Digital Commons Network^™

Effectiveness Of The Smart Government In Abu Dhabi Municipality: A Study Of The Customers’ Opinion, Hajar Saeed Alafreet Alkuwaiti

Theses

Smart government has become a new way of delivering services to the public that not only is efficient and quicker, but is also useful and convenient for the customers availing those services. By adopting advanced technologies government nowadays are transforming public services and offering enhanced experience to the customers. However, since these services are based on new technologies, people are often apprehensive of using them because of privacy security and other concerns and that creates challenges for smart government implementation. The current research that aims to understand if Abu Dhabi Municipality’s smart government initiatives are meeting customer service expectations and …

Faculty Perceptions Of The Implementation Of The United Arab Emirate’S Qualifications Framework (Qf Emirates) In Federal Higher Education Institutions, Ahmed Obaid Elhakim

Theses

The adoption of qualifications frameworks has been witnessing a growing interest across the globe in the past few decades. Despite widespread awareness and support, there are not enough studies exploring how qualifications frameworks resonate with different stakeholders. The main objective of this study is to examine faculty perceptions of the implementation of the United Arab Emirate’s Qualifications Framework (QF Emirates). In particular, the study explores faculty perceptions of: (a) the QF Emirates general purpose and structure; (b) the impact of implementing the QF Emirates on academic practices; and (c) some key factors that could facilitate effective implementation of the QF …

Advancing Multi-Modal Deep Learning: Towards Language-Grounded Visual Understanding, Kushal Kafle

Theses

Using deep learning, computer vision now rivals people at object recognition and detection, opening doors to tackle new challenges in image understanding. Among these challenges, understanding and reasoning about language grounded visual content is of fundamental importance to advancing artificial intelligence. Recently, multiple datasets and algorithms have been created as proxy tasks towards this goal, with visual question answering (VQA) being the most widely studied. In VQA, an algorithm needs to produce an answer to a natural language question about an image. However, our survey of datasets and algorithms for VQA uncovered several sources of dataset bias and sub-optimal evaluation …

Improving Template-Based Nanomanufacturing Of Carbon Nanotube Arrays Via Polishing Wet Etching Method, Kosar Samadi

Theses

Multifunctional carbon nanotubes (CNTs) enable novel ways of interacting with complex biological fluid environments, such as single living cells and tissues. It has been shown that vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays can be utilized to deliver genes into cells with high efficiency. These arrays were produced through template-based nanomanufacturing, where chemical vapor deposition forms carbon nanotubes inside the pores and oxygen plasma and reactive ion etching (RIE) expose the tubes by selective etching. The same devices could be produced faster and cheaper by replacing oxygen plasma and RIE with mechanical polishing and wet etching. However, the biomedical utilization of CNT-based …

Conversion Of Ready-Mix Concrete Energy To Solar Pv, Zulfa A. Rasheed

Theses

The purpose of this project is to study a case of a ready-mix concrete company to evaluate the feasibility of converting the electrical consumption to solar PV. The documentation of this project goes along with the proceeding of the work. Some data in the first and second chapters will be validated and corrected in the validation section. This work aims to encourage the adoption of solar technology in heavy industry. The work looked at various options to convert the energy consumption to solar PV. Taking into consideration the managerial and technical sides.

Design Approval Smart Application For Dubai Electricity Installations (Dasa-Dubai), Maryam Ahmad Mohammed Al Ali

Theses

Design Approval smart application for assure the healthy and safety installations for buildings and properties in Dubai using programming and automations. It will enable the engineers in the concerned departments to have effective use of time and effort through having automatic first line defends reviewing the submissions of the electrical engineers contractors/ consultants who will be referred to as customers through the project description. The application will be a data base that carries the original standards and regulations that related to the installations of the electricity wiring in the government of Dubai. That kind of information’s are already distributed as …

Young Patient Education On Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Margaret Jane Atieno Mcfarland

Theses

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder that primarily causes the degeneration of major muscle groups. It’s caused by the absence of an essential sarcolemma protein called Dystrophin due to mutations in its gene that is in the X-chromosome. DMD affects 1 out of 4,000 boys worldwide with most being diagnosed between ages 3-5 and if left untreated, most patients would succumb to the disorder by their late teens or early twenties. While there currently isn’t a cure for DMD, there are different treatments available that are effective in prolonging patients’ lives.

Because DMD is such a deadly disorder, …

Hearsay, Lei Xue

Theses

The inspiration for my artworks comes from my life experience and cultural background. There is an idiom in China, “daotingtushuo,” which explains that “most people’s impressions of a certain person/thing are easily affected by irresponsible rumors.” In general, people are more likely to add their personal and emotional perspectives to a certain person/thing when describing it to others. After observation and research, the rumor propagation process needs a medium—the emotions of a human being. To materialize this concept of the emotions, I related color psychology to my work. Based on psychological research, I introduced five different colors to represent human …

Aerodynamic And Heat Transfer Characteristics Of A Transonic Turbine Blade Tip With Pressure-Side Film Cooling, Michael Sampson

Theses

Currently, there is a deficit of experimental data for surface heat transfer characteristics and thermal transport processes associated with tip gap flows, and a lack of understanding of performance and behavior of film cooling as applied to blade tip surfaces. As a result, many avenues of opportunity exist for development of creative tip configurations with innovative external cooling arrangements. Described is the development of experimental facilities, including a Supersonic/Transonic Wind Tunnel and a linear cascade for investigations of aerodynamics and surface heat transfer characteristics of a transonic turbine blade tip with a unique squealer geometry and an innovative film cooling …

Evaluating The Impact Of Land Surface Properties On Simulated Dust Emissions And Air Quality, Erica Burrows

Theses

Strong winds and dry surface conditions result in frequent occurrence of dusty conditions in the Southwestern United States (SW US) causing degraded air quality and harmful health effects. The Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model is often used to forecast such events. Biases in specifications of soil moisture and vegetation cover in the land surface component for initialization of WRF-Chem can result in systematic errors in forecasts. This study examines how WRF-Chem dust forecasts for the SW US can be improved through better prescriptions of soil and vegetation for the following cases: 27 April 2014, 23 March 2017, …

Exploring The Use Of Planetscope Data For Particulate Matter Air Quality Research, Jeanné Le Roux

Theses

Planet, a commercial company, has achieved a key milestone by launching a large fleet of small satellites (smallsats) that provide high resolution imagery of the entire Earth’s surface on a daily basis with its PlanetScope sensor. Given the potential utility of this data, this thesis explores its potential use for air quality applications. Before this data can be utilized for air quality applications, key features of the data including geolocation accuracy, calibration quality, and consistency in spectral signatures need to be addressed. In this study, data from PlanetScope is screened for geolocation consistency, and is compared to Moderate Resolution Imaging …

The Effect Of Prandtl Number On Heat Transfer In The Wake Of A Highly Confined Bubble In A Large-Aspect-Ratio Minichannel, Joseah K. Amai

Theses

A numerical study of the effect of Prandtl number on the heat transfer in the wake of a highly confined bubble in a large-aspect-ratio minichannel was performed. The channel height was 1.25 mm, and the precursor liquid flow was laminar at channel Reynolds numbers of 169 and 338. The upper channel was modeled as an electrically heated metal foil, and the lower wall was adiabatic. The simulation was performed using ANSYS Fluent, with the volume-of-fluid method was used to determine the phase boundary. A Lagrangian reference frame translating at the average bubble velocity was used to simulate a channel of …

An Implementation Of Embedded Software For Real Time Monitoring Of Bioimpedance, Amirahmad Ramezani

Theses

Bioimpedance analysis (BIA) is a convenient and highly accurate method for assessment of the internal composition of the body. It can be particularly used for evaluating the hydration level of an individual based on the amount of intracellular water (ICW) and extracellular water (ECW) in total body water (TBW). Complex impedance of the body is a function of frequency and amount of ICW and ECW. By injecting small currents at different frequency and measurement of complex impedance, we can assess the amount of ICW, ECW, and TBW. This method can be applied to Internet of Things (IoT), fitness, and clinical …

Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function Measurements Of Spectralon® At 1.064 Micron, William Eugene Walker

Theses

The bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) is of substantial interest to those involved with laser radar (LADAR) target signature modelling. Measured, empirical data must often be used in place of mathematical models due to the complexity of targets encountered in real-world situations. When using a coherent illumination source, interference effects, such as coherent backscatter, must also be considered. This work demonstrates a calibration method for a reference standard as well as the material’s reflectance characteristics. The selected material, Spectralon, was chosen for its well-known diffuse scattering characteristics. Spectralon’s BRDF was measured for 0 through 80 degree incidence angles as well …

Positive And Negative Affect And Their Influences On Pain Belief, Coping, And Quality Of Life In Chronic Pain Patients Undergoing Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Savannah Michelle Kaye

Theses

The current study aimed to evaluate the influences of affectivity on pain belief, coping and quality of life in chronic pain patients. These relationships were tested using six separate Structural Equation Models. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to determine positive and negative affect from the Personality Assessment Inventory and the Millon Behavioral Diagnostic. EFA was also used to identify adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies from the Chronic Pain Coping Inventory. Pain attitudes were measured using the Survey of Pain Attitudes measure, and quality of life was measured using the World Health Organization Quality of Life – BREF instrument. Results …

Experimental Investigation Of Spray Characteristics For Different Geometrical Misalignment Cases Of Like Doublet Impinging Injectors, Swarnalatha Kathalagiri Vasantha Kumar

Theses

Liquid rocket engines sometimes use jet impinging injection streams to atomize liquid fuels and oxidizers in the combustion chamber. The work examines the effect of injector steam velocity, injection angles, and injection stream misalignment on the resulting sheet angles and sheet breakup lengths for like-double injectors. A set of cold flow, water simulant experiments at atmospheric pressure were conducted at three different geometric conditions. Angularly skewed impingement conditions investigated nine impingement angles from 30° to 90° with each injector having identical or different impingement lengths. Linearly-skewed impingement conditions included a set of five offsets where the impingement length of the …

Security And Privacy Threat Of Scrubbed Nand Flash Memory And Countermeasure, Md Mehedi Hasan

Theses

Due to the high bit density and low-cost, NAND flash memory has grown popularity of various consumer electronics over the past decade. NAND flash memory is used as the primary storage medium of smartphones, USB drives, SSD and laptops. To ensure the high bit density and low cost, there is a tradeoff with security and reliability. To expedite the performance of a NAND flash and to mitigate the early wear-out, erase is not performed frequently. As erase is a costly operation that reduces the lifetime of a flash memory cell, a page-level digital sanitization is used to erase data temporarily …

Root Failure Analysis In Meshed Tree Networks, Shashank Rudroju

Theses

Mesh topologies play a vital role in switched networks. Broadcast storms due to the loops in Mesh Networks are a major concern in switched networks. Logical spanning trees are constructed using algorithms like spanning tree algorithm to avoid loops and hence address the broadcast storm problem. However, in the event of a topology change or a link failure in the network, it takes time to converge and construct new spanning tree to forward frames. Link State routing and other protocols like Rapid Spanning Tree protocol[2][19] were introduced to address the problems of high convergence times in the basic spanning tree …

The Use Of Social Media To Advance Sports Marketing: The Atlantic Hockey Conference, Erin Claybaugh

Theses

Social media has rapidly changed the world of communications, becoming a popular area of interest to many researchers. Sports marketing has also drastically developed and gained recognition within academia. This project evaluated the use of social media by Atlantic Hockey teams through an investigation of their social media strategies and the effectiveness of their channels. With only a small focus on the Atlantic hockey conference and the widespread growth of college hockey nationally over the years, this study was proposed out of personal interest and found necessary. Research was conducted through a series of interviews with social media coordinators of …

Perceptions, Impact And Scope Of Medication Errors With Opioids In Australian Specialist Palliative Care Inpatient Services: A Mixed Methods Study (The Periscope Project), Nicole Heneka

Theses

Background: Opioids are a high-risk medicine, and one of the most frequently reported drug classes causing patient harm. In specialist palliative care inpatient services opioids are widely used to manage cancer pain and other symptoms. Palliative care inpatients are vulnerable to both exposure to, and harm from, opioid errors due to a combination of their: advanced age, comorbidities which affect drug metabolism, polypharmacy, and the seriousness of their illness. Despite this potential for harm, and the frequency of opioid administration in this specialist setting, little is known about opioid errors in palliative care. Better understanding the prevalence, patient impact and …

Safety And Effectiveness Of Stoss Therapy In Children With Vitamin D Deficiency, Paul Tannous

Theses

Objectives: Paediatric vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D - 25OHD) deficiency can lead to nutritional rickets and extra-skeletal complications. Compliance with daily therapy can be difficult, making high dose, short-term vitamin D (stoss) therapy attractive to correct vitamin D deficiency. We compared the effectiveness and safety of standard versus stoss therapy in treating childhood 25OHD deficiency.

Study Design: Children aged 2 - 16 years with 25OHD <50nmol/L were randomized to either standard (5,000IU daily for 80 days) or stoss (100,000 IU weekly for 4 weeks) cholecalciferol. Participants underwent evaluation of effectiveness and safety. 25OHD, random spot calcium: creatinine ratio (Ca:Cr) and compliance were measured at 12 weeks.

Results: 151 children were enrolled in the study (68 standard and 83 stoss), median age 9 years (IQR: 6 - 12 years). Baseline 25OHD levels were 26 nmol/L (IQR: 19 - 35 nmol/L) and 32 nmol/L …

Encountering The Living God: The Integral Formation Of Teachers As Witnesses In Catholic Elementary And Secondary Schools, Amy E. Roberts

Theses

An examination of the Catholic Church’s documents on Catholic schools shows that the Church holds the primary mission of Catholic schools to be making disciples of Jesus Christ. Because the fulfillment of the mission of Catholic schools depends upon the teacher, teachers need ongoing formation as witnesses, just as they need professional formation. This thesis contends that in order for teachers to be the witnesses that Catholic schools need to fulfill their mission of making disciples, they themselves need an integral formation that puts every dimension of their human nature – body, heart, and mind – in ongoing communio with …

A Western Australian Story: A Mixed Method Study Exploring Nutrition Knowledge, Food Intake, Influences On Food Choice, Body Image And Eating Attitudes Of University Students, Michelle Lambert

Theses

Emerging adults are fast gaining recognition as an important target group for health promotion as previous research indicates very few are meeting dietary guidelines, often consuming foods that have increased saturated fats, sugar and sodium. These eating patterns place this group at higher risk of developing chronic illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Understanding how and why these eating patterns develop is important to help establish healthy eating behaviours and greater compliance to Australian Dietary Guidelines – Recommended Daily Serves (ADG-RDS) for emerging adults. International research has focused on eating habits, weight gain patterns and possible influences …

Moral Competence In Nursing: An Exploration Of The Giving Voice To Values Curriculum, Catherine Costa

Theses

The development of moral competence is central to the profession of nursing and its practice. Nurses engage in moral decision making that impacts the health of people, families, and communities. It is important, then, to ensure that nursing graduates possess the necessary moral development for engaging in professional practice. To this end, research was conducted, the principle premise of which was to explore the use of the introduction of the Giving Voice to Values curriculum (Gentile, 2010) and its contribution to the development of moral competence in nursing. The Giving Voice to Values curriculum is a values-based methodology enabling students …

Worker Psycho-Spiritual Self-Care Choices: Making Sense During Times Of Stress And Anxiety, Peter Devenish-Meares

Theses

This thesis explores and extends the use of psycho-spiritual self-care choices in support of sense-making and inner healing of workplace stress. The study was motivated by a lack of research about and the observation that, despite their usefulness in other disciplines, psycho-spiritual self-care choices are often poorly understood or ignored in the workplace. Yet, chronic stress, if left unaddressed, can lead to adverse mental health consequences. This is particularly so when harsh self-criticism, poor self-acceptance and lack of self-kindness stymie self-care and meaningful sense-making. Notably too, there is next to no research that shows how workers might detach from work …

A Study Of The Contributions Of Fr. Johannes Hofinger S.J. And Msgr. Eugene Kevane To The Catechetical Renewal Of The 20th Century And Their Relevance For Catechesis Today, Ronald Bolster

Theses

The Kerygmatic renewal of the 20th century, facilitated and documented by Fr. Johannes Hofinger, S.J., was launched in response to the recognition that the traditional method of instruction from the catechism was no longer bearing the fruit of lived Christian discipleship. During this period, Msgr. Eugene Kevane associated this decline in effectiveness with the influence of Modernism. The contributions of both were consistent with the conciliar and post-conciliar catechetical interventions of the Catholic Church. Resistance to the Church’s implementation of these interventions demonstrates that the challenge for catechesis today is a contemporary manifestation of the historical tension intrinsic to the …

Exploring The Validity Of Script Concordance Testing To Assess The Clinical Reasoning Of Medical Students, Micahel Sh Wan

Theses

Assessment of clinical reasoning is often challenging, as it is a complex process of thinking and decision making. Script Concordance Testing (SCT), using authentic clinical scenarios with diagnostic or management uncertainties, has been developed to assess clinical reasoning. As SCT is a relatively new assessment modality, more empirical evidence is needed to support the validity of SCT scores.

This thesis examines key aspects of the validity of SCT scores in the assessment of the clinical reasoning ability of medical undergraduates. A review of the current literature informs the use, design and standard setting of SCT, as well as evidence for …

The Importance Of Environmental Interventions In Eliminating Trachoma Infection In Africa: The Case Of Gashoho Health District, Burundi, Desire Ndisabiye

Theses

Gashoho Health District, Burundi, has not achieved the World Health Organisation (WHO) target of elimination of the blinding infectious disease, trachoma, by 2020. The work in this thesis addresses this problem using three different approaches.

Firstly, a cross-sectional study was undertaken to establish the current trachoma prevalence in Gashoho and whether poor sanitation was a risk factor for infection. 468 individuals from 117 households across four villages were clinically examined for signs of trachoma infection, and completed a questionnaire about environmental risk factors. The current prevalence of trachoma in Gashoho was 7.9% (95 % CI 5.0 - 10.6%). Children under …

Identifying And Implementing The Theology Of The Domestic Church, Mishel Stefanac

Theses

This project explores the development of the theology of the domestic church and how it can be implemented in Catholic families. It investigates the origin of the phrase domestic church, traces its development over centuries, and considers the implications this has on the Church and families. The overall objective of this project is to inquire into the significance of this term and identify the principles that ought to be incorporated in a practical resource for families.

The project begins with a comprehensive analysis of the origins of the term domestic church, and how it developed over time. It investigates why …

Role Of Sodium And Potassium In The Diet Of School-Aged Children In Ireland: Findings From The National Children’S Food Survey Ii, Eoin James Morrissey

Theses

A high sodium to potassium intake ratio (Na:K) resulting from a diet high in sodium and low in potassium can increase the risk of elevated blood pressure or hypertension in children, potentially leading to increased CVD in adulthood. The objective of this thesis was to estimate sodium and potassium intakes and Na:K in school-aged children (5-12y) in Ireland using data from the nationally representative National Children’s Food Survey II (NCFS II) (2017-18). The thesis study collected detailed dietary intake data for 600 children using 4-d food records and also collected spot urine samples from 95% of these participants. Sodium and …