Digital Commons Network^™

Under The Bay: Analysis Of Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia Mydas) Dive Behavior In The Urban San Diego Bay, Emily Carter

Theses

Sea turtles are air-breathing marine reptiles that spend their lives performing dives to travel, forage, and rest. Several dive types have been previously recorded for sea turtles, each type being associated with a different set of behaviors. U-dives, or Type 1 dives are widely characterized by extensive benthic periods preceded by and concluding with abrupt descent and ascent phases respectively (Minamikawa et al. 1997; Houghton et al. 2002; Seminoff et al. 2006). These dives are widely affiliated with turtle resting behavior though can be indicative of additional activities including benthic travel and foraging. Previous research of green turtle dive behavior …

Understanding Vaccines: A 3d Animation And Print Materials For Clinical Trial Patients, Shannon Gregory

Theses

This project covers the importance of patient education, and the decisions that go into making patient facing materials. The topic of this piece is “Understanding Vaccines” and will explore several key aspects: what vaccines are, how they work, their important role in public health, and how to best communicate with patient audiences. Given the growing challenges in vaccine education, this piece will address common misconceptions and emphasize the importance of clear, accessible communication. The goal of this piece is to educate, but also to encourage individuals to make well-informed decisions regarding vaccination. The artwork created for this thesis was developed …

Enhancement Of Firefighter Mental Performance: A Review, Nicole A. Ness

Theses

Background: The life-or-death nature of firefighting exposes those who respond to calls to an increased number of stressors that can impact performance and overall well-being. To combat this, the mental element of firefighting can be optimized through psychological skills training programs and mindfulness training. Other tactical populations, such as the police force, military, and emergency medicine units have found success in implementing these interventions, Literature suggests a similar effect may be observed in firefighters because of their similar demands; although, little research exists regarding the effects of mental performance programs on firefighter populations specifically.

Methods: A review of existing literature …

Fake News Detection On X (Twitter), Sultan Mayoof Almutaiwei

Theses

The most important innovation globally is the internet, which is used by a huge number of people all around the world. People use the internet for different purposes. By using different social media platforms people share content and news. Thus, some people use these internet platforms to share false news or fake news among people. Propaganda against a person, group, organization, or political party may be present in this news. For an individual, it is difficult to distinguish between false and true news over the internet. Therefore, machine learning is the smart solution that can identify fake news on the …

Predicting Customer Churn In B2b Consulting Services, Mediya Alfalasi

Theses

The aim of this research was to develop a machine learning model that can predict customer churn in the consulting industry. The goal was to help businesses identify customers who might leave, allowing them to take action before it happens. To achieve this, a dataset was created by combining different data sources to reflect real-world customer behaviors. After cleaning the data and addressing issues like missing values and data imbalance, four machine learning algorithms—XGBoost, Neural Network, Random Forest, Logistic Regression, and Support Vector Machines (SVM)—were used to build the prediction models. The findings showed that XGBoost performed the best, achieving …

Enhancing Waste Management And Circular Economy Practices In Higher Education Institutions In Uae: A Study On Current Policies And Strategic Framework, Muna Ali

Theses

This study investigates the integration of Circular Economy (CE) principles within higher education institutions (HEIs) in UAE as a method to address waste challenges in UAE. Despite the announcement of UAE 2021-2031 Circular Economy Policy, and the nationwide continues promotion of sustainability initiatives, HEI’s lack the availability of tailored policies and procedures as well as guiding framework to address their waste challenges and adapt CE within their institutions. To assess this problem, a survey has been distributed to 45 CAA accredited public and private universities in UAE. A qualitative approach has been used to analyze the survey responses. The survey …

An Integrated Decision Support System (Dss) For Sustainable Supplier Selection, Evaluation, And Benchmarking Using A Fis And Molp Approach, Saleem Ghannam

Theses

Applications of sustainable supplier selection criteria in supply chain management are less developed compared to other evaluation methods. This study focuses on three main dimensions of sustainable supplier performance: economic, environmental, and social criteria. The research aims to identify significant criteria within each dimension that are crucial for the sustainable supplier selection process. These criteria will be utilized to develop a hybrid decision support system that integrates a fuzzy inference system with multi-objective linear programming. This comprehensive model will evaluate and benchmark supplier sustainable performance, providing an overall assessment of supplier performance. The proposed model offers a holistic approach to …

The Effect Of Biochar As Partial Cement Replacement On Mechanical, Durability, Thermal, And Microstructural Properties Of Concrete - Comparison With Biomass, Aysha Yousef Alsaadi

Theses

This thesis paper examines the use of 1% cement replacement with date palm derived biochar and compares it to 1% replacement of biomass. The main aim of this idea is to reduce the carbon emissions from concrete production factories and utilize the abundant waste from date palm plants, which is prevalent in the UAE. Three samples of concrete were used: 1% biochar mix, 1% biomass mix, and a control mix. Mechanical tests, including compressive, tensile, and flexural strengths, were evaluated. Thermal conductivity, chloride penetration, water absorption, and characterization testing by XRD, TGA, SEM, and FTIR were conducted. As for compressive …

Perceived Stress, Psychological Wellbeing, And Sleep Quality Of Passport Control Officers, Roudha Abdulla Almazrouei

Theses

Research on the stress experienced by officers has identified several key findings that illustrate the diverse nature of their workplace stressors. Research specifically addressing the stressors encountered by passport control officers is limited when compared to studies on other law enforcement roles. This study aims to assess stress levels among passport control officers, identify psychological health impacts, determine the intersection of personal and occupational stress, and investigate the effects of shift work on stress intensity and related psychological issues. A mixed methodology incorporating qualitative and quantitative was used. The sample included 166 participants with a job title of passport control …

Space-Time Analysis Of The Sea Level Variability Of The Arabian Sea Using Satellite Altimetry Data, Saleha Saeed Binishaq

Theses

The ongoing effects of climate change are contributing to a gradual rise in sea levels, which has become a significant environmental concern. It creates a serious threat to coastal areas, especially in the Gulf Region, which includes various cities bordering the Arabian Gulf, the Red and the Arabian Sea. This phenomenon has the potential to significantly influence the socioeconomics of the region by altering coastal marine ecosystems and can pose serious infrastructure sustainability challenges. This research focuses on analyzing the sea-level variability in the Arabian Sea using satellite altimetry data from 1993 to 2023. The analysis was conducted along a …

Extraction Of Activated Carbon From Date Palm Biowaste And Subsequent Preparation Of Ferrite Nanocomposite For Water Treatment In Uae, Anood Lashkary Ahmed Ibrahim

Theses

Ensuring access to clean and safe water remains a pressing global challenge, particularly in arid regions like the Gulf, where freshwater scarcity is severe. The United Arab Emirates heavily depends on energy-intensive desalination, which is increasingly turning to treated wastewater as a sustainable alternative. In this context, the recovery and reuse of biowaste and the development of advanced treatment technologies are critical. This study presents an innovative approach to wastewater treatment by utilizing biomass waste—specifically date palm leaves, an abundant agricultural residue in the UAE—as a raw material for producing activated carbon. Through pyrolysis, the biowaste is transformed into porous …

User Perceptions Of Ai Services In Abu Dhabi Government: An Empirical Study Of Satisfaction And Acceptance Factors On The Tamm Platform, Muneera Ali Zaher Alsulaimani

Theses

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how governments deliver services by enabling automation, personalization, and data-driven decisionmaking. In the United Arab Emirates, particularly in Abu Dhabi Emirate, the TAMM platform exemplifies this transformation, integrating AI to streamline citizen-government interaction. Understanding the factors that influence the user’s satisfaction of Powered AI services in the public sector is crucial for effective policy implementation and user engagement. This study employs a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach, grounded in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), extended with User Satisfaction as a fifth construct. Quantitative data were collected from 137 TAMM platform users …

An Inclusive Learning Metaverse: A Virtual Reality Approach To Supporting Dyslexic Children, Reem Salem Mohammed Salem

Theses

Dyslexia is one of the most common learning difficulties worldwide, often requiring tailored interventions targeting phonological awareness, reading comprehension, and cognitive support. This study explores the design and evaluation of a metaverse-based virtual reality (VR) application to support dyslexic children in the UAE. Using a usercentered, explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach, the research involved three phases: a stakeholder survey with therapists, educators, and parents (N = 151), development of a multi-featured VR prototype, and evaluation by six dyslexia experts. The survey identified key priorities such as progress tracking, adaptive learning, accessibility, working memory, and attention, along with concerns about VR unfamiliarity, …

Sustainable Hydrogels: Advancing Soil And Water Retention In The Uae, Mariam Abdulla Alhosani

Theses

Long-term climatic issues like soil erosion and water scarcity affect arid regions, making sustainable agricultural systems more challenging to put into practice. By creating different hydrogels from local agricultural biomass (cellulose extracted from date palm tree waste).This will assist in overcoming the limitations of synthetic water- retentive materials. Several hydrogel samples were created using physical and chemical crosslinking techniques, forming several hydrogel variants samples that were labelled as (T1 to T4). TGA, SEM, FTIR and swelling tests were used. TGA results revealed improved thermal stability in T2 (physically crosslinked), and T3 (dual cross-linking citric acid with gelatin), with degradation temperatures …

Burnout Among Social Care Providers In The Uae: The Role Of Coping Strategies And Institutional Support, Faiza Saleh Alothali

Theses

This study focuses on the self-reported levels of burnout, the coping strategies employed, and the perceived institutional support of a sample of social care workers in the UAE. The research also explores how coping strategies and institutional support influence burnout levels and the role of demographic factors such as gender, age, and years of experience. A total of 204 social care providers participated in the study, which used a survey to gather data on burnout, coping strategies, and institutional support. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to measure burnout, the Brief COPE Inventory was used to assess coping strategies, …

Subconscious Warnings As A Safety Mechanism Against Phishing Attacks, Henry Schulz

Theses

Phishing attacks are very common and considerably successful in stealing people’s information, but unfortunately normal security procedures fail to warn the user of their possible dangers. By considering how subliminal messages are very effective in informing people without actively disrupting their attention, a prototype of a browser extension was made by implementing subconscious messages and the elements of an effective warning, in an attempt to subconsciously warn users of possible phishing attempts, with minimal impact on browser performance.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder And Metacognitive Awareness Of Learning, Kara R. Muscha

Theses

The present study examined knowledge updating abilities in individuals with and without ADHD when forced to metacognitively evaluate the effectiveness of different study strategies. Participants with and without ADHD were randomly assigned to either a spontaneous or a forced knowledge updating condition, with those in the latter condition being asked to keep track of encoding strategy-recall outcome results, but no additional instructions for those in the spontaneous condition. I expected that healthy control participants would show greater knowledge updating abilities than those with ADHD, the participants in the forced knowledge updating condition would show greater knowledge updating abilities than participants …

Improving Satellite Needs Working Group Assessment Process Through Automation And Process Consolidation, Raj Dangol

Theses

The increasing complexity of modern software ecosystems, presents significant challenges to system resilience, maintainability and automation. This work presents a proof-of-concept implementation of an automation system to address these challenges for a large scale fragmented software systems. Succinctly we address these challenges in the context of Satellite Needs Working Group (SNWG), which is responsible for collecting and communicating federal agencies' Earth observation needs to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Multiple automation scripts and applications exist to support the SNWG's assessment cycle, encompassing the areas of data validation, visualization, report generation, and user management. However, the dispersion of these tools …

Experimental Evaluation Of Recent Theoretical Real-Time Signal Higher-Order Sliding Mode Differentiators On Noisy Sensors, Jessica Hamer

Theses

This thesis explores the performance of higher-order sliding mode differentiators applied to sensor signals under varying sampling rates and switching functions. Two differentiator designs are evaluated: a hybrid algorithm that combines a super-twisting algorithm with a linear observer, and a fixed-time higher-order sliding mode differentiator. Each was tested on a physical sensor testbed using position data from a servomotor and electronic compass. The differentiators were implemented in a ROS2 environment, and their estimates were evaluated by obtaining the minimum and maximum position and velocity values, as well as analyzing graphs to capture the nature of the algorithms' noise reduction. The …

170 Years Of San Francisco Sea Level Pressure, Brendan Heaven

Theses

This data-recovery project and subsequent data analyses address the construction of a continuous, long instrumental record of sea level pressure for San Francisco, California, USA and examines what the time series may reveal about atmospheric patterns through time. Atmospheric pressure is a physical component which is associated with both daily and seasonal weather phenomena and is one of the most robust of the meteorological variables. Observational data of surface pressure (SFP) and later sea level pressure (SLP) were accessed from digital archives, with a large part of these being manually keyed from original observations on paper. San Francisco, being near …

Unbound Subgenres : Overlapping Age Categories In Contemporary Romance And Their Implications, London Stevenson

Theses

This thesis aims to highlight the importance of genre labelling in contemporary romance fiction and the larger implications that come from the misuse of labels. Considerations of the genre based on narrative elements (Regis, 2003; Michelson, 2022), age categorization (Cart, 2011; Tribunella, 2007), and emerging market conditions (McAlister, 2018; Stewart, 2013) have generated considerable discussion over the last twenty-five years. While each of these scholars draws important conclusions about romance and its subgenres, none of them consider the significance of reader opinion, which is now enhanced due to literary digital spaces. In this paper, I examine nine romance novels for …

Blockchain Poisoning Attacks In Federated Learning, Mohammad Raihan Uddin

Theses

Federated Learning (FL) enables collaborative model training across distributed clients without sharing raw data, thereby preserving privacy. However, conventional FL depends on a centralized aggregator, exposing it to poisoning and backdoor attacks that threaten model integrity. This thesis introduces B-ZkFed, a blockchain-based and zero-knowledge proof (ZKP)-enhanced FL framework designed to ensure verifiable trust, transparency, and robustness. The blockchain layer decentralizes aggregation through smart contracts, while the ZKP module allows clients to cryptographically prove the correctness of updates without revealing private data. A multi-layer adaptive defense combining gradient-norm filtering, model-similarity analysis, and robust aggregation mitigates poisoning threats under both IID and …

Efficient Lossless Compression Of Malaria Infected Image Datasets Using Vision Transformers And Deep Autoencoders, Md Firoz Mahmud

Theses

In the field of medical imaging, lossless compression techniques play a critical role in maintaining the fidelity of medical data, while improving the efficiency of data storage and transmission, especially in telemedicine applications. This thesis addresses the development of a novel machine learning-based method for lossless compression of images of erythrocytes infected with malaria. The proposed method has two stages. In the first stage, a Vision Transformer, a computer vision model that can learn long-range dependence, is employed to separate erythrocyte images into two categories: infected and uninfected. This classification stage is essential as it allows the subsequent compression approaches …

Deep Learning Time Series Prediction Strategies For Efficiently Emulating Noah Land Surface Model Soil Moisture Dynamics, Mitchell T. Dodson

Theses

This work examines the ability of deep learning time series generative models to accurately and efficiently emulate the hourly temporal dynamics of the Noah Land Surface Model (Noah-LSM) out to a 2 week forecast horizon, given atmospheric forcings and static parameterization provided by the second phase North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS-2) framework. Results from multiple neural network architectures are compared alongside variations in prediction target, loss function characteristics, and model properties. The most performant model types are subsequently evaluated with respect to forecast distance, annual seasonality, and against a variety of regional scenarios, including several event case studies. …

Factors Affecting Freshwater Fish Communities In Two North Alabama Counties, Joshua Fitts

Theses

This study examined how physical habitat characteristics influence freshwater fish diversity in streams of Madison and Limestone Counties, Alabama. Ten 150-meter stream reaches were sampled using backpack electrofishing and seining, with habitat variables measured at fixed transects. Principal component analysis identified four main habitat gradients representing flow and substrate, channel size, gravel dominance, and canopy–bedrock conditions. Although overall species richness and Shannon diversity were not significantly related to these gradients, species-specific correlations revealed clear ecological preferences. Regression models showed that root wads, herbaceous vegetation, and riprap modestly increased richness, emphasizing the role of structural diversity. These findings highlight the importance …

Resilient Power System Load Frequency Control, Ghadeer Ahmed Almahri

Theses

Standard frequency and voltage levels need to be maintained when the electric power system is running in order to keep it in a satisfactory state of operation. Between AC power generation and use, there should be a balance between active and reactive power. However, due to variations in active and reactive power requirements, the frequency and voltage provided may fluctuate from their rated values. Any unwelcome change in frequency or voltage can have an immediate effect on how the power system operates and may even cause harm to linked devices. These parts are intended to operate at certain rated frequencies …

How Smart City Growth Principles Can Be Adopted In The Uae To Solve The Local Housing Problems?, Shaima Abdulla Alblooki

Theses

Shaikh Zayed Housing Program “SZHP” is the governmental program that is responsible for local housing in the UAE. The program’s main aim is to offer a variety of housing services such as loans, grants, and ready-to-move houses. However, both the continuously growing urban population and liveability challenges are impeding the program to meet its goal. As mentioned on SZHP’s official website “We should continue to explore new ways to establish informed dialogue with different groups of society and to ensure adequate housing for national families, in achieving stability and community development by meeting future needs” (SZHP, 2022 ). Accordingly, this …

Upper And Lower Body Volume-Equated Resistance Exercise Increases Post-Exercise Lipid Oxidation In Trained Eumenorrheic Females., Alyssa L. Parten, Abbie E. Smith-Ryan, Eric K. O'Neal, T Scott Lyons, Hunter S. Waldman

Theses

Exercise strategies targeted to increase lipid oxidation (LOx) in the resting state present an opportunity to optimize long-term metabolic health. However, research examining the effects of resistance training (RT) on LOx in females remains scarce, particularly with no studies yet examining whether differences exist in LOx between upper and lower body RT. This study examined LOx changes following volume-load equated upper and lower body RT in well-trained, eumenorrheic females. Twenty-two (age: 25.4 ± 5.6 years, BMI: 24.6 ± 2.7) females completed a 3-repetition-maximum (RM) and 1RM test for the barbell back squat (BS) and bench press (BP), respectively. From these …

Estimating Surface Sulfur Dioxide Concentrations Over Eastern China Using Omi Satellite Data, Zachary Watson

Theses

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a key air pollutant as it contributes to negative health effects, acid rain, and aerosol formation. Using satellite data to monitor surface SO2 concentrations can fill in the gaps of ground-based air quality networks in less populated areas. In this study, SO2 retrievals from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) were employed to estimate annual and seasonal average surface SO2 concentrations over eastern China, a major anthropogenic source region, from 2015 to 2018. The OMI-derived surface SO2 concentrations had a similar spatial distribution and temporal trends as ground-based measurements from an air quality monitoring network, but they …

Concentrated Benefits And Dispersed Costs: The Contributions Of Pareto, Olson, And Ostrom, Nathan John Cuthbertson

Theses

Concentrated benefits and dispersed costs (CBDC) is a central concept in the field of public choice as well as economics more broadly. The phrase concentrated benefits and dispersed costs refers to a situation in which economic benefits are concentrated and the associated costs are borne by a larger group. This thesis argues that the elements of CBDC are common in the literature without the term being used directly. This study is an exercise in the history of economic thought. The study is structured into three case studies, with each dedicated to the work of an influential economist: Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923); …