Digital Commons Network^™

Characterization Of 3d Printed Lattice Structures Used In The Design Of Modified Compression Release Stabilized Transhumeral Prosthetic Sockets, Jade Myers

Theses

Abstract A prosthetic socket is the critical interface between a person and their prosthetic device. Pressure, shear, and friction experienced by the residual limb from wearing a socket can damage soft tissue. While Compression Release Stabilized (CRS) style sockets are beneficial for enhancing prosthesis stability, range of motion, and control, the abrupt differences in compression throughout the socket present risks for tissue damage to the residual limb. A socket design that enables clinicians to control a progressive decrease in firmness in the transition areas between compression and release could mitigate such undesirable effects. Density-graded lattice structures designed and produced with …

Convicting The Innocent: The Impact Of Wrongful Conviction In The U.S. Criminal Legal System, Aubrie Entwood

Theses

Wrongful conviction is a justice system error with far-reaching consequences. This capstone project looks at four different issues within wrongful conviction and exoneration in the U.S. criminal legal system. Chapter 1 focuses on the impacts of wrongful conviction for female exonerees, highlighting the way they are different from male exonerees, the factors that contribute to wrongful conviction that are more salient to females, and the specific ways the police and courts contribute to the wrongful conviction of females. Special attention is paid to the “crimes” of female exonerees and the additional psychological consequences that many female exonerees suffer. Ways in …

Unsupervised Multi-Resolution Analysis Of Protein-Protein Abundance Patterns In Infectious Exacerbation Of Copd, Eric Everingham

Theses

Despite consistently appearing as a top 5 cause of death domestically and internationally, understandings of the underlying biological interactions of COPD remain insufficient. Particularly, early identification of highly vulnerable patients that may experience more severe infectious exacerbation is a challenge during diagnostics. This project leverages unsupervised clustering and multi-resolution decomposition of proteomic abundance profiles in a small cohort of COPD subjects to identify candidate biomarkers of heightened exacerbation risk. As part of an ongoing study, serum and sputum samples were collected during well visits (stable illness) from n=67 subjects, and analyzed using quantitative proteomics. A scores principal component analysis was …

Performance Evaluation Of Residential Design In Four Different Climate Zones Using Passive House Strategies And Metrics, Ian Luhmann

Theses

This study presents a comprehensive performance evaluation of residential designs across four different climate zones, employing Passive House strategies and metrics to achieve energy efficiency, comfort, and sustainability. The Passive House standard, recognized for its rigorous approach to energy-efficient buildings, is the cornerstone of this research. The objective is to adapt and optimize residential designs to meet the specific climate conditions of each zone while adhering to the Passive House principles and noting the modifications necessary to do so.

Characterizing The Evaporating Droplets Over Heterogeneous Wettability Surfaces, Xi Li

Theses

This work investigates deposition patterns left by evaporating particle-laden droplets on heterogeneous surfaces with spatially varying wettability. Spatial differences in receding contact angles give rise to scalloped-shaped contact lines. During evaporation, the contact line recedes in one location and remains pinned in another. This non-uniform contact line recession results in particle self-assembly above areas where the contact line remains pinned, but not where it recedes. This behavior is fairly robust across a variety of particle sizes, concentrations, and device geometries. We hypothesize that particle self-assembly in these cases is due to the competition between particle diffusion and the evaporative-driven advective …

Towards An Efficient Machine Learning Based Phish Detection System, Hamad Alfalasi

Theses

Over the recent past, the world has experienced a digital revolution that has profoundly transformed many aspects of human life. This revolution has redefined the way individuals interact, how businesses operate, and how societies function. For businesses, operations have been fundamentally altered, changing the way they interact with customers and other businesses through digital tools and platforms used for transactions. Phishing, a deceitful approach, leverages technological and social tricks to access sensitive personal information, including financial details. A common attack mode involves installing harmful software on electronic devices to gain unauthorized access to personal information, particularly usernames and passwords of …

Hybrid Test-Smell Based Approach For Prediction Of Flaky Tests, Saurabh Bodke

Theses

Regression testing is an essential component in software development, aimed at verifying that recent code changes do not negatively impact existing functionalities. A prevalent challenge in this area is the occurrence of flaky tests, which exhibit inconsistent outcomes—passing or failing without any code alterations. Such tests erode the reliability of automated testing frameworks, leading to increased debugging efforts and diminished confidence in software stability. This research addresses the challenge of flaky tests by exploring machine learning and prediction models, specifically focusing on test smells and four principal root causes of flakiness: Async Wait, Concurrency, Test Order Dependency, and Resource Leak. …

Improving The Test Smell-Based Detection Of Flaky Tests, Shubham Kumar Karum

Theses

Regression testing, a critical process in software development, ensures that the recent code changes have not adversely affected existing functionality. A significant challenge in this domain is the existence of flaky tests—tests that inconsistently pass or fail without any changes to the code. These flaky tests undermine the reliability of automated testing and can lead to increased debugging and decreased confidence in software stability. To tackle the issue of flaky tests, there exists approaches that make use of machine learning and prediction models. However, approaches that rely on analyzing test case vocabulary typically face challenges like higher costs to run …

Enhancing Efficiency And Sustainability: Retrofitting Fluorescent Lights To Leds, Khalifa Alshaiba

Theses

This research work emphasizes the urgent need to implement energy-efficient lighting technologies, particularly the retrofit of fluorescent lights with LED alternatives, in order to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to that maintaining operational safety and sustainability, improving energy efficiency is essential in Dubai's industries, which are major consumers of electricity and economic drivers. The project's goal is to retrofit energy-efficient LED lighting into a well-known packaging company's current fluorescent lighting systems. In doing so, the project hopes to improve illumination quality and minimize maintenance needs while lowering energy consumption, operating expenses, and environmental impact. The goals …

The Implementation Of Trauma Informed Design In The United States Prison Campus: A Standardized Design Methodology, Quille A. Hughes

Theses

The concept of spaces for punishment has been a topic of conversation for centuries. Only now are members of the community touching the surface of concepts that rewrite the methodology behind the design of these spaces in the hopes of providing a different outcome: rehabilitation. Trauma-Informed Design as a concept is in its infancy, and therefore requires decades of research into the effects of its installation; there is no greater need for this consideration than in the United States criminal justice institution. This thesis will not attempt to cover the changes necessary to United States prison policy. It will instead …

Predicting Cost Contingency In Retrofit Projects Using Machine Learning Techniques, Dana Amin

Theses

Project contingency is one of the most important preliminary processes in any project estimation as it ensures the project risk for cost over-run due to uncertainties , in light of that, it is also important to make sure that the project contingency is not overestimated to maintain competitiveness in the market. This project aims to develop contingency decision support tool using ML techniques in order to predict the optimum contingency cost that balances between maintaining business competitiveness in the market and achieving project objectives. Different ML ways were evaluated and based on accuracy level ; Random Forest was found to …

Measurements Of The Sunyaev- Zel'dovich Effect In A Herschel- Spire Survey Of Galaxy Clusters, Ryan Wills

Theses

As the largest gravitationally bound objects in the modern universe, galaxy clusters are excellent environments for studying the large-scale structure and evolution of matter in the cosmos. The environments of galaxy clusters change significantly over time from sites of intense star formation at z ~ 2-4 to mostly quenched objects with very little star formation in the current epoch. During this evolution, galaxy clusters also establish an intra-cluster medium (ICM) of hot plasma, which is typically firmly in place by a redshift of z ~ 1. The properties of the ICM are intimately tied to the formation history of the …

Towards Bias-Resilient Deep Neural Networks, Robik Shrestha

Theses

Deep learning systems have brought about a paradigm shift in the field of artificial intelligence, often surpassing human performance across a wide range of tasks. Nonetheless, there are numerous apprehensions regarding their robustness when deployed in the real world. Multiple studies have demonstrated that deep learning models tend to latch onto biases present in their training data instead of truly solving the tasks. Given the pervasive nature of this issue across various datasets and tasks, researchers have proposed a variety of techniques to improve bias resilience. However, the evaluation protocols used in prior works leave many open questions regarding their …

Understanding Drivers Of Local Opposition To Renewable Energy Projects To Improve Adoption Of Clean Energy, Bryson Russell

Theses

The world faces a crisis; climate change is beginning to show more damaging effects on our planet. Without human intervention to stop these effects from worsening, they are predicted to escalate, such as mass extinctions and more frequent natural disasters. In order to curb climate change, the world must begin a transition to renewable and green energy sources as soon as it is feasible. One of the potential forces slowing the transition to renewables is the public's perception and opposition. For example, a spot for a photovoltaic solar farm may be the most economically optimal, but if the community does …

Effect Of Fabrication Pressure And Nmc Cathode Composition On Lpscl Electrolyte For Solid-State Battery Performance Improvement, Winervil James

Theses

Batteries are a key energy storage solution for a sustainable energy future. They provide carbon free power to portable devices such as mobile phones, laptops, and even electric vehicles. With further improvements to battery performance¸ the diversity of machines that can be electrified will increase. Solid state batteries (SSBs) have the potential to provide much greater energy density compared to conventional batteries. Greater energy density will help address the power to size ratio limitation of conventional batteries. Despite improvements in these major areas, SSBs still face some significant operational challenges. The study herein focuses on improving the performance of a …

One Man’S Trash, Jordan Tavan

Theses

This thesis explores perception through ambiguous mixed-media sculpture in order to create the potential for people to question their assumptions of what “is.” Judgments, categorization, and assumptions are big parts of the ways we make sense of our world. Often, we’re wrong about them. This artwork is created in response to the lifelong experience of existing outside the lines – the experience of breaking social rules and the desire for others to realize the potential for multiple truths.

From Chinese Language To Female - Him, Humans And Us, Dandong Ouyang

Theses

To establish a new sense of ownership of the female figure in my studio practice, this thesis investigates the unspoken secondary existence of women implied in the structural systems of both language and portraiture.

Intraoperative Neuromonitoring, Xian Boles

Theses

The purpose of this project is to increase accessibility to safe surgical practices by educating medical professionals on the complex topic of intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM). Working in collaboration with content advisor and neurosurgeon Dr. Wenya Linda Bi and her neuromonitoring team, Mitali Bose, CNIM, and Matthew Toczylowski, CNIM, an online, interactive training module has been developed and hosted on the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Skull Base Laboratory website. The training module covers various monitoring modalities, safety techniques, electrode setups, and clinical applications through a series of 2D illustrations and 3D interactive Sketchfab models. A total of five interactive models and …

Application Of Ai In Financial Sector: Earnings Call Dataset Analysis, Kesa M. Abbas

Theses

Deep learning has emerged as a cornerstone in diverse scientific domains, demonstrating profound implications both in academic research and conventional applications. The utilization of deep learning has branched to the financial sector for stock prediction, management of assets, credit score analysis, etc. During the end of the financial fiscal year, top executives present their companies’ growth and losses in earnings calls. These earnings calls invariably webcasted, furnish stakeholders with insights into a firm’s fiscal performance during a given period. These audios along with transcripts are published on the company website for the general public. If these audio and transcripts are …

Political Propaganda In The Reredos Of Our Lady Of Light, Owen Keith Medina Loftus

Theses

This master's thesis explores the Reredos of Our Lady of Light, a stone monument situated as the focal point of a former military chapel known as La Castrense in Colonial Santa Fe, New Mexico. Crafted by Bernardo Miera y Pacheco in 1761, the reredos is analyzed as a multifaceted masterpiece that blends religious symbolism with propaganda messaging. Its central location in the capital and meticulous design make it a potent tool employed to shape perceptions, reinforce beliefs, and incite the viewer to take action in support of both the Roman Catholic faith and the ever-growing interests of the king and …

Discourses Across Periods Of Time, Amanda Raquel Moreno

Theses

This literature review explores the revolutionary effect of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) on digital art history, specifically concentrating on their capacity to enable dialogical exchanges with historical figures and deepen the understanding of artworks. This study considers the current state of research, detecting key methodologies, areas of improvement, and possible challenges and ethical concerns. The example historical figure used in this analysis is the iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Kahlo’s refusal to correspond to a specific artistic style makes her an ideal subject for generative AI and VR-based investigation, offering fresh insights into her work. The …

Noises Off: A Full Length Play Master's Thesis, Amelia Morse Kolkmeyer

Theses

Amelia Morse Kolkmeyer's master's thesis, Noises Off: A Full-Length Play, explores the complexities of performing Michael Frayn’s farcical stage production. The thesis delves into the play’s structure as a “play-within-a-play,” analyzing the chaos behind the scenes of Nothing On, the fictional show within Noises Off. Kolkmeyer focuses on her portrayal of Dotty Otley, an aging actress, and her character within Nothing On, Mrs. Clackett, a Cockney housekeeper.

The thesis examines the physical and technical demands of the production, particularly its intricate blocking and fast-paced comedic timing. Kolkmeyer reflects on the challenges of maintaining distinct characterizations, switching …

A Socio-Hydrological Assessment Of Illinois Levee Systems, Nicholas Keller

Theses

Recent inspections conducted on levee safety in the U.S. that participate in the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Levee Safety Program under Public-Law 84-99 have shown that the overwhelming majority (>95%) of these levees have at least some deficiency associated with them, and many being identified as having an unacceptable safety rating (≈30%). In the U.S., many levees were constructed using funding from the federal government, but the responsibility of operation and maintenance of the levees were turned over to local government bodies. Given the local funding of levee maintenance, the socioeconomic characteristics of these levee-protected communities …

Shift Variant Image Deconvolution Using Deep Learning, Arnab Ghosh

Theses

Image Deconvolution is a well-studied problem that seeks to restore the original sharp image from a blurry image formed in the imaging system. The Point Spread function(PSF) of a particular system can be used to infer the original sharp image given the blurred image. However, such a problem is usually simplified by making the shift-invariant assumption over the Field of View (FOV). Realistic systems are shift-variant; the optical system’s point spread function depends on the position of the object point from the principal axis. For example, asymmetrical lenses can cause space variant aberration. In this paper, we first simulate our …

Haptic2fa: A Haptic-Based 2-Factor Authentication Method For Blind And Low-Vision Users, Palavi Vinod Bhole

Theses

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is one of the widely adopted authentication methods used in almost all the latest technologies. However, 2FA methods such as one-time passcodes (OTPs) can be inaccessible for blind and low vision (BLV) people due to the requirement of multiple steps, apps and/or devices for authentication and, pose security risks as screen readers may read out the verification codes to bystanders. I propose this study which was conducted in three parts. Part one of the study focused on exploring and understanding accessibility challenges faced by BLV users when using 2FA methods. Through a survey with 62 participants (34 …

The Role Of Large Language Models (Llms) Driven Chatbots In Shaping The Future Of Government Services And Communication With Citizens In Uae, Dina Fares

Theses

As technological advancements continue to redefine the landscape of Government Services and Communication with Citizens in the UAE, and in line with the UAE government's efforts towards achieving the UAE charter for future services, the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) driven chatbots emerges as a pivotal factor in shaping the future of government services and communication with citizens in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Through a comprehensive review of literature and collaboration with industry experts, this thesis explores the development of AI-based chatbots and the introduction of the breakthrough in the field of Deep Learning Language models (Transformers, and …

Tapered-Precision Numerical Formats For Deep Learning Inference And Training, Seyed Hamed Fatemi Langroudi

Theses

The demand to deploy deep learning models on edge devices has recently increased due to their pervasiveness, in applications ranging from healthcare to precision agriculture. However, a major challenge with current deep learning models, is their computational complexity. One approach to address this limitation is to compress the deep learning models by employing low-precision numerical formats. Such low-precision models often suffer from degraded inference or training accuracy. This lends itself to the question, which low-precision numerical format can meet the objective of high training accuracy with minimal resources? This research introduces tapered-precision numerical formats for deep learning inference and training. …

Analysis Of Molecular Dynamics Simulations Relevant To Combining Polarized Neutron Scattering With Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Stella Van Ness

Theses

The goal of this thesis is to contribute to the study of combining nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and neutron scattering to study liquid structure. NMR could be used to polarize select atoms in a target molecule in a neutron scattering system. Molecular dynamics (MD) was used to simulate a system of thienopyridazine dissolved into deuterated methanol. A robust function was constructed to calculate the scattering cross-sections resulting from this system, as they depend on the polarization and spin states of the hyperpolarizable hydrogen atoms. This function can be used in the future to estimate signal-to-noise characteristics of specific experimental designs.

Prediction Of Unplanned 30-Day Readmission Of Heart Failure Patients Using Lstm, Jesdin Raphael

Theses

In the context of heart failure, a leading cause of hospitalization in the United States, approximately 15\% of patients discharged within 30 days face readmission, contributing to escalated healthcare costs and compromised clinical outcomes. This study leverages a wealth of personal information extracted from Emergency Health Records (EHRs) spanning two decades. This research aims to enhance the predictive capabilities of re-hospitalization for cardiac patients by creating a two-stage LSTM model while incorporating features into regression and time series datasets. A critical aspect of this study involves ensuring the integration of all relevant features across both datasets. Including constant data elements, …

The Effect Of Tensile Reloading On The Lüder Phenomena In Aisi 1524 Steel Alloy, Mohamed Rashid Almatroushi

Theses

Some low-carbon steels, magnesium-aluminum alloys, and nickel-based alloys exhibit plastic flow instability at their respective yield points in the form of a drop and plateau of stress in the stress-strain curve. This phenomenon is often referred to as the Lüder phenomenon in the yield point elongation region of the stress-strain curve. The Lüder phenomenon is characterized by the formation of regions, or bands, of high strain intensity at certain locations on the material. This behavior has been shown to be affected by several parameters such as material composition, grain size, temperature, strain rate, and microstructure to name a few. This …