Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The School Nurse's Perception Of Caring For Students With Severe Allergies, Alyson Kreitzman

Theses

The role of the school nurse continually evolves, with an increase in students who are medically fragile, have disabilities and those diagnosed with both acute and chronic illnesses. A major challenge for the school nurse is the number of students with severe allergies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates food allergies in children have increased by 50% in the past decade. These allergies can be life threatening and effect one in thirteen children under the age of eighteen, which means potentially two students in each classroom in the U.S. has a severe allergy. School nurses are responsible for …

Development Of Biodegradable -Polylactic Acid - Date Palm Waste Composite As Thermal Insulation Material, Mohamed Saeed Barkhad

Theses

This study aims to develop a green polymer composite from local natural waste, such as date pit powder (DPP) and date palm wood powder (DPWP), as an insulating material. The recycling and reuse of natural waste as filler for green insulation materials has many significant benefits for the environment of the UAE.

Date palm waste was mixed with a polylactic acid (PLA) polymer with various proportions in a melt extruder. The mixtures produced were then shaped differently after testing in a thermal compression machine. These composites were tested to evaluate their physical (water absorption, chemical resistance, and bulk density), thermal …

Improving Energy Efficiency Performance Of Existing Residential Building In Northern China, Zhengyu Kang

Theses

China has replaced the U.S. as the world’s largest consumer of energy. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD)’s latest data shows that China’s building sector accounts for around one-third of its final energy consumption (MOHURD, 2016). Particularly in northern China, the cold climate exerts pressure on its central heating system, which is responsible for a total energy consumption of about four hundred million tons of standard coal equivalent (TCE) (National Development and Reform Commission, 2017). Due to the growing population, economic development, and increasing standards of living, China expects that building energy use will escalate in the coming …

Re-Imagining Downtown Rochester Creation Of An Equitable Urban Master Plan, Douglas Templeton

Theses

Downtown Rochester, New York has seen a renewed interest in the past decade. However, most of that interest and reinvestment has occurred within the eastern half of the downtown area. The western half, which is roughly bordered by the Genesee River to the east and Interstate 490 and the Inner Loop to the west, has only been lightly touched by developers. Most new building projects tend to center around creating residential apartments, many of which have price points that may exclude many populations in Rochester.

Additionally, street networks and connections tend to reinforce usage of private automobiles and dissuade the …

An Authentication Mechanism For Stateless Communication, Ana Valentina Rodriguez Sosa

Theses

Most of the applications we use on a daily basis are distributed systems that are composed of at least one client and server and are exposed to the Internet. This communication is based on an HTTP protocol, which is a stateless protocol. Because of its communication characteristics, developers are forced to implement a series of mechanisms to pursue user privacy, security as well as business features.

Modern social media applications such as Facebook have been using secure tokens as an authentication mechanism. These applications are relying on only one part of the approach, such as token mechanism generation. If the …

Contact Line Pinning Under Ac Electrowetting, Kimberly Bernetski

Theses

Sepsis is an autoimmune disease where a bacterial infection causes organ failure. Early diagnosis is a challenge when using traditional methods. Improvement in early detection is vital in treating patients with sepsis. One method for early detection is through the use of particle deposition patterns from patient urine. Deposition patterns are the remaining particles from an evaporating droplet and can vary based on a variety of factors. To optimize sepsis detection, a digital microfluidic device can be used to manipulate the deposition pattern of a sample to detect target proteins. These devices use microarrays for improved biomarker detection. Microarrays consist …

Museums And The Tax Code: A Fraught Friendship, Elisha Muir

Theses

Museums benefit immensely from their position in the American tax code and its peculiarities, but the fundamentals of this relationship are often muddled, confusing, and difficult to explain. But with recent alterations to the federal tax code and an atmosphere of apprehension in the field, understanding and explanation are critical to proper decision-making and governance. This thesis addresses that need through multifaceted research and analysis of historical data, expert analysis, and crucially case law at both the federal and state level. The result of this will be to expand the currently anemic body of current literature on the topic and …

Smart Solutions To Control Air Pollution In Dubai - Al Qouz Area, Anwar Alshamsi, Lateefa Almarzooqi

Theses

Air pollution is a major concern, both in industrial and developing countries. Measuring and monitoring air pollution is mandatory to have a smart and clean environment. By the recent developed technology such as Internet of Things (IoT), levels of poisonous gases (GHG) are measured and controlled, which will help in having healthier atmosphere and help people whose life are endangered from living near polluted areas. The project proposes to use smart sensors to sense and measure the percentage of polluted gases like CO, CO2, SO2 and NO2. Since Dubai aims to achieve the best results of having the least effect …

Hcd-Sim: Healthcare Clinic Design Simulator With Application To A Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic, Jason D. Ceresoli

Theses

The treatment of patients in outpatient healthcare clinics is continually growing as technology improves and recovery benefits are recognized. In this thesis, a simulation framework is developed to model the operational aspects of clinics with the goal of providing a method to understand the impact of clinic design decisions relative to productivity, efficiency, and quality of patient care. The healthcare clinic design simulator (HCD-Sim) is designed to study the dynamic system behavior of clinics and to analyze alternative outpatient healthcare clinic designs. Additionally, the simulation framework is created using a data-driven structure that can represent a large class of outpatient …

Investigating Green Inhibitors For Acidic Corrosion Of Carbon Steel, Osama Abu-Alyosr Kamal Ibrahim

Theses

This study is intended to investigate Khalas palm date pits extract as a green corrosion inhibitor alternative to commercial inhibitors. Inhibition efficiency of the obtained extract was investigated on carbon steel grade S355JR immersed in different corrosive mediums of 2 molarity hydrochloric acid (������) solution and seawater solution. Along with other ingredients in palm date pits, Polyphenolic compounds have a significant anti-oxidation property and were found effective in reducing corrosion rate.

Due to its common industrial applications, Carbon steel was used in this investigation as the corroding medium, while 2M ������ and seawater solutions were used separately as the corrosive …

Synthesis And Biological Applications Of Some Novel Urea And Thiourea-Quinoline Derivatives, Aysha Mohammed Alkaabi

Theses

Extensive literature survey reveals that 8-Hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ), urea, thiourea and piperazine exhibit wide biological activity profile such as anticancer, anti-Alzheimer, anti-viral, antibacterial and antifungal activity. Novel urea and thiourea-quinoline derivatives connected by piperazine moiety have been synthesized and purified using appropriate techniques (extraction, crystallization and column chromatography) followed by characterization using IR spectroscopy and NMR spectroscopy (both ¹H and ¹³C).

Biological activity, metal chelation properties and the photo-physical properties were studied for these novel compounds. Anti-bacterial study shows moderate activity for most of the compounds against P.aereginosa, S.aureus and Enterococcus at concentration 250 μM. Antifungal study showed …

Evaluating The Therapeutic Potential Of Crocin Against Diethylnitrosamine Induced Experimental Hepatocellular Carcinoma In Rats, Basma Ali Mustafa Awad

Theses

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common type of cancer and the third cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Liver cancer is the result of repeated injuries to the liver triggered by different causes. Currently, sorafenib is the only drug U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved targeted therapy. Sorafenib, an oral multikinase inhibitor, which inhibits the proliferation of tumor cells and blocks angiogenesis. Sorafenib has been shown to treat early and mild HCC lesions and it helped increase the survival rates at one year, but for only 44% of patients. Chemotherapies are an important line of defense when it comes …

Functionality Assessment Of The Newly Discovered Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (Am) Fungus From Uae, Dominikia Emiratia, Laila Ahmed Al Dhaheri

Theses

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal species form symbiotic associations with the vast majority of terrestrial plants. These associations help plants to improve their water and nutrient uptake. In return, plants provide a suitable habitat for the fungi to flourish. From across the globe, approximately 300 AM fungal species have been described to date. Most recently, Dominikia emirate from UAE joined the list of known AM fungal species. It was found in Sweyhan, Abu Dhabi, associated with several plants within two different types of farming systems, namely organic and conventional. The discovery of the new species provides an opportunity for applied and …

Synthesis And Biological Applications Of Some Novel Urea And Thiourea-Benzimidazole Derivatives, Lamia Ali Siddig

Theses

The objective of this research is the synthesis and characterization of novel urea and thiourea-benzimidazole derivatives and to test their biological activities. The 17 novel compounds (57a-j), (58a-d), 62, 63, and 65 have been synthesized, purified by different techniques such as extraction and column chromatography, and then characterized by using suitable spectroscopic techniques including ^¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, fluorescence, and IR spectroscopy techniques.

The biological activity of these compounds has been studied. The antibacterial activity was evaluated at different concentrations (μg/ ml) against 6 types of bacteria (Esherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enterica, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus …

Secondary Analysis Of Caregiver Pain Management Issues During Telehospice Versus In-Person Interventions, Marjorie M. Kelley

Theses

Most hospice care in the US is provided in the home by lay family caregivers. These caregivers suffer physically, psychologically, emotionally, and socially from the burden of caring. The most often identified area of burden for caregivers is the management of end-of-life pain. Despite advances in pain management pharmacology and alternative therapies, unrelieved pain continues to plague patients and their care providers. Although pain management has been targeted as a national healthcare concern and research priority, specific issues of caregiver pain management remain vague and undefined. Understanding issues surrounding caregiver pain management may help clarify needs thus enabling the creation …

Underutilization Of Palliative Care Related To The Associated Stigmatism: Time To Change The Service Name Within The Veterans Affairs Healthcare Setting, Janice Schwartz

Theses

Advances in medicine and technology have transformed cancer into a chronic disease state: enabling earlier, treatable, diagnoses and longer lives. However, the focus in medicine remains in quantity of life: failing to address the multitude of stressors influencing quality of life. Quality of life considerations during treatment tend to focus on physical symptoms of disease or side effects of treatment, negating important quality of life interventions offered through Palliative Care. Palliative Care focuses on the psychosocial, emotional and spiritual aspect of living with cancer. Yet, it remains an untapped resource in the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System (VAHCS), often reserved until …

Child Pornography And Child Sexual Abuse In The 21st Century: A Critical Overview Of The Technological Shifts In Distribution, The Academic Literature, And The Current Re-Entry Policies For Convicts Of These Crimes, Arion A. Rivera

Theses

This capstone project focuses on four distinct but interrelated papers. The first details the role of technology in creating a resurgence of child pornography and how both the authorities and corporations have responded to this phenomenon. The second paper provides a literature review on research assessing the amount of child pornography consumers who victimize children. The third work is my own original research on the topic explored in the second paper. The fourth and final paper explains the post-incarceration consequences child pornography possessors often encounter and how they reintegrate into society, in addition to assessing the flaws and successes of …

Characterizing Bladder Cancer Cells By Comparing General Machine Learning Methods To Convolutional Neural Network, Peng Nien Yin

Theses

Recently, deep learning techniques from the computer science field have dramatically improved the ability of computers to recognize objects in images. This raised the possibility of fully automated computer-aided diagnosis in the medical field. Among all the machine learning models, convolutional neural network (CNN) is one of the most studied and validated artificial neural networks in image recognition. Not only that it has great performance, but the design of most modern CNN hidden layers also allows the model to extract meaningful features without the needs of prior knowledge. Thus, the pathology community is showing increasing interests in comparing CNN to …

Light In The Midst Of Darkness: Lived Experiences Of Cancer Warriors, Mignodel M. Morales

Theses

Employing a qualitative approach about the lived experiences of cancer warriors, this paper delved into the perceptions of pediatric cancer patients towards cancer, their coping mechanisms, changes that they experienced and their motivations and aspirations that served as their strengths for continuing their treatment. Eight informants were interviewed using the interview guide that was validated and pilot tested.

Relational Neurogenesis For Lifelong Learning Agents, Tej Pandit

Theses

Reinforcement learning systems have shown tremendous potential in being able to model meritorious behavior in virtual agents and robots. The ability to learn through continuous reinforcement and interaction with an environment negates the requirement of painstakingly curated datasets and hand crafted features. However, the ability to learn multiple tasks in a sequential manner, referred to as lifelong or continual learning, remains unresolved.

The search for lifelong learning algorithms creates the foundation for this work. While there has been much research conducted in supervised learning domains under lifelong learning, the reinforced lifelong learning domain remains open for much exploration. Furthermore, current …

A Comparative Evaluation Of The Structure Of Primary Care In The United States And The United Kingdom, Lindsay Thompson Munn

Theses

The condition of the United States (US) health care system is currently at the center of national debate; and attempts to reform a flagging system are underway (Rutenberg & Calmes, 2009; Stolberg & Herszenhorn, 2010). The American health care system is in distress. An estimated 43.8 to 46.3 million individuals in the US are uninsured (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2009; DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Smith, 2008; U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). The majority of health coverage in the US is provided through employer-based insurance (Blumenthal, 2006; Congressional Budget Office [CBO,] 2007); but with the current economic crisis and a …

Beware Of Uncharitable Speech: Perceptions Of Newly Graduated Nurses Regarding Their Experiences Of Academic Incivility Between And Among Nursing Students In Undergraduate Nursing Education, Tatiana K. Penconek

Theses

The perceptions of newly graduated nurses regarding their experiences of academic incivility between and among nursing students in undergraduate nursing education were explored in this qualitative descriptive study. Six newly graduated registered nurses shared their experiences of academic incivility between and among nursing students in their undergraduate nursing programs. Online public domain data with specific content pertaining to experiences of academic incivility were also gathered. Four main categories resulted from the data analysis including Not Here to Make Friends, Nobody Stood Up, Making it to the End, and The Role of Nursing Faculty. Highlights of this study include an increased …

Optimizing Women's Morning Experience: Design Of An Interactive Cosmetics' Organizer, Jiamei Huang

Theses

Nowadays, wearing proper makeup is proved to be a powerful tool which can help women get benefit in their workplace. However, many employee women face a problem about making everything perfect done in the rush morning time, especially wearing makeup, which can result in a lot of negative effects not only in personal health but also in the family relationship. Suffering from poor morning experience might mass their beginning of the day and consequently ruing the whole day. Due to the boring and complex cosmetics organizers, the problem came to be more severe for them and make the makeup process …

Center For Urban Ecological Dialectics At Mill Street: A Living Building In Geneva, New York, Joseph James Nicholson Iii

Theses

Protecting drinking water and emphasizing a need to understand historical watersheds benefits urban ecologies. Geneva, a City in New York State (USA) is to invest in its economic future - especially regarding water for greater public use. To this end, an educational and experiential center in Geneva shall inform the public of a creek’s valuable sub-sources and its own important municipal hydro-geological features. Focusing on the city’s Castle Creek topography, a comprehensive design is developed adjacent to the creek’s urban density combined with a goal towards preservation. Existing watershed education programs, socio-ecological connectivity, and public recreation are the stimuli informing …

A Comparison Of Conventional And New Technology Gravure Cylinders In Terms Of Image Quality, Chandramohan Seetharamiah Srinivasaraju

Theses

Gravure is losing package printing market share to Flexo in North America. Closing the cost gap between flexo and gravure is a prerequisite to regaining market share. This could be accomplished by adopting new cylinder technologies that reduce the cost of cylinder preparation and the size of cylinder inventories. This study examined one such technology, RotoHybrid Cylinders. RotoHybrid is new to the gravure industry and has just entered beta testing. Gravure printers would like to understand how RotoHybrid and Conventional Chrome cylinders compare in term of ability to print images. This research assessed image quality differences between conventional Chrome cylinders …

Controlled Release Chemical Oxidation: Sodium Persulfate Encapsulated In Pvac Polymer, Mosarrat Samiha Kabir

Theses

In this study, sodium persulfate was encapsulated in polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) polymer to investigate the potential of activated persulfate to remediate total coliform and E. coli bacteria from contaminated water through a control release system. Controlled release structures were produced with the polymer and persulfate melted to form pellets at two different baking times. CRP structures containing 60 weight % sodium persulfates blended with 40 weight % polyvinyl acetate (PS- PVAc) were baked for 4 minutes and 10 minutes at 120ºC. The kinetics release of sodium persulfate was studied in a water system and in sand columns. Experimental results showed …

Feasibility Of Integrating Microfluidics Into Point-Of-Care Bio-Diagnostics, Swetha Manoharan

Theses

Potassium in the body needs to be maintained in proper levels for the normal functioning of heart and kidneys. The aim of this work is to develop a simple technique to measure the concentration of Potassium present in a bodily fluid sample, which can be used to assess the health condition of extremely sick patients, especially when the patient's condition needs to be diagnosed and results needs to be obtained rapidly under Point-of-Care settings. Microfluidics is one of the platforms used in bio-diagnostics because of several advantages such as low sample volume requirement and integration into high-throughput screening. In this …

Consumer Considerations Of Local Value-Added Dairy Products In North Carolina's Triangle, Gabriel Adjei Agyekum

Theses

The global and domestic dairy markets promise exciting opportunities for companies willing to adapt to a continuously evolving consumer market. However, local dairy farmers face a myriad of challenges as they navigate low milk prices, shrinking margins, increasing production cost, and a rising demand for plant-based varieties of milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy-based foods. The goal of this research was to investigate consumer behavior towards value-added local dairy products in North Carolina’s Triangle cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. Data were used from an overarching project with collected data from food consumers in the triangle tri-city area using …

Occupant Evacuation Behavior In Wildfires: Gap Analysis, Agnes Ampomah

Theses

This thesis investigates the impacts wildfires have on those who live within the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) areas. The Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF) sponsored this investigation to provide insight on information concerning evacuee pre-movement delays and behaviors before the beginning of an evacuation, both in terms of types of behaviors and elapsed time for these delays. Furthermore, the analysis of evacuee behavior in wildfire past and present evacuations will assist in the construction of future evacuation models that will mitigate evacuee loses during evacuations. The investigation is based on literature reviews on wildfires and their evacuation processes, past and …

Fat Uptake Reduction In Deep-Fried Chicken Breast, Lovie G. Matthews

Theses

Obesity is the deposit of excessive adipose tissue on the body due to the overconsumption of nutritionally inadequate foods. The fat in the deep-fat fried chicken is derived from the oil absorption during frying. High consumption of deep-fat fried foods may lead to cardiovascular diseases and obesity. The main objectives of this experiment were to reduce the fat uptake in deep-fat fried chicken breast by developing an edible coating made of chicken breast protein isolates (CPI) as well as replace the corn starch in batter with sweet potato starch to further examine the quality attributes of the battering systems. In …