Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling Naturally Occurring Wildfires Across The Us Using Niche Modeling, Brandon Polk

Theses

Wildfires can cause significant damage to an area by destroying forested and agricultural areas, homes, businesses, and leading to the potential loss of life. Climate change may further increase the frequency of wildfires. Thus, developing a quick, simple, and accurate method for identifying key drivers that cause wildfires and modeling and predicting their occurrence becomes very important and urgent. Various modeling methods have been developed and applied for this purpose. The objective of this study was to identify key drivers and search for an appropriate method for modeling and predicting natural wildfire occurrence for the United States. In this thesis, …

Regional Sustainable Standard Exploration: The Case Of Chinese Rural Areas, Jinzuo Zhang

Theses

Evaluation criterion of sustainability is an effective method of protecting stable Eco-system, enhancing life quality and reducing the waste of resource.

Recently, with the emergence of resource shortage and environmental degradation, people started to shift their attention to the development of sustainability, which is to find the balance among social, environmental and economic factors. Especially in the end of the 20th century, the concepts of sustainability had been approved by the countries around the world [8]. Some developed countries took the lead in starting develop sustainable practices and set evaluation standard based on the real needs of project construction.

However, …

Evaluating Public Hearing Testimony In The Context Of A High-Risk Environmental Rulemaking: Does Public Hearing Testimony Provide The Epa With The Information The Agency Requests In Its Proposed Rulemaking?, Deborah Stein

Theses

Does public hearing testimony provide the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the information the agency requests in its proposed rulemaking? In one EPA proposed rulemaking, the agency requests public comment on approximately 140 topics specific to the proposed rulemaking. This analysis examines the testimony from two public hearings to see if the speakers provided any of the information the agency requested. Public hearings are used frequently in our democratic system and can vary substantially. The public hearings associated with a high-risk environmental proposed rulemaking are compared to characteristics that are common to public hearings in general. The public participation characteristics …

A Multilevel Examination Of The Black Middle Class, Segregation, And Neighborhood Crime, Claire A. Greene

Theses

In The Declining Significance of Race, William Julius Wilson (1987) raised key questions about the fate of urban black class structure and the social organization of black communities in the wake of civil rights era reforms. Unlike in previous decades, Wilson asserted that today’s black neighborhoods comprise almost exclusively of the most disadvantaged segments of the African American population, and therefore lack the basic opportunities, resources, and social controls necessary to reduce crime. In response, this study moves away from a focus on the “ghetto” poor to contextualize the neighborhood crime conditions of middle class blacks. Drawing on social …

Mpls & Qos In Virtual Environments, Amar Madhavan

Theses

The rise of high performance computing has seen a shift of services from locally managed Data Centers, to centralized globally redundant Data Centers (Cloud Computing). The scale of operation and churn required for cloud computing has in turn led to the rise of faster and programmable network pathing, via SDN & NFV. Cloud compute resources are accessible to individual researchers, as well as larger organizations. Cloud computing relies heavily on virtualization and abstraction of resources. The interconnect between these resources is more complex than ever, due to the need to seamlessly move from virtual to physical to hybrid networks and …

Wave Energy Assessment In Southern Central Java Island And Control Method For Maximizing The Captured Power In Wave Energy Converters, Fatima Sultan Ghdayer Ali Alaryani

Theses

This thesis discusses the wave energy potential of the Indian Ocean on the south coast of Central Java Island, where no previous known similar study has been conducted. A control technique that involves a dynamic electrical model was established. The following objectives were achieved. The first was to determine the ideal location to implement wave energy conversion (WEC), and the second objective was to simulate the significant wave height by using the novel control method.

To achieve these goals, the following steps and procedures were implemented. Wave energy assessment was conducted for the Indian Ocean on the south coast of …

Performance Study For Capillary Machine-To-Machine Networks, Maisaa Othman Albaghdadi

Theses

Communication technologies witness a wide and rapid pervasiveness of wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. It is emerging to apply for data transfer among devices without human intervention. Capillary M2M networks represent a candidate for providing reliable M2M connectivity. In this thesis, we propose a wireless network architecture that aims at supporting a wide range of M2M applications (either real-time or non-real-time) with an acceptable QoS level. The architecture uses capillary gateways to reduce the number of devices communicating directly with a cellular network such as LTE. Moreover, the proposed architecture reduces the traffic load on the cellular network by providing capillary …

Interactive Dynasty: An Effective Way To Learn About The Tang Dynasty History, Xiangyin Li

Theses

Today, interaction design is applied to multiple areas of visual communication and instructional design. Interactive elements can be found in websites, apps, and kiosk terminal equipment. Through the integration of interactive content such as step-by-step tutorials, the user can acquire a variety of different types of information efficiently and effectively to learn about historical events.

China has one of the longest and continuous cultures today. Its own unique charisma attracts many history buffs to learn more about important historical events. Kiosk terminals in history museums have successfully provided a learning environment for users to learn about China through interaction design. …

Boundless Intemperance : Macbeth, Moderation, And Social Norms In The Early Modern Era, Kathleen M. Padilla

Theses

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth insists, “Th’expedition of my violent love / Outran the pauser, reason” (2.3.107-108). These lines can be attributed to Macbeth’s penchant for excess that overpowers his ability to reason. Reason allows men to live harmoniously within a community, and the early modern era constructed safeguards to ensure men acted within prescribed conventions to prevent the collapse of the government. In this thesis, I will address Macbeth’s inability to reason due to his immoderacy and the resulting consequences to the state. Thus, this paper argues that the behavioral extremes depicted by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are detrimental …

A Spatial Analysis Of Climate Change Effects On Maize Productivity In Kenya, Dan Wanyama

Theses

Climate change has intensified the risk of catastrophic natural disasters all over the world. Though impacts of the change are global, developing countries are more at risk. Although agriculture remains the backbone of Kenya’s economy, the sector’s dependence on natural resources increases its vulnerability to the aggravating impacts of climate change and variability. Climate system variations that impact staple food crops like maize (Zea mays) ultimately threaten the food security of the nation. This study examined environmental factors affecting maize productivity through regression analysis. A GIS suitability model for maize was also developed to identify Kenya’s different levels of suitability …

The Socioeconomic Impact Of Indian Gaming On Kumeyaay Nations: A Case Study Of Barona, Viejas, And Sycuan, 1982 - 2016, Ethan L. Banegas

Theses

This study will use the reservations of Barona, Viejas, and Sycuan to measure the socioeconomic impacts of gaming within the Kumeyaay nation. It will also draw on information available from other gaming tribes. To organize my research, I will use the following categories: health, education, economics and infrastructure. Within these four topics I will cover: investment capital, poverty, higher education, internet access, alcohol addiction, suicide rates, obesity, diabetes, and other socioeconomic indicators. Once this is accomplished I will assess the social and economic impact of gaming on Barona, Viejas, and Sycuan and include the possible implications to heal historical trauma …

The Nature And Scope Of Outdoor Education In Western Australian Secondary Schools, Duncan Picknoll

Theses

Outdoor Education (OE) is an important learning area taught in many Western Australian (WA) schools. However, very little is known about its nature and scope, and how its delivery may differ between school sectors. Given the valuable contribution of OE to the holistic development of children and adolescents, it appears to be an under-resourced and undervalued learning area.

The primary aim of this study was to gather data regarding where and how OE was being taught in secondary schools in WA and to compare the findings to similar studies undertaken in Victoria, South Australia (SA), New Zealand and Singapore.

This …

Implementing Sensory And Emotional Intelligence Into Architectural Design Education In Ireland., Aoife Hayes

Theses

The 21^st century, as a whole, has seen massive developments in smart technologies, environmental strategies and architectural form. The 3D built environment is advancing on a daily basis, but has become a very two dimensional experience, frontloaded with screened imagery and visual stimuli, which has encouraged a trend of ocular-centric dominance. Unfortunately, as a result of this, the human experience is often lost. The prioritisation of the multi-sensorial human experience is not only at threat from this visual predominance, but also environmental concerns and economy seem to hold a greater place on the hierarchy. Research carried out by the …

Mobile Learning In Early Childhood Education: A School-University Partnership Model, Serena Davie

Theses

Mobile learning (mLearning) devices are ideal for 21st century learning. mLearning devices are light and, therefore, mobile so that young children can use them anywhere. Examples of mLearning devices are tablet computers, programmable robots such as Bee-Bots and robotic Lego. The term 21st century learning is used around the world and includes the skills of collaboration, communication, new literacy, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. New literacy has emerged because of new technologies and being literate in the 21st century now includes being digitally literate. However, mLearning is not widely used in early childhood education despite the fact that schools are …

Singing Exile: Music In Irish Emigration Literature, Christopher Mccann

Theses

Ireland possesses a cultural heritage that is particularly literary and musical. The island is also renowned for its extensive and ongoing history of emigration, and imagery of exile and return is as intrinsic to conceptions of Irishness as the island’s artistic lineage. The impact on the creation of a modern Irish identity by exilic Irish writers and musicians is testament to this relationship.

The act of emigration can be conceived as a narrative of individual identity framed by a wider cultural discourse. It is therefore natural that the themes of exile and departure are a frequent presence in Irish art, …

Variation In Larval Behavior Across The Ecologically Distinct Host Populations Of The Cactophilic Drosophila Mojavensis, Joshua Coleman

Theses

Ecological host shifts likely have a major impact on the evolution of species. The host shift can result in an organism being faced with significant chemical, nutritional, volumetric, and other challenges, which may lead to adaptation. Host shifts can lead to speciation by prezygotic isolation, and even reinforcement through postzygotic isolation. This study looks at behavioral differences in terms of larval activity in populations of Drosophila mojavensis which have experienced host shifts. The mean speed of the four populations of D. mojavensis larvae were measured, and considered in the ecological context. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) DNA library was prepared …

Analysis Of Rediscovered Data From Apollo 17'S Lunar Seismic Profiling Experiment : Evidence For Events Associated With Sunrise, Deanna Phillips

Theses

Rediscovered data from Apollo 17’s Lunar Seismic Profiling Experiment (LSPE) are a new untapped resource for probing lunar structure. LSPE, the last seismic instrument deployed on the Moon, was designed to detect artificial seismic signatures, but also listened passively from 1976 to 1977. This 40-year-old data went unstudied due to the cancellation of the Apollo program. The analyses presented here show no evidence for correlations with the Apollo 12-16 seismic event catalog. However, the LSPE geophones have also been used as a small-aperture seismic array to identify local thermally-induced events. Supporting evidence comes from a strong association with Apollo 17 …

Framing Of Skill Problems, Kirk M. Winans

Theses

More frequently since the Great Recession, various concerns about a “skills gap” have been raised by industry leaders and organizations, politicians, and some economists. The most basic definition of a “skills gap” is that the workforce does not possess the skills required by employers. The most prominent concerns have been with STEM education and “middle skills” occupations, those that require more than a high school diploma but less than a 4-year degree. However, the various causes and solutions to these issues are widespread. Much of the alarm has been stimulated by reports published by industry and trade organizations asserting specific …

Icosatree Data Partitioning Of Massive Geospatial Point Clouds With User-Selectable Entities And Surface Modeling, Stephen Walter Ranger

Theses

Massive point cloud data sets are currently being created and studied in academia, the private sector, and the military. Many previous attempts at rendering point clouds have allowed the user to visualize the data in a three-dimensional way but did not allow them to interact with the data and would require all data to be in memory at runtime. Recently, a few systems have emerged that deal with real-time rendering of massive point clouds with on-the-fly level of detail modification that handles out-of-core processing but these systems have their own limitations. With the size and scale of massive point cloud …

E-Government In Amarah: Challenges And Recommendations For Future Implementation, Reem Jabbar Abdulbaqi

Theses

The growth and changes in the 21st century in the sectors of economics, politics, and technology mean that governments must provide all the services that can serve the demands of their citizens. One way for governments to facilitate this is by implementing e-government. E-government migrates services previously implemented by government employees to internet connected systems accessible by citizens from wherever they are at whatever time they are needed. This system can connect citizens to the government ministries via rule-based systems. Amarah, a city in the south of Iraq, started to integrate electronic systems into the facilities of the city in …

Circular Economy And System Thinking Framework In Design; Food System Design, Mehrafza Mirzazad Barijugh

Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to bring the circular economy framework and system thinking into the process of design thinking. The traditional design process is made up of five steps: 1) Discover a challenge. 2) Interpret the challenge. 3) Create opportunities and ideas. 4) Develop a solution and experiment with it. 5) Evolve the idea. This project is structured upon a methodology generated to apply a circular system framework in design that begins with taking a holistic view of topic. This methodology structured into five phases. The first phase is referring to this approach as moving from Macrocosm to …

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 …

Challenges To The Governance Of Water Security In The Uae, Shaikha Saif Mohamed Alghafli

Theses

In the recent past, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has seen tremendous economic growth, which has put pressure on its existing natural resources. Hence, the government of the UAE is working extensively on developing a strategic framework for sustainable water management. This study is aimed at analyzing the challenges to the governance of water security in the UAE. Evidence was collected from nine semi-structured interviews with senior officials and academics from different government agencies in the UAE. Quantitative data was collected on water consumption in the UAE in various sectors from a range of authorities (FCSA, DSC, MOENR, ADWEA, DEWA, …

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 …

Death With Dignity: The Legislative Wave Of The Future, Justin M. Downey

Theses

The objective of this paper is to determine whether the United States will experience a significant increase in the passage of Death with Dignity legislation. The methods used to predict future legislation was a comparative examination of the history of the legislation politically and socially within the United States. The historical trends of the legislation were compared with global trends as well as current societal factors that may influence legislation. The results will indicate that societal factors such as global influence, social media and the Baby Boom generation will have a dramatic affect in the rapid increase in Death with …

Learning For Cross-Layer Resource Allocation In The Framework Of Cognitive Wireless Networks, Wenbo Wang

Theses

The framework of cognitive wireless networks is expected to endow wireless devices with a cognition-intelligence ability with which they can efficiently learn and respond to the dynamic wireless environment. In this dissertation, we focus on the problem of developing cognitive network control mechanisms without knowing in advance an accurate network model. We study a series of cross-layer resource allocation problems in cognitive wireless networks. Based on model-free learning, optimization and game theory, we propose a framework of self-organized, adaptive strategy learning for wireless devices to (implicitly) build the understanding of the network dynamics through trial-and-error.

The work of this dissertation …

The Case Of Villa Benfica: Retrofitting A Multifamily Building In A Hot And Humid Climate For Energy Efficiency, Carolina Kuhner Camara Dos Santos

Theses

Buildings and constructions occupy 50% or more of a city's land area and impact the environment with their elevated energy consumption. The current debates involving alternatives to limit the impacts of climate change have informed decision makers, architects, and engineers on design alternatives addressing energy efficiency in new constructions, but the existing building stock requires adaptation. Existing buildings are locked in an inefficient typology. In this context, this work presents energy efficient strategies to retrofit a typical residential building in Recife, Brazil. The study involves the application of three retrofit strategies concerning the building envelope to a baseline building, and …

The Design And Implementation Of Grit-T: Rit's Next-Generation Field-Portable Goniometer System, Justin D. Harms

Theses

Various field portable goniometers have been designed to capture in-situ measurements of a material’s bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF), each with a specific scientific purpose in mind.[1, 2, 3, 4] The Rochester Institute of Technology’s (RIT) Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science recently created a novel instrument incorporating a wide variety of features into one compact apparatus in order to obtain very high accuracy BRDFs of short vegetation and sediments, even in undesirable conditions and austere environments. This next generation system integrates a dual-view design using two VNIR/SWIR spectroradiometers to capture target reflected radiance, as well as incoming radiance, …

Connecting For Better Health: Discovering Differences In Self-­‐Reported Preference In The Environment Of Social Media In Healthcare Communications, Ashley Zeh

Theses

Though working as a vital service to the community, health care companies have the same

challenges as other businesses needing to remain competitive in the marketplace. Health care providers, however, have the additional challenge of providing healthcare communications that are valuable to society. Social media presents a new environment for healthcare providers to communicate and form a relationship with their patient community. Better insights into this new environment are necessary in order to establish how patients self-report differences in preference for the different types of technology-mediated communications. Through survey methods, this study looks into the differences in self-reported claims of …

Re-Thinking The Urban Form Of Social Housing In Brazil: A Search For Urban Sustainability, Lis Moreira Cavalcante

Theses

During the last decade, Brazil has witnessed the construction of an unprecedented number of social housing developments, due to an ambitious federal program named “My House My Life” (Minha Casa Minha Vida - MCMV). In seven years, it has contracted 4.2 million of housing units, and 2.6 million of them were already delivered to beneficiaries. The program is currently in its third phase, and it covers three different ranges of income with two main goals: to boost the construction sector and reduce the housing deficit of the country by encouraging homeownership. However, the resultant large scale developments are providing residents …