Digital Commons Network^™

Design For Hiking Safety & Fun, Tianyou Wu

Theses

With the urbanization of the world's population, more and more people have begun to choose outdoor hiking to get close to nature and get exercise. But outdoor hiking can be dangerous, and lack of relevant knowledge not only makes hikers have a poor or stressful time, but it can also be fatal. Losing your way in the wilderness encountering wild beasts, an unfamiliar poisonous plant, lack of physical strength, extreme weather, and other accidents will put many travelers into crisis every year. A safe and comfortable outdoor travel experience could not only increase the safety and fun of travel but …

Learning With Limited Labeled Data In Biomedical Domain By Disentanglement And Semi-Supervised Learning, Prashnna Kumar Gyawali

Theses

In this dissertation, we are interested in improving the generalization of deep neural networks for biomedical data (e.g., electrocardiogram signal, x-ray images, etc). Although deep neural networks have attained state-of-the-art performance and, thus, deployment across a variety of domains, similar performance in the clinical setting remains challenging due to its ineptness to generalize across unseen data (e.g., new patient cohort).

We address this challenge of generalization in the deep neural network from two perspectives: 1) learning disentangled representations from the deep network, and 2) developing efficient semi-supervised learning (SSL) algorithms using the deep network.

In the former, we are interested …

High Dynamic Range (Hdr) Display Perception, Fu Jiang

Theses

Displays have undergone a huge development in the last several decades. From cathode-ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal display (LCD), to organic light-emitting diode (OLED), even Q-OLED, the new configurations of the display bring more and more functions into industry and daily life. In the recent several years, high dynamic range (HDR) displays become popular. HDR displays usually refer to that the black level of the display is darker and the peak being brighter compared with the standard dynamic range (SDR) display. Traditionally, the peak luminance level can be used as the "white" in characterization and calibration. However, for HDR displays, …

Beginning Band: Cognitive Development Based Instruction, Kayla Price

Theses

This project focuses on how to facilitate a more efficient beginning band experience for students based on the average state of cognitive development for their age group. The primary focus is presenting an alternative to immediately starting students in a traditional band method book when they first begin band classes. The aim of the project is to study the cognitive development of the average sixth grader to best determine what instructional approach would best suit their processing abilities before introducing the band method book. Furthermore, the study exposes the fallacies of the traditional band method book system and suggests and …

Guavanet: A Deep Neural Network Architecture For Automatic Sensory Evaluation To Predict Degree Of Acceptability For Guava By A Consumer, Vipul Mehra

Theses

This thesis is divided into two parts:Part I: Analysis of Fruits, Vegetables, Cheese and Fish based on Image Processing using Computer Vision and Deep Learning: A Review. It consists of a comprehensive review of image processing, computer vision and deep learning techniques applied to carry out analysis of fruits, vegetables, cheese and fish.This part also serves as a literature review for Part II.Part II: GuavaNet: A deep neural network architecture for automatic sensory evaluation to predict degree of acceptability for Guava by a consumer. This part introduces to an end-to-end deep neural network architecture that can predict the degree of …

The Impact Of Guided Reading On Kg1 Students’ Reading Performance, Nasibah Abdulrahman Alyousef

Theses

This thesis is concerned with finding the impact of applying guided reading activities on Kindergarten 1 (KG1) students’ reading performance. The current study focuses on two reading skills which are word recognition and reading comprehension. The main objective of this thesis is to examine how guided reading can affect KG1 learners’ reading performance. The research included 50 KG1 students as participants of the study. A quantitative research method was used. The data was collected via the use of pre-post test research instruments. The study found that guided reading has a positive impact on KG1 learners’ reading performance. The research results …

Generation, Verification, And Attacks On Elliptic Curves And Their Applications In Signal Protocol, Tanay Pramod Dusane

Theses

Elliptic curves (EC) are widely studied due to their mathematical and cryptographic properties. Cryptographers have used the properties of EC to construct elliptic curve cryptosystems (ECC). ECC are based on the assumption of hardness of special instances of the discrete logarithm problem in EC. One of the strong merits of ECC is providing the same cryptographic strength with smaller key size compared to other public key cryptosystems. A 256 bit ECC can provide similar cryptographic strength as a 3072 bit RSA cryptosystem. Due to smaller key sizes, elliptic curves are an attractive option in devices with limited storage capacity. It …

Otolith Microchemistry Reveals Low Habitat Connectivity Of California Killifish (Fundulus Parvipinnis) Across A Range Of Spatial Scales, Lisa Robison

Theses

As wetlands face continued fragmentation worldwide, an understanding of habitat connectivity and how fishes that rely on these environments is imperative to conduct effective marine management. Site fidelity and habitat connectivity are vital measures of the interdependence of fish populations living in neighboring marshes (or in regions of a single marsh).

Here, we examine the habitat connectivity, site fidelity, and movement of California killifish (Fundulus parvipinnis) within and among three estuaries in Southern California through otolith microelemental analysis. Assessing the site fidelity of estuarine fishes is important to determine the level of connectivity between spatially distinct populations within …

Developing A Method To Track Marine Snow Aggregation Through Individual Collisions Using Stereoscopic Imaging, Riley Henning

Theses

The aggregation of individual phytoplankton into marine snow allows particles to sink more quickly, thus resulting in the transport of particulate organic carbon from surface waters to the deep ocean. Aggregate formation has previously been measured in experiments indirectly by quantifying how particle size or particle concentration changes over time. Here, I present my thesis in which I applied high-resolution imaging to quantify aggregate formation using two different methodologies.

We conducted experiments to investigate aggregate formation using stereoscopic imaging, tracking individual particles directly in a 3D volume. Phytoplankton cultures were rolled in cylindrical tanks and imaged by two cameras illuminated …

Towards Robust Gaze Estimation And Classification In Naturalistic Conditions, Rakshit S. Kothari

Theses

Eye movements help us identify when and where we are fixating. The location under fixation is a valuable source of information in decoding a person’s intent or as an input modality for human-computer interaction. However, it can be difficult to maintain fixation under motion unless our eyes compensate for body movement. Humans have evolved compensatory mechanisms using the vestibulo-ocular reflex pathway which ensures stable fixation under motion. The interaction between the vestibular and ocular system has primarily been studied in controlled environments, with comparatively few studies during natural tasks that involve coordinated head and eye movements under unrestrained body motion. …

Analysis Of Nucleosomal Dna Patterns Around Transcription Factor Binding Sites, Sheethal Umesh Nagalakshmi

Theses

Nucleosomes are ~147bp DNA wrapped around the histone octamer which are involved in regulating gene transcription. They have the ability to disassemble depending on the process they are involved in and the nucleosome positioning controls the output of the genome. Therefore, it is important to understand the nucleosome positioning and how its positioning affects the binding of transcription factors (TFs) and gene expression thereby regulating the transcription outcome of the genome. Many studies suggest that TFs and nucleosomes compete with each other for genome accessibility. However, the majority of the studies focus on the nucleosome organization rather than underlying DNA …

Artisanal Mining Impacts In Urbanized Semi-Arid Environments: Lessons From Historic Arsenic Mining Near San Diego, California, James A. Wright

Theses

Anomalously elevated arsenic concentrations occur at an abandoned artisanal mine site in an open space recreational park in urban San Diego County, California. Although mining at the site ceased 100 years ago little to no remediation efforts took place leaving shafts, adits, waste piles and derelict infrastructure accessible by inquisitive hikers and adventurers frequenting Black Mountain Open Space Park. This study evaluates the geochemical mechanisms of As transport downgradient from the mine and examines the contribution of both climate and urbanization on the restriction of As mobility. Sediment As concentrations reach 2,320 mg/kg (483 times background crustal concentrations; n=73) along …

Adaptive Uplink Data Rate Prediction And Networkselection In A Vehicular Mobile Channel, Georgi Nikolov

Theses

The rapid acceleration into the digital age brings a worldwide interconnectedness of an unprecedented level. This interconnectedness transforms the modern transportation network by linking its infrastructure components (e.g., signaling systems, traffic control systems, maintenance systems) together. Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) can utilize this newly emerged network infrastructure, improving traffic safety, traffic control, and reducing transportation-related environmental impacts, changing the way drivers, businesses and governments deal with road transport. It is expected that in the near future self-aware vehicles (e.g., trains, cars or trucks) will constitute the majority of the transportation infrastructure. Vehicles need to be able to reliably communicate critical …

Machine Learning Classification Of Inundation Following Hurricane Florence (2018) Via L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar And Ancillary Datasets, Alexander Melancon

Theses

During and after flooding events, mapping the extent of floodwaters aids in the distribution of resources, recovery efforts, and damage assessment practices. Development of a land cover classification system focused on mapping inundation after major hurricane events using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data could allow for the production of near-real-time inundation mapping, enabling government and emergency response entities to get a preliminary idea of a developing situation. In response to Hurricane Florence of 2018, NASA JPL collected numerous swaths of quad-pol L-band SAR data with the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) instrument observing the record-setting river stages across …

Is There A Catholic Theology Of Masculinity?, Peter Holmes

Theses

In recent times Catholic theologians have begun to speak of a ‘feminine genius’. Yet relatively little attention given to the unique and positive contribution of masculinity and manhood to relationships, the Church and society. This thesis aims to answer the question, “Is there a corresponding ‘masculine genius?” It attempts to synthesise a specifically Catholic understanding of masculinity from the magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church, to determine a basis for development of the Catholic understanding of masculinity and to propose some lines of development for Catholic theology in this area.

Chapter One will establish the need for and purpose of …

Self-Defence In New South Wales In Its Historical Context: A Simpler Test?, Mamdouh Elmaraazey

Theses

The right to use force in self-defence is recognised by law. The idea of self-defence in criminal law history can be traced back to medieval England’s daily life and ‘the peace’ that the king was trying to establish as his contribution to the good of English society as a whole. The Crown enacted several statutes during the medieval period to ensure that those responsible for homicides were convicted, but would occasionally pardon offenders when the jury qualified their guilty decisions with self-defence explanations. But because the king did not always grant a pardon, juries developed a reputation for handing down …

Osseointegration For Amputees: Past, Present And Future: Basic Science, Innovations In Surgical Technique, Implant Design And Rehabilitation Strategies, Munjed Al Muderis

Theses

Loss of a leg or arm is a tremendous disability. Immediate and obvious impairments are decreased mobility or diminished functional capacity. Not quite as obvious are the difficulties associated with activities of daily living, quality of life impairments, sometimes loss of independence or employment, and the mental health issues which often accompany limb loss. The interface between native tissue and the prosthetic limb presents the greatest challenge to amputee rehabilitation. Computer-controlled robotic limbs have been widely available since the 1990s. However, the weight of prosthetic limbs, coupled with the difficulty of where to locate the components, requires substantial loads to …

Comparison Of The Effects Of Land Use / Land Cover On Water Quality And The Intertidal Marine Macroalgae Communities At The Fluvial Outflows Of The Dingle Peninsula, Cassandra Lew

Theses

The Milltown, Feohanagh, and Owenmore river basins located on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland were studied to see how variation in land use and land cover (LU/LC) affected water quality and the macroalgal communities at each river’s respective fluvial outflow. Abundance and composition of macroalgae in river and coastal water bodies have been designated as an indicator of water quality according to the Water Framework Directive 2000. The results of this study found that the Feohanagh’s macroalgal community had the highest species richness for most months while the Milltown had the highest Shannon Diversity Index. The Owenmore’s community was consistently …

Villains To Heroes: Celebrity Criminals In 1960'S Britain And Their Subsequent Rise In Popularity, Richard Nixon

Theses

This thesis sits at the intersection of history, media and cultural studies, and will undertake a study into the emergence of criminal celebrities in Britain in the 1960s and their subsequent rise in popularity. It will seek to explain the reasons for and cultural impact of this emergence and rise against an ever-changing social, cultural, political and media landscape, including changes in social and cultural attitudes. In doing so, the study will seek to establish the extent to which criminal celebrities are a product of their time.

The thesis will essentially comprise two main strands with reference to criminal celebrities, …

Procedural Fairness Requirements In Decision-Making: Legal Issues And Challenges For Government Secondary School Principals In New South Wales, Tryon Francis

Theses

The application of the rules of procedural fairness, which is an element of administrative law, is an area of law that has not been previously examined in the context of government (public) secondary school principals in New South Wales (‘NSW’). Using a basic qualitative case study design, this study sought to discover the processes that these principals undertook in applying the rules of procedural fairness when managing student discipline, special education and industrial relations. The study examined to what extent New South Wales government (public) secondary school principals were equipped to make decisions that are consistent with the administrative law …

Towards Effective Detection Of Botnet Attacks Using Bot-Iot Dataset, Subiksha Srinivasa Gopalan

Theses

In the world of cybersecurity, intrusion detection systems (IDS) have leveraged the power of artificial intelligence for the efficient detection of attacks. This is done by applying supervised machine learning (ML) techniques on labeled datasets. A growing body of literature has been devoted to the use of BoT-IoT dataset for IDS based ML frameworks. A few number of related works have recognized the need for a balanced dataset and applied techniques to alleviate the issue of imbalance. However, a significant amount of related research works failed to treat the imbalance in the BoT-IoT dataset. A lack of unanimity was observed …

Towards Effective Wireless Intrusion Detection Using Awid Dataset, Dino Linekar Robert Wilson

Theses

In the field of network security, intrusion detection system plays a vital role in the procedure of applying machine learning (ML) techniques with the dataset. This study is an IDS related in machine, developed the literature by utilizing AWID dataset. There tends to be a need in balancing a dataset and its existing approaches from the analysis of its respective works. A taxonomy of balancing technique was introduced due to the lack of treatment of imbalance. This attempt has provided a proper structure defined on all levels and a hierarchical group was formed with the collected papers. This describes a …

Towards Enhancement Of Machine Learning Techniques Using Cse-Cic-Ids2018 Cybersecurity Dataset, Dharshini Ravikumar

Theses

In machine learning, balanced datasets play a crucial role in the bias observed towards classification and prediction. The CSE-CIC IDS datasets published in 2017 and 2018 have both attracted considerable scholarly attention towards research in intrusion detection systems. Recent work published using this dataset indicates little attention paid to the imbalance of the dataset. The study presented in this paper sets out to explore the degree to which imbalance has been treated and provide a taxonomy of the machine learning approaches developed using these datasets. A survey of published works related to these datasets was done to deliver a combined …

Model Extraction And Adversarial Attacks On Neural Networks Using Side-Channel Information, Tommy Li

Theses

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have gained significant popularity in the last decade for solving narrow AI problems in domains such as healthcare, transportation, and defense. As ANNs become more ubiquitous, it is imperative to understand their associated safety, security, and privacy vulnerabilities. Recently, it has been shown that ANNs are susceptible to a number of adversarial evasion attacks - inputs that cause the ANN to make high-confidence misclassifications despite being almost indistinguishable from the data used to train and test the network. This thesis explores to what degree finding these examples may be aided by using side-channel information, specifically power …

Ergonomic Assessment Of A New Back Table For Perioperative Nurses, Ketan Prakash Thakur

Theses

Perioperative nurses use back tables (BT) to set up instruments for surgeries consisting of a single surface requiring repetitive lifting due to the stacked trays of surgery tools. Since such actions lead to increased physical (heavyweight of trays) and cognitive (reduced visibility and increased access time) demand, the new DinamicOR table (DT) has been developed. DT has the height adjustment capability and can add up to two shelves providing an extra working area for nurses. We evaluated DT vs. BT by conducting a laboratory experiment involving 16 participants, estimating the kinematics, kinetics, and collecting their subjective feedback, NASA task load …

The Influence Of Oxygen Partial Pressure On The Properties Of Evaporated Alumina Thin Film, Tsion Teklemarim

Theses

Alumina (Al2O3) thin films are used in anti-reflection and high reflection mirror coatings from deep UV to near infrared. The optical, mechanical, and structural properties of films are dependent on the deposition technique and the desired film performance can be achieved by manipulating the deposition parameters. Such deposition parameters are substrate temperature, deposition rate, and oxygen partial pressure. For laser mirror performance applications, it is desirable to optimize the films with regards to laser damage threshold and film stress. To these ends, this thesis work studies Al2O3 thin films synthesized with electron beam evaporation technique as a function of oxygen …

An Exploration Of Experiential Marketing In The Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Industry: Development Of The Experiential Marketing Implementation Model And The Return On Integrated Experience Formula, Holly Anne Barry

Theses

The nature of brand-customer relationships has long been the focus of marketers’ attentions, however, the competitive environment of the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods industry in the modern era, has significantly elevated the importance of that relationship in the literature. This is primarily due to the evolution of consumers’ needs and wants and their growing expectation of brands playing a key role in their daily lives. As a result, brands face the challenge of trying to communicate with their target audience through a multitude of marketing communications tools that both engages and excites them, while at the same time building effective memory …

Optimisation Of Grass Measurement Technologies Through Field Experimentation And Numerical Simulation Methods, Darren Joseph Murphy

Theses

Maximising pasture utilisation through optimal grassland management is vital in terms of ensuring the economic sustainability and mitigating the environmental impact of both Irish and global pasture-based livestock production. Frequent and accurate measurement of grass quantity and quality is one of the main methods of maximising grass production and utilisation on pasture-based farms. The most prominent grass measurement tool used on Irish pasture is the rising plate meter (RPM), however, there are a range of issues with this method including operator bias, precision and difficulties in accounting for spatial variation. Currently, there is no definitive protocol for grass measurement which …

Neurovascular Catheter Measurement System Development For Process And Design Effect Evaluation, Cathal Tadhg Merz

Theses

Neurovascular guide catheters are used to treat problems affecting blood vessels within the brain through minimally invasive procedures. Catheters are inserted into the patient via their femoral or brachial arteries and manually navigated to the brain to deliver treatment. This procedure replaces the requirement to cut into the patient’s skull and brain tissue but is limited by reduction of blood vessel lumen diameter and increase in tortuosity of blood vessels deep in the brain. During these procedures, catheters can sometimes fail by kinking or fracturing into two pieces. The rate of failure by fracture of a particular neurovascular catheter device …

Photoluminescence Properties Of Novel Iii-V Semiconductor Systems, Shumithira Gandan

Theses

Perturbation of the inherent radiation equilibrium in solids by an external energy could engender an emission of the superfluous energy as electromagnetic radiation, or luminescence. Photoluminescence methods precipitate this disintegration of radiation equilibrium often by supplying the external energy as photons with energies higher than the bandgap energy of the solid. Since the excitation energy momentarily transforms the medium before luminescence is emitted, photoluminescence experiments are able to produce diverse and intricate spectroscopic data detailing the optical properties of the solid as a measure of this transformation. The pliability of allowed electron states in semiconductors have instigated bourgeoning research in …