Digital Commons Network^™

Separators In High-Genus Near-Planar Graphs, Juraj Culak

Theses

Graph separators are a powerful tool that are motivated by divide and conquer algorithms on graphs. Results have shown the existence of separators in arbitrary planar graphs and other graphs with less restricted structure. This work explores planar separators and the planar separator theorem, as well as the existence of separators in the class of high genus near-planar graphs. These graphs have unbounded genus, where additionally the edges that cross each other are located near each other in the graph. Several different graph classes that are high genus near-planar graphs are investigated for their feasibility for an extended separator theorem …

A Review Of Evolution, Behavior, And Vision With An Experimental Evolution Study On Color Vision In Drosophila Melanogaster, Mellissa Ann Marcus

Theses

The first chapter of this thesis is to take a piece by piece look at the factors that contributed to the experimental evolution study that will be discussed in Chapter 2. Behavior, how that can affect experimental studies, and how biases can affect sensory systems and preference in subject species. Specifically visual sensory systems are described in detail, from the possible evolutionary histories, to major components that contribute to eye structure, form, and/or abilities. We discuss how to define color vision, and what are the prerequisites for color vision in species.

Difficulties And Principles Of Drama Translation: With Special Reference To Jabra And Niazi’S Translation Of Macbeth’S Soliloquies, Wissal Ali Jaffar Al Allaq

Theses

Drama is one of the most significant literary genres. The primary characteristic that sets drama apart from any other literary form is 'performance on stage'. Other elements contribute to its impact such as speakability and performability and the extra linguistic features drama possesses. Translating drama and assessing the quality if its translation should therefore consider such elements. AI-Qinai's seven parameters of translation quality assessment (TQA) are employed in assessing two Arabic translations of Shakespeare's Macbeth produced by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (1980) and Salah Niazi (2000). Mismatches between the source text (ST) and the target texts, (TT1 and TT2) are highlighted. …

Private Sector Emiratisation: Evaluating The Policies And Practices Designed To Achieve Abu Dhabi's Strategic Hrm Goal, Khaled Sultan Saeed Ai Kaabi

Theses

The purpose of this study is two-fold: firstly, to gauge the job satisfaction levels of UAE nationals employed in the private sector and secondly to consider the HRM policies and procedures most likely to attract and retain such individuals. The issue is of contemporary importance because the UAE has a fast growing population, an already overstaffed public sector and, a labour nationalisation program that has yet to have a significant impact on the ratio of nationals employed in the private sector visà- vis the classic public sector. Using a combination of employee survey and expert interview feedback this study provides …

Early Packet Rejection Using Dynamic Binary Decision Diagram, Vasiqullah Molvizadah

Theses

A firewall is a hardware or software device that performs inspection on a given incoming/outgoing packets and decide whether to allow/deny the packet from entering/leaving the system. Firewall filters the packets by using a set of rules called firewall policies. The policies define what type of packets should be allowed or discarded. These policies describe the field values that the packet header must contain in order to match a policy in the firewall. The decision for any given packet is made by finding the first matching firewall policy, if any.

In a traditional firewall, the packet filter goes through each …

The Effectiveness Of School Principal Communication On Teacher Job Satisfaction, Rim Kamal Ai Hajar

Theses

Teacher job satisfaction has been the subject of research, but little attention has been paid to the effect of principal-teacher communication on teacher job satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates. This research paper investigated the effect of principal communication on teacher job satisfaction, and provides suggestions to improve principal-teacher communication process in cycle 1 schools in Al Ain city. It answered questions about principals’ communication practices, teachers’ satisfaction levels, and the most effective principal-teacher communication practices, which lead to high teacher's job satisfaction, and differences based on the principals’ gender in communication with teachers. To achieve the goals of this …

Kindergarten English Teachers' Perceptions Of Teaching Listening Strategies, Assessment Strategies And The Obstacles They Face, Ghada Yahya Ai Kilani

Theses

Education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has received great interest withrespect to the best practices of twenty first century teaching and learning. The aim has been to adapt worldwide used methods in education. As a result Abu Dhabi Educational Council (ADEC) attracted English native speakers of language to support ADEC’s vision. The focus of this thesis is ADEC kindergarten English teachers’ perceptions of teaching listening strategies used to help English as foreign language (EFL) learners in practicing listening activities. The main purpose is to identify the tools and approaches involved in delivering these strategies and the forms of assessment …

English Teachers' Perceptions Toward Differentiated Assessment In Cycle Two At Al Ain Public Schools, Reem Moh'd Kamil Salhyyieh

Theses

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Perceived And The Actual Written Feedback Preferences Between Elf Students And Teachers In The Uae, Najah Asad Al Mohammedi

Theses

No abstract provided.

Sla Management In A Collaborative Network Of Federated Clouds: The Cloudland, Asma Obaid Subaih Ai Falasi

Theses

Cloud services have always promised to be available, flexible, and speedy. However, not a single Cloud provider can deliver such promises to their distinctly demanding customers. Cloud providers have a constrained geographical presence, and are willing to invest in infrastructure only when it is profitable to them. Cloud federation is a concept that collectively combines segregated Cloud services to create an extended pool of resources for Clouds to competently deliver their promised level of services. This dissertation is concerned with studying the governing aspects related to the federation of Clouds through collaborative networking. The main objective of this dissertation is …

Detection In Aerial Images Using Spatial Transformer Networks, Daniel Chianucci

Theses

Many tasks in the field of computer vision rely on an underlying change detection algorithm in images or video sequences. Although much research has focused on change detection in consumer images, there is little work related to change detection on aerial imagery, where individual images are recorded from aerial platforms over time.

This thesis presents two deep learning approaches for detection in aerial images. Both systems leverage Spatial Transformer Networks (STN) that identify the coordinate transformation for their localization capabilities. The first approach is based on a semisupervised approach which learns to locate changes within a difference image. The second …

Optical Flow And Deep Learning Based Approach To Visual Odometry, Peter M. Muller

Theses

Visual odometry is a challenging approach to simultaneous localization and mapping algorithms. Based on one or two cameras, motion is estimated from features and pixel differences from one set of frames to the next. A different but related topic to visual odometry is optical flow, which aims to calculate the exact distance and direction every pixel moves in consecutive frames of a video sequence. Because of the frame rate of the cameras, there are generally small, incremental changes between subsequent frames, in which optical flow can be assumed to be proportional to the physical distance moved by an egocentric reference, …

Anomaly Detection Using Predictive Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory Units, Jefferson Ryan Medel

Theses

Automating the segmentation of anomalous activities within long video sequences is complicated by the ambiguity of how such events are defined. This thesis approaches the problem by learning generative models with which meaningful sequences can be identified in videos using limited supervision. We propose two types of end-to-end trainable Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory (Conv-LSTM) networks that are able to predict the subsequent video sequence from a given input. The first is an encoder decoder based model that learns spatio-temporal features from stacked non-overlapping image patches, and the second is an autoencoder based model that utilizes max-pooling layers to learn an …

Microarray Analysis Of Arabidopsis Wrky33 Mutants In Response To The Necrotrophic Fungus Botrytis Cinerea, Shamma Saeed Salem Al Shamsi

Theses

Plants are exposed to many environmental stresses that affect their growth and development. These stresses include biotic stresses (via organisms) and abiotic stresses (via environment). Plants respond to these stresses by transcriptional reprogramming and different signaling pathways. Arabidopsis thaliana has shown great sensitivity to the biotic stress Botrytis cinerea. The WRKY33 gene plays an important role in plant defense mechanism against this pathogen. The overall goal is to identify common regulated genes of wrky33 mutant and 35S:WRKY33 over expressing transgenic lines in response to B. cinerea; ultimately to improve plant stress tolerance in Arabidopsis. The specific aims are to: (1) …

Zen Design: Applying Zen Principles To Brand Identity In Contemporary Graphic Design, Yun Zheng

Theses

Relaxing and finding inner balance is extremely important to those of us who live in a fast-paced, modern world. Zen has become more and more popular in different cultures and we can see the shadows of it in many of the products we interact with and use in daily life. It is being used in branding intentionally and unintentionally in some form but very few of these efforts are effective.

Through research and informational analysis, this thesis provides a simple way to understand Zen principles from psychological and aesthetic perspectives, and also identifies the similarities and differences between Modernism and …

Investigating Specimen Preparation And Characterization Methods Of Semiconductor Material, Jamie Roberts

Theses

The ability to prepare and characterize semiconductor material has wide implications for research to improve solar cell and device efficiencies. The variety of preparation techniques and characterization methods available allow us to explore materials in ways that were once not possible. However, the ability to obtain statistical information from prepared specimens is limited by residue caused by the specimen preparation process, the amount of volume or surface area that can be made accessible to characterization techniques, and the need for human pattern recognition to identify each structure, often given information on data obtained at more than one specimen orientation. This …

Technological, Policy, And Organizational Issues In The Response To Biological Emergency Incidents In The Us Food Supply, Kristina J. Owens

Theses

Numerous emergency incidents in U.S. food supply occur each year. Incidents include invasive pests and diseases impacting agriculture crops and foodborne pathogens contaminating meat and poultry. An effective response is not just dependent on the technology that is being used, but also policy and organizational factors. This research is a cross-case analysis of two federal regulatory and emergency response agencies under the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). This research analyzes how each agency uses technology, policy and organizational factors to responds to their respective emergencies. This study also …

Predictors Of Success In An Associate Nursing Program Utilizing Comprehensive Examination Scores, Deborah Sue Judge

Theses

The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationship between the scores obtained on the Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI) tests and the results of the first attempt on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). A quantitative approach was utilized for this study. The dependent variable for the study was the results of the NLCEX-RN on the first attempt. The independent variables were the ATI adjusted individual total scores that include the medical-surgical, mental health, maternal-newborn, fundamentals, the comprehensive predictor test, and the TEAS exam score.

Forgetting And The Value Of Social Information, Benjamin James Abts

Theses

Information is everywhere in nature, however it can be deceitful or incorrect, so not all information should be used. Foraging pollinators utilize variable and ephemeral resources so learning about patch quality and nectar replenishment rates are essential to success and survival. However, remembering information after it is no longer relevant is not advantageous. It has been theorized that a pollinator’s memory should reflect their environment. Bumblebees are known to use both personal information (information gathered through trial and error) and social information (information gained through observations of or interactions with other animals or their products) in foraging decisions; however, it …

Schroedinger Eigenmaps For Manifold Alignment Of Multimodal Hyperspectral Images, Juan Emmanuel Johnson

Theses

Multimodal remote sensing is an upcoming field as it allows for many views of the same region of interest. Domain adaption attempts to fuse these multimodal remotely sensed images by utilizing the concept of transfer learning to understand data from different sources to learn a fused outcome. Semisupervised Manifold Alignment (SSMA) maps multiple Hyperspectral images (HSIs) from high dimensional source spaces to a low dimensional latent space where similar elements reside closely together. SSMA preserves the original geometric structure of respective HSIs whilst pulling similar data points together and pushing dissimilar data points apart. The SSMA algorithm is comprised of …

Optimization Of Fuel Consumption For Municipal Solid Waste Collection In Al Ain City, Uae, Elkhalifa Mohamed Zeyada Swar Aldahab

Theses

Collection and transportation of municipal solid waste (MSW) often account for a significant amount of the total budget allocated for waste management. A major portion of that is attributed to fuel consumption. Meanwhile, vehicles involved with waste collection can emit significant levels of atmospheric pollutants. Hence, optimization of waste collection yields both financial and environmental benefits. No work has been done to optimize fuel consumption during MSW collection in Al Ain city. In this study, several cases were developed using ArcGIS Network Analyst tool in order to establish optimum conditions for MSW collection in Um Gafa district in Al Ain …

Investigating Cycle Two English Language Teachers' Perceptions About Reading Strategies And Limitation Factors Hindering The Use Of Strategies, Muna Salem Abdulla Saleh

Theses

This study investigated the perceptions of the English teachers concerning their use of various reading strategies and identified the possible factors that limit them in applying the concerned strategies in the UAE Cycle 2 Grades (6-9). The study focused also on obtaining any significant conflict that may be appreciable between English non-native teachers (i.e., Arab) and English native teachers view with respect to their usage of reading strategies. The participants were drawn from Cycle 2 EFL English teachers (n=211). Two questionnaires were incorporated in collecting the required data; the first questionnaire aimed at gleaning the perceptions of the English teachers …

My Father’S Secret, Yumeng Zhang

Theses

My thesis My Father’s Secret is a 20-minute short fiction film. It tells the story of a 17- year-old schoolboy Ying and his single father Hua, who live in a small town in China. Ying’s life is very peaceful until one day he finds out his father’s secret, that Hua had a gay lover Uncle Feng, the man who claimed to be Hua’s friend. Ying’s life changes and to make it worse, he learns that his father is dying. Ying has to accept the truth and, at the same time, begins to learn how to get along with Uncle Feng. …

Robust Algorithms For Unattended Monitoring Of Cardiovascular Health, Nicholas J. Conn

Theses

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Tracking daily changes in one’s cardiovascular health can be critical in diagnosing and managing cardiovascular disease, such as heart failure and hypertension. A toilet seat is the ideal device for monitoring parameters relating to a subject’s cardiac health in his or her home, because it is used consistently and requires no change in daily habit. The present work demonstrates the ability to accurately capture clinically relevant ECG metrics, pulse transit time based blood pressures, and other parameters across subjects and physiological states using a toilet seat-based cardiovascular monitoring …

Accounting For The Language Variance In Executive Function, Jessica Contreras

Theses

Language is considered an important precursor for executive function (EF) development, with advantages shown for bilinguals. The current study explored the impact of early bilingual language experience (spoken and sign language) on executive functions. Participants were deaf college students with cochlear implants. Participants language experiences were diverse. They varied in American Sign Language (ASL) and English proficiency, reported various ages for sign language acquisition, and reported different ages of implantation. Results indicate that age of acquisition, age of implantation, and English and ASL proficiency have no effect on these participants’ performance on the Color Trails Test, a measure of EF. …

A New Algorithm For Computing The Square Root Of A Matrix, John Nichols

Theses

There are several different methods for computing a square root of a matrix. Previous research has been focused on Newton's method and improving its speed and stability by application of Schur decomposition called Schur-Newton.

In this thesis, we propose a new method for finding a square root of a matrix called the exponential method. The exponential method is an iterative method based on the matrix equation (X - I)^(2) = C, for C an n x n matrix, that finds an inverse matrix at the final step as opposed to every step like Newton's method. We set up the matrix …

Directly Comparing Synthetic And Real Binary Black Hole Coalescence Sources With Numerical Solutions Of Einstein’S Equation, Jacob A. Lange

Theses

We compare real and synthetic data directly to complete numerical relativity simulations of binary black holes. Even though our method largely agrees with \cite{PEPaper}, our method goes beyond the existing semi-analytic models that were used. Comparisons with only the quadrupole modes constrain the redshifted mass $M_{z}\in[64 M_{\bigodot}-82 M_{\bigodot}]$, mass ratio $1/q=m_2/m_1\in[0.6,1]$, effective aligned spin $\chi_{eff}\in[-0.3,0.2]$, where $\chi_{eff}=(\mathbf{S}_1/m_1+\mathbf{S_2}/m_2)\cdot\mathbf{\hat{L}}/M$. If we include the octopole modes, we can constrain the mass ratio even better. Even though the spins are correlated, both magnitude and directions are not significantly constrained by the data. We determine that an upper limit for the spin magnitudes up to …

A Zebra In The Infield, Nelson R. Robinson Iv

Theses

“A Zebra in the Infield” is a dark comedy about a young African American man named Rotavious from the inner-city. Rotavious is a recent college graduate and he is venturing into the suburbs to purchase a car. After catching a bus to the predominantly Caucasian side of town, he is profiled and harassed by police officer Colescott. Officer Colescott searches Rotavious and finds the money that Rotavious has allocated for his new car, he seizes it as drug money. During a struggle for the money Officer Colescott is shot and Rotavious flees in fear. In his haste to flee he …

Towards Trustworthy Version Control Systems: Enhancing The Security Of Subversion, Ruchir Arya

Theses

Software development often relies on a Version Control System (VCS) to manage the source code, documentation and configuration of files. A VCS allows team development in which multiple developers can work simultaneously on source code updates. It also provides the ability to keep track of the historical changes made to the data over time, including the ability to retrieve previous versions of the source code in order to locate and fix bugs, and roll back to earlier versions in case the working version becomes buggy or unstable.

Apache Subversion (SVN) is a popular version control system that uses a client-server …

Virgil In Virginia: Eighteenth-Century Pastoralism And The Novus Ordo Seclorum, Alley Jordan

Theses

This work examines classical reception in early America. Specifically, it addresses the role of classical ideas on pastoralism in the thought of one of America’s founders, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson is best known for his role in the forming of United States government, but he was also influential on developing the idea of “America.” As such, his political theory on agrarian republicanism has strong ties to how the classical poets, such as Virgil and Theocritus, likewise thought about the relationship between land and government.