multiple virtualized and independent architectures on a single physical network infrastructure, in a way that allows for multiplexing and efficient use of resources. Network slicing is based on the concept of network virtualization and, when it reaches maturity, is expected to result in complete softwarization of 5G, Beyond-5G (B5G) and 6G networks. This means that future networks will only need minimal physical infrastructure upgrades (mostly in the frontend of the network). Network slicing is identified as one of the key enablers of next generation wireless mobile networks due to its ability to multiplex …

Curio-Stereo: A Vr Application For The Viewing Of Stereograph Cards, Paige Sandheinrich

Theses

This project discusses the historical significance of stereograph cards as a tool for constructing a shared visual culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States and the United Kingdom. Stereographs were widely popularized as an entertainment and educational tool, offering an immersive experience for the viewers. The stereoscopic nature of the images allowed the viewers to immerse themselves in a non-physical reality through visual stimulation, creating a haptic involvement that was unique to the medium. The project of creating a VR application to view stereographs is presented as a potential solution to the problem of …

Finding The Circle In The Square: A Neoplatonic Interpretation Of Kazimir Malevich’S Black Square, Matthew Madison Rowe

Theses

This thesis explores the influence of Silver Age philosophers Vladimir Soloviev, Sergei Bulgakov, and Pavel Florensky on Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square. Malevich was among the first to apply Silver Age philosophy to abstract art, fully rejecting all objective representation in art. The thesis argues that Malevich’s Suprematism was the result of the fundamental antimony of the Russian religious worldview, which understands reality as both immanent and transcendent. This understanding of reality was not unique to Russia but was the result of historic influences, including the Neoplatonic and religious-humanist philosophy that was prevalent in Russian intellectual culture during this period. …

User Experience Research For Books For Stl Kids, Danielle Nicole Randall

Theses

This project focuses on how to improve Book for STL Kids website experience. The primary focus is to study how key users utilize and interact with the organization’s website. The final deliverable is a list of user experience improvement recommendations for the organization.

A Cookieless Future: Solving The Ux Problems Caused By The Privacy Protections Method, Ibrahim S. Hanoglu

Theses

To the author’s knowledge, this article is the most comprehensive research study of its kind, if not the only example, as it examines the user experience issue caused by privacy protection methods from a theoretical and practical perspective. This study investigated where third-party cookies are used according to marketing techniques, the effects of these cookies, and the user experience problems that arise after these cookies are blocked by privacy protection methods. The research firstly determined the access to the user’s computer in both methods by measuring the files and trackers left on the computer by comparing the Chrome browser, which …

An Analysis Of Tiktok's Digital Marketing Capabilities And Its Effectiveness For Brands And Businesses Across Different Industries, Katherine Jacome Guerrero

Theses

TikTok, a video-sharing social media site, has become one of the most popular platforms among digital natives. As a result of evolving globalization trends and unprecedented social changes, this platform has rapidly grown in popularity since its debut in 2016. TikTok has established an ideal setting to boost engagement by fostering a repetitive logic and enabling everyone around the globe to easily create and consume short videos. Although TikTok has capabilities similar to those found on other more established platforms, it has a distinct framework and platform culture refined by its predictive algorithm and user-friendly content interface. For this study, …

Building An Immersive Simulation Of The 1785 Parisian Salon In Vr: A Guide To Recreating Historical Interiors And Digital Twins, Charles E. O'Brien

Theses

This project aims to identify a workflow for creating digital twins without access to specialized 3D imaging equipment, such as photogrammetry. The process of creating a digital twin without specialized equipment is focused more on research than data analysis. Readily available resources, such as literature, paintings, drawings, and any other historical accounts, need to be considered. The case study for this workflow was reconstructing the Parisian Salon from 1785. The Salons were a haven for men and women to have intellectual discourse. The essence of scholarly thought that was produced through these Salon exhibits makes them perfect historical event candidates …

High School Curriculum Outline And Unit Plan For Unit 3: Researching And Referencing For The Comparative Study, Kendra Bomar

Theses

Before beginning the International Baccalaureate Art program, most high school students will have already spent a significant amount of time studying a variety of art genres and will have a solid understanding of art terminology and methods. This is because the program is designed to build upon prior knowledge and experience. This is true for the majority of schools that participate in the IB program. It is common practice for educational institutions that provide tough programs to insist that students complete prerequisite coursework before they are allowed to enroll in the challenging programs that the institution provides. This is done …

Comparing Knowledge About Differential Diagnosis Of Childhood Apraxia Speech And Phonological Development Between Communication Disorders And Sciences Graduate Students, Bayley Eubanks

Theses

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OFBayley Eubanks, for the Master of Science degree in Communication Disorders and Sciences presented on March 30, 2023, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: COMPARING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF CHILDHOOD APRAXIA SPEECH AND PHONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT BETWEEN COMMUNICATION DISORDERS AND SCIENCES GRADUATE STUDENTSMAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Valerie Boyer The purpose of the study was to gather information from current graduate students by a brief in-service on the differential diagnosis of CAS and PD in speech-language pathology pre-professionals. The distinctions between CAS and other speech sound disorders, such as PD, must be made clear to pre-professional SLPs …

The Metaverse Adoption Rates & User Satisfaction, Shannon Ketura Kling

Theses

The Metaverse concept is inspired by the vision of a digital utopia where you can be and do anything and everything you want. The Metaverse is thought to provide access to all kinds of entertainment and projects through virtual spaces as a world completely free from human limitations. The Metaverse platform satisfies individuals who seek to escape reality through forms of addictive and appealing integrations solely available through virtual and digital media. Although primarily centered around social connectivity and entertainment through digital means, the Metaverse also offers an entirely new ecosystem for developers, ads, apps, and other new digital innovations. …

Building A New Bridge: Justin Favela's Puente Nuevo, Kelley Yost

Theses

This thesis analyzes an installation work, Puente Nuevo, created in 2019 by artist Justin Favela at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. In this large-scale, piñata-like mural, Favela asserts his Latinx identity while questioning cultural stereotypes and viewer expectations with a sense of humor and irony. The unique materiality of Favela’s work, based in the folk art forms of papel picado and cartonería, transforms spaces into immersive environments that are fun and provocative, and capable of housing darker associations as well. He builds layers of meaning into his pieces by revising historic works, such as picturesque landscapes by Casimiro …

Effects Of Matching Images Of Natural And Built Environments On Delay Discounting: A Systematic Replication Of Berry Et Al. (2014), Elizabeth Fillmore

Theses

Decision making is heavily influenced by the environment around us. Berry et al. (2014, 2015, 2019) showed that viewing images of natural environments during the delay discounting task resulted in lower impulsive choice, as compared to viewing images of built environments or geometric figures. Berry et al. proposed that attentional factors could explain this effect, however, recent attempts to reproduce Berry et al.’s findings in a different laboratory have been unsuccessful (Johnson 2017, 2018, 2019). The present study tested if manipulating the participants’ observing responses towards different types of images (natural, built, and no images) modulates the effect reported by …

Beyond The Page: Multimodal Lab-Based Research And Development In Creative Writing, Matthew Jacob Gordon

Theses

This collection acts as the supporting evidence of the hypothesis that, while acting as Graduate Director of SIU’s Digital Xpressions Lab, Matthew Gordon was able to successfully provide effective support for the digital expression of collaborator’s and client's domains of knowledge while forming innovative research partnerships with academics within the SIU system and beyond. A unique form for a MFA in Creative Writing’s thesis, this collection represents the multimodal creative work a contemporary narrative designer can undertake in a single academic year when given the ability to lead a facility like Southern Illinois University’s Digital Xpressions Lab. Qualitative evidence in …

Single-Mode Distributed-Feedback Lasing In Coupled Dissimilar Photonic Waveguides, Bryce A. Tennant

Theses

Distributed-feedback (DFB) lasers support a wide range of applications including fiber-optic and free-space optical communications, sensing and measurement, military warfare, and manufacturing and metrology. The desire for a reduction in size, weight, power, and cost (SWAP-C) for each of these applications continues to aggressively drive integrated- and silicon-photonic circuit development. Since DFB lasers based on uniform refractive-index diffraction gratings are naturally dual-mode, a variety of techniques have been introduced to impose single-mode operation, including the currently ubiquitous λ/4-grating phase-shift technique. This grating phase shift, however, creates an undesirable peaky-power profile within the laser cavity resulting in nonlinear behavior ultimately limiting …

College Students' Perceived Behavioral Expectancy Violations By Instructors In The Zoom Classroom, Kaleb Kronimus

Theses

As of the COVID-19 pandemic, video conferencing briefly usurped face-to-face as the primary medium of communication for education and professional settings. Even now in 2022 as the impact of the pandemic begins to be felt less, video conferencing remains an integrated part of educational settings, with Zoom being the most prominent video conferencing application in education. This study used expectancy violations theory to explore both the behavioral expectations students have of their instructors on Zoom, as well as what instructors themselves believe their students' expectations to be when on Zoom. This paper explores both the general expectations held by students, …

Hardware Accelerators And Their Use In Computer Vision, Cameron Villone

Theses

The evolution of technology is impressive. Before digital, there was analog; before software, there needed hardware. This evolution is natural as we try and optimize technology for our needs. The shift to digital was fueled by the space saved from using digital systems compared to analog. When it came to software, the ability to use generic hardware in the forms of cen- tral processing units; CPUs, Graphics Processing Units; GPUs, and Random Access Memory; RAM allowed for complex software solutions to be able to run on many different devices with- out much need for translations. With software development getting so …

Memory Protection With Cached Authentication Trees, Andy Belle-Isle

Theses

The use of embedded systems and the amount of data they process is rapidly growing in the modern information age. Given physical access to a device, an attacker can monitor the signals between the CPU and Memory to intercept, and possibly even inject new data into the system. A variety of attacks are possible including, replay, spoofing, and splicing attacks, each one threatening the safety of the system. Ensuring this data is intact is imperative, and as physical protection is difficult, data protection hardware is a must. Protecting memory was researched in the past, and there are several methods of …

A Bit-Exact Hierarchical Systemc Model Of Ppim For Verification And Performance Modeling, Dhana Lavanya Balasubramanian

Theses

The semiconductor industry has seen tremendous advancement lately and is expected to continue to grow since multiple industries like automobile, health care, meteorology, etc are developing dedicated chips with advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI). These improvements also come with increased complexities. Engineers now require advanced ways to model the designs in addition to existing Hardware Description Languages (HDLs) such as Very High-Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL) and Verilog. One such way to model the designs is by using SystemC, which is a library of C++ classes and macros that can be used similar to an HDL for modeling …

Hot Pot-Palatable Tour, Dian Jiao

Theses

Palatable Tour is an innovative project that aims to introduce Chinese culture to people through an interactive website that uses information design and motion graphics. The project utilizes visual communication and information visualization techniques to present cultural-related information in an engaging and easily understandable manner. The primary goal of the Palatable Tour is to increase cultural awareness by presenting the significance of Chinese culture through the exploration of ingredients in traditional hot pots. This project is unique in that it combines information design, illustration, 3d motion graphics, and interactivity to create an engaging and informative user experience. The website will …

Incorporating High Dynamic Range Into Multispectral Imaging For Cultural Heritage Documentation, Gabrielle Brogle

Theses

The dynamic range that can be captured using traditional image capture devices is limited. While an image sensor cannot capture the entire dynamic range that the human eye can see, imaging techniques have been developed to help accomplish this. High dynamic range imaging has been incorporated into digital photography pipelines to produce high-quality images with correctly exposed regions with varying illumination. The multiple exposures are fused together in post- processing. By capturing a broader dynamic range, the range of contrast captured is also increased, helping to improve color accuracy. Cultural heritage institutions face limitations when trying to capture color accurate …

Characterization Of Piezoelectric Coefficient Using Combined Optical And Electrical Methods, Limna Sainudeen Attoor

Theses

The characterization of piezoelectric coefficients, specifically, the extraction of D33 charge constant versus applied voltage profiles plays an important role in MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) design and actuation. MEMS structures widely use piezoelectric thin films due to their advantages of possessing high piezoelectric constants and lightweight properties. Hence there is a need for characterizing piezoelectric materials so that one can predict their response during different operating conditions. In this work, a combined electrical and light-based methodology to characterize the voltage dependency profile of d33 is developed. A set of equations are extracted based on the electrical capacitance and light …