Digital Commons Network^™

Everything That Glitters, Zichen Liang

Theses

This paper discusses the preparation and creative process of my thesis feature screenplay Everything That Glitters, including the inspiration, proposal, re-proposal, shooting, and revising of the script. It also documents the background story from aspects of Chinese culture and tradition. The script revolves around a young Chinese woman’s journey to America. Unable to accept the marriage her parents have arranged for her, she comes to the United States as an international student to live her life on her own terms. It doesn’t work out well. This story is largely based on my own life experiences, except the part about the …

The Effects Of A Value-Affirmation Writing Exercise On Stress And Craving For Nicotine In Electronic Nicotine Delivery System Users, Justin Bell

Theses

Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) have become an increasingly popular choice to ingest nicotine, especially among adolescents. It is assumed that with a rise of ENDS usage, more people will be looking for strategies to help quit the devices. As previous research has revealed the efficacy of stress reduction interventions to aid in the cessation of nicotine, a stress reducing writing intervention based in self-affirmation, value affirmation, was evaluated for its ability to reduce anxiety and craving for nicotine in individuals using ENDS. Nicotine dependent participants (N = 92) using ENDS were randomly assigned to complete either a value affirmation …

Robust Multiple Object Tracking Using Reid Features And Graph Convolutional Networks, Christian Lusardi

Theses

Deep Learning allows for great advancements in computer vision research and development. An area that is garnering attention is single object tracking and multi-object tracking. Object tracking continues to progress vastly in terms of detection and building re-identification features, but more effort needs to be dedicated to data association. In this thesis, the goal is to use a graph neural network to combine the information from both the bounding box interaction as well as the appearance feature information in a single association chain. This work is designed to explore the usage of graph neural networks and their message passing abilities …

The Racked System: A Historically Based Interactive Roleplaying Experience, Will Truran

Theses

“History repeats itself” is a saying we are all too familiar with, but why is that true? As we look at our modern society we can see that pain persists and hate crimes are on the rise, particularly those of antisemitism and those holding anti-Asian ideologies. The Racked System aims to address this by introducing a new method of learning about our past so that we can apply its lessons to our future. Classroom settings require students to memorize dates and data that often capture hard to comprehend facts, like that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. It …

Human Augmentation: A System Engineering Conceptual Framework, Hazel Colleen R. Gamboa

Theses

In today’s literature, there is not one clear definition for ‘Human Augmentation’ and quite often, it is used interchangeably with the term ‘Human Enhancement’. Human enhancement is a field that has relatively more research and has a broader definition that encompasses both invasive and non-invasive procedures aimed at restoring or enhancing the capabilities of the human body. Medicine, implants, genetic engineering – there are some examples of procedures attributed to human enhancement. On the other hand, the word ‘augment’ is defined as the addition or making something better; this research will focus and narrow down the definition of Human Augmentation …

Streaming Down The Stern-Brocot Tree: Finding And Expressing Solutions To Pell's Equation In Sl(2,Z), Marcus L. Shell

Theses

This paper explores and elaborates on a method of solving Pell’s equation as introduced by Norman Wildberger. In the first chapters of the paper, foundational topics are introduced in expository style including an explanation of Pell’s equation. An explanation of continued fractions and their ability to express quadratic irrationals is provided as well as a connection to the Stern-Brocot tree and a convenient means of representation for each in terms of 2×2 matrices with integer elements. This representation will provide a useful way of navigating the Stern-Brocot tree computationally and permit us a means of computing continued fractions without the …

Secretepeppr: Computational Prediction And Characterization Of Effector-Like Proteins Secreted From Vitis Vinifera, Patrick Rynkiewicz

Theses

Plant pathology research has long placed a focus on pathogen-derived effector proteins: small, secreted proteins translocated into host cells where they subvert host basal immunity and promote infection. Recent studies suggest that some plant species secrete similar effector-like proteins during mutualistic plant-fungal interactions and affect fungal growth. In this project, a computational tool named SecretePEPPr (Secreted Plant Effector-like Protein Predictor) was written, evaluated, and tested for the purpose of predicting candidate plant effector-like proteins from a set of whole genome annotations. Among other factors, this prediction tool considered classical and non-classical secretion, protein size, and the prevalence and presence of …

Augmented Reality Application ‘Finder’, Yiran Li

Theses

Children are always curious and excited about the world, but there are often accidents around them. According to some previous studies, each year in the United States, more than 2,200 children – or six kids a day – die from an injury at home. To deal with this situation, parents usually set simple life safety rules for their children and be consistent about enforcing them in a reasonable manner. At the same time, they try to reduce the possibility of psychological harm to children when correcting errors. As a result, parents desperately need a way to watch and improve their …

Translating Macroscale Concepts To Microfluidic Devices, Nicole Hill

Theses

Electrokinetics represents an extremely versatile family of techniques that can be used to manipulate particles and fluid in microfluidic devices. This dissertation focused on taking techniques commonly used on a macroscale and developing microscale equivalents utilizing electrokinetics to effectively manipulate and separate microparticles. This analysis focuses on chromatography and separation trains as macroscale techniques translated to microfluidic insulator-based electrokinetic devices. The geometries of insulating post arrays embedded in microchannels were optimized using a combination of mathematical simulations and experimentally derived correction factors. Two particle separations were experimentally demonstrated: a separation based on differences in particle size and a separation based …

Complexion, Jordan Funk

Theses

Polaroids are made up of several microscopic layers that come together to form an image. Complexion investigates the ties between this structure and the way that our skin functions. Being diagnosed with eczema as an infant, I have always been hyper-aware of how my emotional stress aggravates my eczema. Complexion depicts how my emotional state alters my skin and warps my experience of reality. Similarly, my imagery undergoes a metamorphosis and influences the chemical changes I create within the Polaroid’s white border. I scan at a high resolution, crop, and reprint the Polaroids at a larger scale. The high-quality scanning …

Quantifying The Risk Of Hospital Readmissions: A Data Analysis And Predictive Modeling Approach, Jigar Adhiya

Theses

Despite several improvements in various domains of healthcare systems, the inability to reduce patients’ readmission rates is still a major problem faced by healthcare providers. It is extremely important to reduce the probability of readmissions because these not only increase the burden of healthcare costs on the patient but also expose them to prolonged psychological stress (e.g., trauma, pain, and discomfort due to altered physical functions) and healthcare-associated infections. Readmissions basically lead to the use of healthcare resources by the same person twice instead of being utilized by another patient. Furthermore, the readmission rate is used as a potential measure …

Volume-Based Estimates Of Left Ventricular Blood Pool Volume And Ejection Fraction From Multi-Plane 2d Ultrasound Images, Dawei Liu

Theses

Accurate estimations of left ventricular (LV) blood pool volume and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) are crucial for the clinical diagnosis of cardiac disease, patient management, or other therapeutic treatment decisions, especially given a patient’s LVEF often affects his or her candidacy for cardiovascular intervention. Ultrasound (US) imaging is the most common and least expensive imaging modalities used to non-invasively image the heart to estimate the LV blood pool volume and assess LVEF. Despite advances in 3D US imaging, 2D US images are routinely used by cardiologists to image the heart and their interpretation is inherently based on the 2D …

A Comparison Of Quantum Algorithms For The Maximum Clique Problem, Andrew R. Haverly

Theses

Two of the most promising computational models for quantum computing are the qubit-based model and the continuous variable model, which result in two different computational approaches, namely the qubit gate model and boson sampling. The qubit gate model is a universal form of quantum computation that relies heavily on the principles of superposition and entanglement to solve problems using qubits based on technologies ranging from magnetic fields created from superconducting materials to the spins of valence electrons in atoms. Boson sampling is a non-universal form of quantum computation that uses bosons as continuous-variable values for its computation. Both models show …

Predicting The Required Demand Flow To A Customer, Thani Almansoori

Theses

Yearly District Cooling Company (DCC) needs to upgrade the plants to meet customer requirements. Moreover, this project will help the company to find when the demand load of flow will reach above the plant's installed capacity and how much increase is expected. So, the dataset was provided by the company for previous years. By applying ML and Arima, KNN, and SVM algorithms, it was found that the best result was the KNN algorithm with an accuracy of 94%, and the maximum flow load will be reached in summer of upcoming years. Hence, the company needs to take further action to …

The “New Normal”: A Virtual Insight From Industry Professionals On Pivoting Within The Digital Ecosystem During A Global Pandemic., Delina Corcione

Theses

This project is over industry professionals within a relative field of Digital Content Strategy, and their professional experiences as it relates to the global pandemic that hit the United States in 2020. This virus (COVID-19) has boosted us into a predominantly digital world, with little analysis on how society is to handle or adapt. The final deliverable is short documentary offering insight on industry professionals within the field of study. The “New Normal” takes a unique approach on analyzing the state of the field as it relates to the pandemic, focusing on the personal experiences these industry professionals went through …

Mindful Consumption, Hind Ali Almualla

Theses

This study explores the impact of human behaviour on spaceship earth. It also explores the possibilities systems thinking offers to address complex problems such as climate change by influencing human behaviour. This study hypothesizes that the level of information the consumer knows about the ecological footprint of a product has an impact on his purchasing decisions in favour of the environment. The hypothesis was tested by running an experiment on an online shopping experience. Fourteen respondents completed the two phases of the experiment and answered two questionnaires. They were followed by 4 in-depth interviews. The analysis measured if there is …

Edible Negros, Unique Fair-Smith

Theses

Edible Negros is an exploration of western consumerism and its impact on African-Americans. The thesis grapples with the oppression African-Americans have systematically experienced within capitalist and consumerist society and our collective struggles toward liberation.

This analysis goes further to study the western world's consumption of the black body, how African-Americans have been abused as a commodity; and as an overall examination of the western world's dependence on both the metaphorical and literal consumption of our bodies through labor exploitation, physical mutilation, and cannibalism.

Furthermore, the investigation encompasses how the perception and value of African-American lives has transitioned. This includes a …

Architectural Style: Distortions For Deploying And Managing Deception Technologies In Software Systems, Elijah Cantella

Theses

Deception technologies are software tools that simulate/dissimulate information as security measures in software systems. Such tools can help prevent, detect, and correct security threats in the systems they are integrated with. Despite the continued existence and use of these technologies (~20+ years) the process for integrating them into software systems remains undocumented. This is due to deception technologies varying greatly from one another in a number of different ways. To begin the process of documentation, I have proposed an architectural style that describes one possible way deception technologies may be integrated into software systems.

To develop this architectural style, I …

The Application Of Echo State Networks To Atypical Speech Recognition, Daniel W. Adams

Theses

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) techniques have improved extensively over the past few years with the rise of new deep learning architectures. Recent sequence-to-sequence models have been shown to have high accuracy by utilizing the attention mechanism, which evaluates and learns the magnitude of element relationships in sequences. Despite being highly accurate, commercial ASR models have a weakness when it comes to accessibility. Current commercial deep learning ASR models find difficulty evaluating and transcribing speech for individuals with unique vocal features, such as those with dysarthria, heavy accents, as well as deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.

Current methodologies for processing vocal data …

Medical Grade Displays In Radiation Oncology, Adi Robinson

Theses

In modern day medicine medical images are an integral part of clinical care. They are used in almost every clinical department from diagnosis to treatment and beyond. Medical images are viewed using electronic displays of various sizes, shapes, hardware, and software. Some clinical departments, like diagnostic radiology, require electronic displays with a large dynamic range, high contrast and high resolution. Other departments do not have any requirements and will use any commercially available display in their clinical workflow.

Viewing the same medical image on different electronic displays with different hardware, software or calibration setup could influence how observers perceive and …

Spatial Vs. Graph-Based Formula Retrieval, Robin Avenoso

Theses

Recently math formula search engines have become a useful tool for novice users learning a new topic. While systems exist already with the ability to do formula retrieval, they rely on prefix matching and typed query entries. This can be an obstacle for novice users who are not proficient with languages used to express formulas such as LaTeX, or do not remember the left end of a formula, or wish to match formulas at multiple locations (e.g., using `$\int \quad\quad dx$' as a query). We generalize a one dimensional spatial encoding for word spotting in handwritten document images, the Pyramidal …

Matching As Color Imaging: Thermal Feature Detection, Bhavesh Deshpande

Theses

Feature detection and extraction is considered to be one of the most important aspects when it comes to any computer vision application, especially the autonomous driving field that is highly dependent on it. Thermal imaging is less explored in the field of autonomous driving mainly due to the high cost of the cameras and inferior techniques available for detection. Due to advances in technology the former is not a major limitation and there lies tremendous scope for improvement in the latter. Autonomous driving relies heavily on multiple and sometimes redundant sensors, for which thermal sensors are a preferred addition. Thermal …

Coarse-Grained Model Of Dielectric Geometry-Modified Screened Electrostatic Protein-Protein Interactions, Joshua H. Dickie

Theses

To refine a coarse-grained model of protein interactions, we seek to conveniently represent how dielectric interface geometry and charge placement affect screened aqueous electrostatic interactions. We study two neighboring low dielectric spheres with near-surface charges, for which we solve the linearized Poisson-Boltzmann equation as a function of sphere-sphere separation. The spheres have ~15Å diameters and internal static dielectric coefficients of 3. The solvent’s Debye length is 6Å. These parameters are consistent with our charge-regulation model of bovine γB-Crystallin and with a wealth of previous experimental data for solutions of this protein. For a fixed on- or off-axis charge in the …

A Bibliometric Analysis Of The Eclipse Narrative In American Philosophy, Noah W. Collins

Theses

Philosophical pragmatism originated in the United States in the late 19th century. Some historians of philosophy have described the history of American pragmatism in terms of an “eclipse narrative”: dominant in the early 20th century, followed by a mid-century decline and, eventually, a late-century resurgence. Defenders of this narrative often point to the influx of European philosophers around WWII, and the rise of “analytic” philosophy, as the main reasons for pragmatism’s initial eclipse. While the eclipse narrative is common in the philosophical literature, it is not without controversy. Unfortunately, the contemporary debate tends to rely on anecdotal evidence and contested …

A Type Of Preservation: Modern Recreations Of Typeface At Genesee Country Village & Museum And The Cary Graphics Art Collection, Koda Drake

Theses

Historical objects that serve educational and interpretive purposes face frequent use and can easily be damaged, particularly when those objects are designed to be disposed of following high usage. Conserving these artifacts through both digital and physical reproductions enables museum staff, scholars, and the general public to tell a more complete history of the objects and of material culture. To demonstrate the necessity of preserving functional artifacts, this thesis examined historic wooden typefaces used for document printing to answer the following question: do digital and physical reproductions of wood type fonts allow for preservation of the original fonts while maintaining …

Flexible Memory Protection With Dynamic Authentication Trees, Matthew T. Millar

Theses

As computing appliances increase in use and handle more critical information and functionalities, the importance of security grows even greater. In cases where the device processes sensitive data or performs important functionality, an attacker may be able to read or manipulate it by accessing the data bus between the processor and memory itself. As it is impossible to provide physical protection to the piece of hardware in use, it is important to provide protection against revealing confidential information and securing the device's intended operation. Defense against bus attacks such as spoofing, splicing, and replay attacks are of particular concern. Traditional …

Dc Microgrid Modeling And Control In Islanded Mode, Zeina Bahij

Theses

Microgrid is new emerging power distribution infrastructures, in smart grid architectures that has the potential to solve major problems arising from distributed generation. Microgrid is defined as the cluster of multiple distributed generators (DGs) that supply electrical energy to consumers with lower power loss. The realization of demand response, efficient energy management, high capability of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), and high-reliability of electricity delivery leads to a successful Microgrid. In this thesis, DC Microgrid in islanded mode was modelled and controlled and its performance is tested for 24 hours period. The different distributed energy generation systems used are photovoltaic (PV) …

Dubai Real Estate Investment: A Predictive And Time Series Analysis, Nikhil Krishna

Theses

The capstone aims to provide real estate investors suitable portfolios for investment in Dubai, considering maximum return on investment as per their investment goals. CRISP-DM methodology was used as it is a structured approach for planning a data mining project. The datasets from Dubai Land Department, RERA and Property Finder was used to conduct Exploratory Analysis, Predictive Analysis using Linear Regression, Random Forest Regression, Decision Tree Regression, Gradient Boost Regression and Time Series analysis using Exponential Smoothing, Holt forecasting, Holt Winter Method, ARIMA and SARIMA. To facilitate investors in easily searching for suitable portfolio to invest in based on their …

The Cosmic Infrared Background Experiments: Probing Large-Scale Structure Formation Using Near-Infrared Sounding Rocket Payloads, Chi Hanh Nguyen

Theses

The ensemble emission from all sources outside of the Milky Way is known as the extragalactic background light (EBL). At optical and near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths, the EBL is primarily stellar emission tracing back to the Epoch of Reionization (EOR) at redshifts z > 6 when the first luminous structures formed. Given the large uncertainties in our understanding of the EOR, measurements of the EBL provide an important probe of the galaxies that were responsible for reionization. Direct observations of the EBL are challenging due to contamination from bright local foregrounds. In recent years, intensity mapping has emerged as a successful technique …

Technique To Reduce The Robbing Crime Rate In Dubai During The Event Of Expo 2020 By Analyzing Relevant Data., Abdulla Ahmed Kankzar

Theses

Dubai’s crime rate appears to be significantly lower. However, do not let this lull you into a false sense of security. Most of the crime occurs in areas populated primarily by lower-income, temporary laborers originating from other countries. Most crimes attributed to this group consist of petty theft, public offenses (e.g., fighting, public intoxication, and property damage), sexual harassment, and rare incidents of violent assault. Using advanced techniques to classify which category the crime belongs to; it will help the concerned authorities to tackle the major crime happening in the City and helpful to find out rare crimes in the …