Digital Commons Network^™

Analyzing The Streamflow For Future Flooding And Risk Assessment Under Cmip6 Climate Projection, Indira Pokhrel

Theses

Hydrological extremes associated with climate change are becoming an increasing concern all over the world. Frequent flooding, one of the extremes, needs to be analyzed while considering climate change to mitigate flood risk. This study forecasted streamflow and evaluated the risk of flooding in the Neuse River, North Carolina considering future climatic scenarios, and comparing them with an existing Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood insurance study (FIS) report. The cumulative distribution function transformation (CDF-t) method was adopted for bias correction to reduce the uncertainty present in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) streamflow data. To calculate 100-year …

The Effect Of Nutritional Programming On Gut Microbiota In Broodstock And Progeny Fish, Samuel Patula

Theses

Aquaculture is currently the fastest growing animal production sector. Because the aquaculture sector is growing at rapid rates, certain materials for feed, specifically marine protein sources, are becoming increasingly expensive and unsustainable. To counteract the reliance on fishmeal (FM) and other marine protein sources in the industry plant protein (PP), specifically soybean meal (SBM), has been investigated to replace FM as a protein source. Unfortunately, SBM when given in high quantities (greater than 30%) has been shown to negatively affect fish performance including retarded growth, intestinal inflammation, reduction of spawn quality, as well as dysbiosis in the gut microbiome, most …

Starting Off Right: A Beginning Band Curriculum Guide, Emily Fiasco

Theses

This project is a curriculum guide for the first quarter of a beginning class. After researching ways to build engagement in beginning learners, this project was constructed to serve as an overview of the most important topics to be covered in a beginning band class. It contains five topics, each consisting of a set of lesson plans as well as a culminating assessment. This is not intended to be a comprehensive unit plan, covering everything a student needs to learn, but addresses a sampling of the most important skills that students need to develop. This guide is also not meant …

Native Activism And Materiality Through The Work Of Cannupa Hanska Luger: A 21st Century Indigenous Artist, Rachel Daniela Vera

Theses

This thesis focuses on a specific work by Cannupa Hanska Luger called This is Not a Snake. This project examines the materiality of the artwork, including beads, crochet, sewing, ceramics, and non-traditional materials. The materials used in this work address 21st-century indigenous issues while also promoting activism from the Water is Life movement, which is centered at Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota. The materials of this work are relative to Luger’s 21st-century contemporary style. The use of repurposed heavily merchandized inorganic materials refers to the protests in Standing Rock. This is Not a Snake was inspired by these events, activism …

Exploring The Visual Arts With Rog: A Four-Part Series, Roger Heuberger

Theses

This project report addresses the research which led to the choice of content, formatting of curriculum, delivery system, and video conference management. The combined art appreciation and art history classes are innovative as they are built around high-interest key art events or movements instead of linear chronologies or systematic reviews of art elements. The research for this Thesis II project extended beyond art historical materials. The literature review and analysis additionally explored educational theories which could be adapted for use with the target audiences of 65+ aged seniors and lifelong learners. The original project submitted in mid-2019 was for in-class …

Establishing A Kpis And Initiatives Classifying Model Based On Performance Datasets For A Supply Chain Health System, Jamal Alshanableh

Theses

With the increasing demand for advanced analytics in health care, the digital health department at PwC needs to have an automated process for automating and quantifying the current state of the client on a performance management level in a more effective and quantitative manner in order to generate for the client a common type of deliverables which are usually (KPIs and initiatives). The following research was done and evolved for the purpose of providing a quantitative, smart and analytical solution for current state assessment phase of a project engagement, which is a commonly required phase in most of the management …

Iot Smart Parking, Anas Hamdan

Theses

A Smart City is designed to improve the quality of life of its residents by utilizing the forefront innovations. Embedded within the smart city is the fundamental innovation using the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide novel solutions to residents, prompting to the enhancement of everyday life while promoting sustainability. This project highlights smart parking management that is a key pillar of a smart city. It implements IoT, sensors, and software to track the availability of parking spaces, the number of vehicles parked in a parking lot, the time for which these vehicles have been parked, and the real-time pricing …

Proactive Exploration Of Fire Incidents Using The Integration Of Direct Alarm System And Cctv System, Abdullah Ahmed Abdi

Theses

By 2050, the population of urban cities will have increased by millions of people. Statistics by the UN Department's population division of economic and social affairs (United Nations, 2018) indicate that today, at least 55% of the world's population live in urban centers. Further, the UN department forecasts that by 2050, at least 68% of the world's population will be living in urban areas. This means that more than 2.5 billion people will relocate from rural areas to urban areas. According to the International Association of Fire Service Trainers and FDNY and Standard operating procedures, the fire is the most …

Influence Of Liquid Height On Pool Boiling Heat Transfer, Maharshi Y. Shukla

Theses

As technology advances due to continuous research, devices are becoming more compact, efficient, and powerful. Therefore, heat rejection from such devices becomes ever so critical to maximizing their potential. Compared to other heat extraction methods, boiling provides one of the highest heat transfer coefficients. The heat extraction due to the boiling process is limited to the Critical Heat Flux (CHF). At CHF, an insulating layer of escaping bubbles forms upon the surface to prevent boiling continuity. Subsequently, the surface temperature increases uncontrollably, leading to a system failure. Hence, the elevation of CHF is critical to boiling enhancement. Improvements to the …

Miss, Jiahui Liu

Theses

Miss is a 2D animation graduate thesis film, with a length of 5 minutes and 50 seconds. The production phase went from September 2019 to November 2020.

"Miss" is a microcosm of ordinary children's emotional expression facing the death of their loved ones in reality. The protagonist is a child. The first time he met his relatives' death, he was at a loss and didn't know how to deal with it. He tries to pray and find an answer. But the answer is already in the heart of the little boy in the end. The temple gods are very kind …

Backplane System Design Considerations For Micro Led Displays, Kush Benara

Theses

Display technologies have evolved from the bulky Cathode Ray Tube based displays to the latest lightweight and low power micro-Led (uLED) based flat panel displays. A display system consists of a device technology that either manipulates the incoming light or emits its own light and a controller circuit to control the behavior of these devices. This system makes up the backplane of a display technology. uLEDs due to their small size provide higher resolution and better contrast than all the previous display technologies like the LCDs and the OLEDs. Backplane system design considerations for a uLED flat panel display is …

Utilizing Data Analytics For Optimum Urban Transportation System, Hadeel Raed Shubair

Theses

This study addresses the challenges associated with urban transportation by providing a framework for exploiting data analytics, with application to transportation data, to achieve an effective and time-efficient metropolitan city transportation system. We aim to understand traffic in different areas of the city, as well as trying to categorize the various zones within numerous areas in the city, such as: business destination, residential destination, or touristic destination according to its popularity given both the time-range and the day of the week. In this project, a logistic regression classification model is built to classify locations into hotspots/non-hotspots.

Recommender Systems And Amazon Marketing Bias, Yousuf Alolama

Theses

Proper marketing requires a great understanding of customers' needs and how they can be presented to them properly so that they purchase the services provided by companies and generate high profits. Recommender systems are considered as an answer to this marketing scheme; through feeding it enough data on customers' purchase history, it can understand what customers usually procure and what items can be proposed to them so that more sales can be conducted, resulting in higher profits. However, with the increasing number of techniques and algorithms for recommender systems, it reduced the rate of its accuracy toward presenting customers with …

Smart Grid Program For Large Firms, Masood Alolama

Theses

A smart grid can help utilities conserve energy, cut costs, increase reliability and accountability, and increase efficiency in processes. Nevertheless, the growing use of IT-based electrical power systems increases the vulnerabilities of cyber security causes which increases the importance of cyber security in interconnected power grids. Utilities should understand protection of the smart grid, including vulnerable areas, strategic issues, layered security. However, there is a lack of awareness over the country since the inhabitants less informed about its importance in our life to transform into a smart grid and being part of this plan. Knowing that the government started already …

Coaching Yourself Through: Exploring The Relationship Between Positive Self-Talk And Resilience, Ian T. Mosier

Theses

In this study, I investigated the relationship between positive self-talk, autonomy, and resilience in a sample of adults residing in America (n=177). Forty percent of American adults (n=1031) report daily stressors (Almeida, Wethington, & Kessler, 2002). Even comparatively minor life stressors can have a negative impact on one’s well-being over time (Almeida, 2005). Resilience, the ability to manage and recover from stress, may be an important factor in long-term health and well-being (Almeida, 2005). Positive self-talk has been identified as a possible target for resilience building interventions. However, positive self-talk appears to benefit some people more than others. One possible …

A Low-Power Capacitive Transimpedance D/A Converter, Sundararaman Velayutham

Theses

This thesis proposes a new low-power and low-area DAC for single-slope ADCs used in CMOS image sensors. With increase in resolution requirements for ADCs, conventional DAC architectures suffered the limitation of either large area or high power consumption with higher resolution scaling. Thus, the proposed capacitive transimpedance amplifier DAC (CTIA DAC) could solve this by offering the resolution requirement required without taking a hit on the area or power budget.

The thesis has been structured in the following manner:

The first chapter introduces image sensors in general and talks about progression through different image sensors and pixel architectures that have …

Using Machine Learning Software In The Human Resource Recruiting Process For Candidates From Dubai Police Academy, Ibrahim Alkhazraji, Ali Saeed Buhaliba

Theses

Since Machine learning software explored the first recruitment software and found that utilizing technology improves their efficiency at work, speed, and makes the process easier, the use of machine learning for recruitment has become one of the major themes in human resources. In a few years, hiring top talents may lean entirely on the ability of the recruiters to automate their workflows intelligently. Over time, the function of human resource management has indeed evolved in organizations, as technology has been marveled for its greater efficiency in almost every sector. The use of Machine learning for recruiting in organizations has not …

Fine-Tuning Sign Language Translation Systems Through Deep Reinforcement Learning, Joseph Panaro

Theses

Sign language is an important communication tool for a vast majority of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) people. Data collected by the World Health organization states that there are 466 million people currently with hearing loss and that number could rise to 630 million by 2030 and over 930 million by 2050 \cite{DHH1}. Currently there are millions of sign language speakers around the world who utilize this skill on a daily basis. Bridging the gap between those who communicate solely with a spoken language and the DHH community is an ever-growing and omnipresent need. Unfortunately, in the field of natural language …

Engram, An Application Of Recording And Throwing Back Memories With Your Parents, Tong Wu

Theses

Adults can recall memories from the age of three. Our brains help us sort out important things for long-term memory and more trivial things for short-term memory. 1 We pull up these pieces of memory when we need them. We can remember a lot, but we also keep forgetting, forgetting details.

Therefore, humans have always had the habit of recording. Today we record our lives by posting in social media, taking photos, and so on. In most of the more modern methods, we record our life initiatively, which means we need to do something to record a piece of memory. …

An Integrated Camera And Radar On-Robot System For Human Robot Collaboration, Anmol S. Modur

Theses

The increased demand for collaborative tasks between humans and robots has caused an upsurge in newer sensor technologies to detect, locate, track, and monitor workers in a robot workspace. The challenge is to balance the accuracy, cost, and responsiveness of the system to maximize the safety of the worker. This work presents a sensor system that combines six 60GHz radar modules and six cameras to accurately track the location and speed of the workers in all 360 degrees around the robot. While the radar is tuned to identify moving targets, the cameras perform pose detection to evaluate the humans in …

Evaluating Appearance Differences Of Color 3d Printed Objects, Matt Ronnenberg

Theses

Color 3D printing is a relatively young technology with several exciting applications and challenges yet to be explored. One of those challenges is the effect that three dimensional surface geometries have on appearance. The appearance of 3D objects is complex and can be affected by the interaction between several visual appearance parameters such as color, gloss and surface texture. Since traditional printing is only 2D, several of these challenges have either been solved or never needed to be addressed. Complicating matters further, different color 3D printing technologies and materials come with their own inherent material appearance properties, necessitating the study …

Electrical Identification Of Innate Immune Cells, Rasha Ayman Nasser

Theses

This thesis is concerned with the electrical characterization of the key players of the innate immune cells. Innate immunity is basically the nonspecific immune response that is triggered by any foreign body that attacks the human system. The key players of the innate immune system are mainly dendritic cells and macrophages. Accurately classifying these cell types helps us understand the mechanism of the immune system thereby enabling the development of models to improve new prospects for therapeutics and diagnostics. The characterization described in this thesis is based on extracting the capacitance for each biological cell using I-V curves. The main …

Sub-Pixel Sensitivity Variations And Their Effects On Precision Aperture Photometry, Alexis M. Irwin

Theses

The response of pixels in CCDs and CMOS arrays is not uniform; physical aspects of pixel structure can create non-uniform electric fields within a pixel and the diffusion of carriers tends to blur pixel boundaries. It has previously been shown that the sub-pixel response can vary by up to 50% across a pixel, with more light being detected near the center and less around the edges. This intra-pixel response function (IPRF) can have significant effects on the aperture photometry of under-sampled PSFs, like those found in the Kepler and TESS exoplanet hunting missions. Knowledge of the IPRF can be used …

Conducting A Feasibility Study For Generating Power From Renewable Energy Resources And Utilizing High Voltage Direct Current For Interconnection In The Middle East And North Africa, Rashid Al Maazmi, Mahmood Broushan

Theses

Electricity consumption is on the rise as the global population is increasing. The need of energy has been discussed in length over the years. Oil and gas have been the primary resource for generators fuel. As oil and gas are a finite resource, an alternative resource that does not harm the environment is needed to generate energy. The Middle East and North Africa have a huge potential for using solar and wind energy to generate electricity as MENA region has one of the highest levels on solar irradiation. A new system of transferring the power through the MENA region is …

An Evaluation Of Current Policy Guidelines For The Best Practices Of Robotic Surgery Training, Zachary Geffert

Theses

Robotic surgery is a young and new technology, becoming widely used only within the past twenty years. Robotic surgery is categorized as minimally invasive and has immense patient benefits, including shorter hospital stays, reduction of human errors, increased precision, and faster recovery time. A recent study looked “at more than 10,000 incident reports from the FDA spanning from 2000 to 2013…found [finding] that robots were involved in 144 patient deaths and 1,391 patient injuries” (Wagstaff, 2015, pp. 2). Wagstaff (2015) also notes that very little information regarding cause of death was provided by the incident reports, which brings forth the …

New Methods For Deep Learning Based Real-Valued Inter-Residue Distance Prediction, Jacob Barger

Theses

Background: Much of the recent success in protein structure prediction has been a result of accurate protein contact prediction--a binary classification problem. Dozens of methods, built from various types of machine learning and deep learning algorithms, have been published over the last two decades for predicting contacts. Recently, many groups, including Google DeepMind, have demonstrated that reformulating the problem as a multi-class classification problem is a more promising direction to pursue. As an alternative approach, we recently proposed real-valued distance predictions, formulating the problem as a regression problem. The nuances of protein 3D structures make this formulation appropriate, allowing predictions …

Wait., Kayla Cantu

Theses

Wait explores concepts of discomfort and acceptance through the use of the human body, glass, and honey. The artwork and this thesis both use personal experience of physical insecurities and scholarly investigations into psychology related to unruly bodies. The work and research allude to the material qualities of glass such as its malleability, susceptibility, and softness to draw a parallel between the materials and the human identity. Parallels between glass and body create conversations investigating acceptance of identity and questions ideas about resistance of unruly bodies.

Lightsup: Modern Organization For The Modern Living Room, Fang-Yi Lin

Theses

Studies show a cluttered home makes people feel anxious, helpless and overwhelmed. Home should be a place where people can relax and live comfortably. A messy house can lead to negative behavior, making people impatient and argumentative. An organized house can not only make people be in a good mood but also encourage harmonious relationships in a family. This paper puts forth how design can help people be more organized in their homes thus creating a relaxing environment. The research shows how clutter affects people’s behaviors, emotions and relationships; why people do not organize; and the importance of finding a …

A Cross-Cultural Study On The Relationship Between Environmental Awareness And Social Media Use: Saudi Arabia Vs United States, Mohammed Alsahafi

Theses

For many countries today, environmental sustainability is a subject of concern, and the world has witnessed the rise of environmental activism in recent years. Social media is increasingly being used by relevant stakeholders to raise environmental awareness. This study explores the relationship between social media use and environmental awareness from a cross-cultural perspective. Building upon previous research, this study compares social media use, environmental awareness, and their relationship between Saudi Arabian and American college students. Survey data was collected from a convenient sample of 266 Saudi Arabian and 290 American college students on their use of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram …

Searching For Answers: Examining Historical Christianity In Nineteenth Century Europe Through Kierkegaard & Nietzsche, Robert Jones

Theses

The Europe of the 1800s saw remarkable change. Previously unthinkable ideas and 'isms' made their way to the forefront of exploration in European society, forcing Christianity to a crossroads it had never before experienced. This thesis examines the fusion of politics and religion into a sort of surrogate religion for the Post-Enlightenment world. Above all, it examines historical Christianity through precedent-setting writers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. Given the unique process of secularization in the nineteenth century, both writers offer something often overlooked; the inevitable progress or decline of the Lutheran tradition depends, in true existentialist fashion, on the individual.