Digital Commons Network^™

Design For Optimizing Food Waste, Maitrayee Sohni

Theses

Having a sustainable food system, which compliments the food production today is a global need. This paper aims to answer what can be done to make the system and products, not just sustainable but how to create a behavioral change towards a sustainable lifestyle and conscious consumption. This paper was initiated to research a solution for food waste in the current system. At the beginning itself, it shows how elaborate the problem is, and needs to be narrowed down. Thus it has been focused on an American household of young adults.

By understanding their behavior, habit, and lifestyle, it leads …

Posture Support Equipment To Support Sitting For Lengthy Periods, Teng Teng

Theses

Most people can't avoid sitting for long periods of time. Many people spend a lot of time in their chairs due to their work hours, medical issues, or sedentary lifestyle. The way a person sits, the time he or she sits, and the way he or she sits has a huge impact on the quality of a person's life. Many chronic diseases are caused by improper sitting postures. When working, studying or even resting, people like to spend a long time sitting in chairs without standing up or moving around. Staying in one position for long periods can lead to …

The Athlete’S Concussion Epidemic, Andrew James Marsh

Theses

The main goal of this project is to inform and educate you on the various threads concerning concussions in the world of sports. Athletes competing in contact sports at a high level are at risk of receiving a mild traumatic brain injury as well as suffering from post concussion syndrome. The reader can review the state of concussions and receive professional information from doctors and trainers. The audience can also get an inside look into the minds of players who have dealt with this injury themselves. One will find qualitative and quantitative data that presents information related to mental health …

User Experience – Lindenwood University Admissions Website, Dillon Edward Bittiker

Theses

This project focuses on how to improve Lindenwood University’s admissions web page experience. The primary focus is to study current admissions staff member’s roles within the organization, and work to create a better online experience for them and their students.

Exploring English Teacher Beliefs And Actual Practice Of The Use Of Interactive Reading Strategies In Kindergarten Classes In Al Ain’S Schools, Saleha Saleh Al Harthi

Theses

This study aimed to investigate the beliefs of the kindergarten teachers in the UAE Ministry of Education on the assigned teaching and assessment reading strategies and to explore the implementation in teaching and assessment in Al Ain KG Literacy focus sessions. A questionnaire on teacher beliefs was distributed to 231 teachers in 26 Al Ain kindergartens and the convenience sample was conducted for this instrument. A random sample of 17 English teachers employed at 4 of the kindergartens was then observed for their implementation of reading strategies in the classroom. The participants were all from Al Ain city with at …

The Effect Of Β-Caryophyllene On Isoproterenol-Induced Myocardial Infarction, Farah M. Jamal Laham

Theses

Cannabinoid type 2 receptors (CB2), a key member of the endocannabinoid system have recently emerged as a crucial therapeutic target for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Downregulation of CB2 receptors has been witnessed in various cancers, neurological and cardiovascular disorders. Thus, the activation of CB2 receptors may protect against ISO-induced myocardial infarction (MI) in rats. The present study investigates the cardioprotective effect of a selective cannabinoid type 2 receptor agonist β-caryophyllene (BCP), a dietary phytocannabinoid, and a natural bicyclic sesquiterpene against isoproterenol (ISO)-induced MI in rats. Male albino Wistar rats were pre-and co-treated with β-caryophyllene (50 mg/kg, orally) twice daily for 10 …

Evaluating The Effects Of A Brief Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Intervention On Environmentally Sustainable Behavior, Anne Sheerin

Theses

The purpose of the present study was to use the principles of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to increase environmentally sustainable behavior among seven college-aged students. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy involves increasing mindfulness and psychological flexibility. All participants filled out a daily survey that ranked how much they had participated in environmentally sustainable behavior or if they had the opportunity to participate in it at all. Four participants then received three individual, brief ACT sessions with the researcher and three of these participants showed an average of a 20% increase overall in self-reported sustainable behaviors after the brief intervention in …

Correlating Direct And Indirect Executive Functioning Measures And Language Skills Of Children With Autism, Emily Claire Wagner

Theses

Executive functioning usually refers to one’s ability to regulate one’s behavior, set goals, be mentally flexible, and understand the consequence of one’s actions. However, certain neurodevelopmental disabilities such as Autism, often can negatively impact executive function processes. Although applied behavior analytic (ABA) treatment is the most recommended intervention for autism treatment practitioners rarely assess or target executive functioning within their treatment planning. The present study assessed the relationship between direct and indirect executive functioning scores and a language assessment used by ABA providers. Thirty-nine children with autism spectrum disorder were administered a variety of scales including the Behavior Rating Inventory …

Epics At The Bottom Of The River: Narratives Of Economic Development In French Louisiana, Kat Spears

Theses

A use of narrative and biographical history to describe how economic creolization developed French Louisiana.

An Interactive Medication Reminder To Bond Senior Citizens And Their Family Members, Bei Liu

Theses

This project is about assisting seniors in their daily life. More and more senior citizens in the world are facing the problem of living alone. After research, I find that medication is a very important part of seniors’ life. My design is about medication reminder that can also connect the seniors with their family members. At first, I focused on the social relationship of senior citizens and started to research medication reminders in the market. I also read many books and magazines about the medication of senior citizens and try to figure out the size and volume of my design. …

Breathing Pacer Device For Stress And Anxiety Relief, Maria Grazia Guerrero Bejarano

Theses

Stress and stress-related physical and mental diseases are increasing and affecting more people every day. There have been many approaches to try to solve this issue. Many of them are based on the idea that meditation and mindfulness breathing could improve these conditions. The problem is that not everyone can achieve those levels of meditation for that to work. Another issue is that those solutions are relying on a particular way of breathing to help all.

In contrast, this project developed under research that shows that the amount of CO₂ in a person's exhaled breath could be an indicator of …

Taxi Trips Prediction And Bus Capacity Coverage Analysis, Mohammad Odeh

Theses

Transportation agencies aim to serve the commuters with different transport modes through their transportation network, and they try to predict the demand to fulfil it either by optimizing their operation or by expanding their network and fleet capacity, and the only available data is the daily ridership data that can be captured by their ticketing system, this kind of data will help in optimizing the current operation in order to enhance availability of service and meeting the current demand. Encouraging people to use public transportation requires collecting more data about individuals trips using other modes like cars, taxi, Uber and …

Turn And Orientation Sensitive A* For Autonomous Vehicles In Intelligent Material Handling Systems, Rashmi Ballamajalu

Theses

Autonomous mobile robots are taking on more tasks in warehouses, speeding up operations and reducing accidents that claim many lives each year. This work proposes a dynamic path planning algorithm, based on A* search method for large autonomous mobile robots such as forklifts, and generates an optimized, time-efficient path. Simulation results of the proposed turn and orientation sensitive A* algorithm show that it has a 94% success rate of computing a better or similar path compared to that of default A*. The generated paths are smoother, have fewer turns, resulting in faster execution of tasks. The method also robustly handles …

Adaptive Reuse As A Means For Socially Sustainable (Re)Development: How Reuse Of Existing Buildings Can Help To Establish Community Identity And Foster Local Pride, Ian Gauger

Theses

Two trends in building today are urbanization and a focus on sustainability. Concerns about sustainability, especially in building and city design, have been growing for decades now, and are being driven forward by fears over the effects of climate change. Urbanization is rapid population growth in many cities around the world caused by an influx of people from suburban, exurban, and rural communities. In some parts of the United States which experienced suburbanization during the middle part of the 20th century, this is a return of population to the city, or a reurbanization. This growth has led to a need …

Elucidating The Effect Of Temperature And Concentration On The Rotational Diffusion Of Yb– Crystallin To Elucidate Inter-Protein Interactions, Olivia Fraser

Theses

γB – crystallin is a 21 kDa protein found in the lens of the bovine eye, existing without turnover. It shares 76% sequence identity with a human lens protein, γD – crystallin, with a structural RMSD of 0.8 Å by Dali (174 residues, Cα atoms only). Damages to and abnormalities on crystallin proteins can lead to phase separation and aggregation in the lens, resulting from aberrant inter-protein interactions, which can lead to partial or total blindness by cataract. The purpose of this work is to elucidate global inter-protein interactions of wild-type γB – crystallin by T1 and T2 relaxation NMR …

Aggregation As An Efficiency Driver In Bulk Heterojunction Devices Measured Through Mixed Squaraines In Ternary Blends, Soumya Gupta

Theses

While OPV offers great promise as a low-cost renewable energy source, the relatively low efficiency still challenges its commercialization potential. SQ dyes offer significant potential as a light-absorbing layer in OPV because of their high extinction coefficient, broad spectral absorption, and ease of tuning the chemical structure and packing motif. Devices incorporating SQ dyes, however, have shown low PCE. In this preliminary work, we seek to explore the relationship between low power conversion efficiency (PCE) of Squaraine (SQ) related Organic Photovoltaics (OPV) systems and the formation of aggregates with the help of mixed SQs in ternary blends. Four aniline based …

Have Objects, Will Travel: Object-Based Outreach To Solstice Independent Living At Fairport, New York, Taylor Carpenter

Theses

This thesis details my process in designing and delivering a program, “The Evolution of the Erie Canal,” to residents of the Solstice Senior Living at Fairport, New York, utilizing objects from the Rochester Museum & Science Center’s teaching collection. Given the ever-increasing population of American adults aged 55 and older, it is more important than ever for museums to create engaging programs aimed at this sector of the population. The goal of this project was to create a meaningful object-based experience for participants through discussion and reminiscence. My sources include findings from similar projects, literature on working with adult audiences, …

Design And Production Of 3d Animation Short Film “Memories Of The Post-80s”, Hui Shen

Theses

“The memories of the post-80s” is a 2minutes and 8 seconds 3D animated short film which tells a story of a young man named Kai who born in the post-80s in China, living in a modern, high-tech environment, but falling into a fantasy dream and reminiscing about his simple and happy life as a child. The most important question expressed in this short film is whether a more convenient, high-tech, fast-paced modern life is proportional to people's happiness index. The main reasons for this problem are multiple, such as working pressure, stressful life, repayment of loans, health, and so on. …

A Sustainable Residential Community That Promotes Urban Dwellers’ Well-Being – New City Development In Nanjing China, Xingyan Wang

Theses

The process of rapid urbanization has brought not only opportunities for the development of urban areas but also challenges for the design of quality urban space, especially for residential neighborhoods and public spaces. For the past four decades, the most common housing option for urban dwellers in China has been an apartment in a high-rise concrete tower in a gated residential community. This type of housing model initially improved the living conditions for residents and helped to solve the land shortage issue; however, that model can no longer fulfill residents’ demand for well-being or maintain a sustainable way of living. …

Implementation Of A Digital Asset Management System Using Human-Centered Design, Lynne Tseng

Theses

With all the people and activities involved, modern marketing and strategic communications departments are complex organizations. This complexity can lead to longer lead times to complete projects within specific and deadline-driven timeframes. Therefore, companies are turning to digital asset management (DAM) systems to streamline their workflows and become more efficient. However, without a comprehensive and strategic implementation plan, DAM systems are significantly less likely to be adopted by their end-users. This paper describes how a DAM system was selected and implemented in the marketing and strategic communications department of a large health system. By using a human-centered design methodology to …

The Effect Upon State Crime Rates Of The Legalization Of Recreational Marijuana In California, Robert Boxerman

Theses

This work examines criminal effects of the legalization of recreational marijuana in the state of California in 2016. While multiple states have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes, there is little empirical evidence to determine the criminal effect, if any, of introducing marijuana products into the legal market. The research analyzes crime rates pre and post legalization. Crime rates from the years 1990-2018 are taken from the California Attorney General Office “Crime in California” annual report, and consist of FBI Part I offenses: murder and non-negligent homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft, and arson. Misdemeanor drug arrests, …

The Fourth Wall, Serenity Dougherty

Theses

“The Fourth Wall” is the beginning of a fiction novel set in the comedy scene in Lincoln, NE during the #MeToo movement. The story follows a young female comedian in the scene, Kara, from the perspectives of several significant people in her life. Though the novel never inhabits Kara’s perspective directly, it seeks to give readers an intimate look at the difficulty she faces as she tries to navigate the male-dominated world of stand-up comedy during a time when the community is being forced to confront its troubling history of sweeping reports of sexual violence under the rug.

Race Differences In Youths’ Attitudes Towards Arming Teachers: Investigating The Role Of Procedural Justice, Faraneh Shamserad

Theses

Over the course of the last two decades, anxiety over school shootings has continued to influence school safety reform. Due to prominent news coverage and growing fear over school shootings, school securitization in American public schools has expanded to include the arming of schoolteachers. While supporters advocate for the need to arm schoolteachers, little is known about the level of support the policy receives from the very people it is intended to protect - students. Although research examining students’ perceptions of school security is scant, existing research suggests that target-hardening measures may be counterproductive and that there are racial differences …

Automated Brain Segmentation Methods For Clinical Quality Mri And Ct Images, Viraj Reddy Adduru

Theses

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder associated with brain tissue loss. Accurate estimation of this loss is critical for the diagnosis, prognosis, and tracking the progression of AD. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) are widely used imaging modalities that help to in vivo map brain tissue distributions. As manual image segmentations are tedious and time-consuming, automated segmentation methods are increasingly applied to head MRI and head CT images to estimate brain tissue volumes. However, existing automated methods can be applied only to images that have high spatial resolution and their accuracy on heterogeneous …

Deepmind’S Protein Folding Quality Process Analysis, Amro Oussama Noueihed

Theses

Proteins are the building blocks of life and are responsible for the vast majority of our cellular activity. For decades, the major method of producing acceptable protein structures was laboratory testing. Scientists have been perplexed by how the components of a protein, which are made up of a string of different amino acids, come together to produce a complex twisting and folding pattern. Following that, scientists started developing computer algorithms for predicting protein structure from amino acid sequence. To test the anticipated structural accuracy, data from multiple prediction models were compared with CASP entries in this research. Later, the experiment …

Speculative Fashion: A Spacesuit For Life Outside Earth, Lauren Miyoko Furushima

Theses

When Earth is no longer able to house living creatures, humans will need a new environment to inhabit. Space tourism companies are already looking toward building civilizations in outer space. In accordance, humans will need space wear that is able to support their bodies for long periods of time, therefore supporting life outside of Earth. NASA’s white spacesuits protect astronauts but are hard to move in and costly to manufacture. As designers, it is vital to envision different solutions for spacesuits because it will soon become our normal clothing. The importance of designing for future space travel for everyone may …

Comparison Of Statistical Models For Imputation Of Missing Data In Clinical Trials, Vaishnavi Purandare

Theses

Missing data is an integral part of clinical trials and its analysis. This study discusses the downsides of having missing values in clinical data, traditional methods used to resolve this issue and some techniques which can be implemented to remedy the same.

The data used for the study is simulated from Theophylline data from Pinheiro and Bates (1995). The simulated data measures the Theophylline drug concentration in the body of 10 Subjects over 24 hours. There are three cases considered with increasing number of randomly created missing values for the Concentration variable. Subsets are created to fit linear and quadratic …

Magnolia Twilight, Qin Zhou

Theses

A village girl, Yulan (19), goes to Shanghai and her life changes completely.

Yulan runs out from a small village in Yunnan, because her family only cares about her brother, and the culture in that town is that boys are always superior to girls. The boy next door from hometown, Jinxian Fang (26), takes care of Yulan. Yulan wants to be independent and moves out, and she has a roommate Mulan (26). Mulan is the kind of female that Yulan wants to become.

Yulan finds out Jinxian has some secret business, and he seems cheats on her. After the suggestion …

Cruces, Carlos Mario Tobon Franco

Theses

Cruces is a multimedia installation depicting immigrant conditions and experiences throughout landscapes, Latinx communities, and borderlands. Made during the last two years, it is constructed as a multivocal ethnography of immigrants with varying legal statuses, countries of origin, and stages in their journey. The imagery, sounds, and narratives are composed of the distributed yet relational geographies of immigrants’ experience and the pieces are structured to highlight the constitutive elements of human mobilities, such as trains, rivers and immigration hubs, as well as the natural obstacles they face in their perilous transit, such as forests and deserts.

The fieldwork was carried …

Reducing Global Demand On Conflict Minerals In Consumer Electronics And Lithium-Ion Batteries, Mosunmola Odulate

Theses

Advances in technology have led to increasing demand for more sophisticated electronic products, which, in turn, induces demand for raw materials essential for product performance. A class of such materials is mined in places in the world that are politically unstable – they are called Conflict Minerals (CMs) because profits from their mining and trade support human rights violations in their places of origin. They include Tantalum, Tin, Tungsten, and Gold (3TG). To reduce global reliance on 3TG, government policies from local and international communities are the only works in place, but what is still unclear is their efficacy towards …