Digital Commons Network^™

Environmental Policy In Jordan : Analysis, Gap Identification, And Strategies For Improvement, Diana Saed

Theses

Jordan is a country with a tremendously fragile environment. It faces substantial environmental challenges due to its delicate environmental resources and its limited financial assets. These challenges are aggravated by the scarcity of available water, deterioration of the water resources, land contamination, desertification, mismanagement of land use, and air pollution. Attempting to describe the “State of the Environment” and to provide an informed analysis of the threats to the nation’s environment is a Herculean task. This analysis examines the efforts made by Jordan in regard to protection and management of the environment. This thesis provides a snapshot of the major …

A Data Gathering Toolkit For Biological Information Integration, Munira Lokhandwala

Theses

SYSTERS is a biological information integration system containing protein sequences from many protein databases such as Swiss-Prot and TrEMBL and also protein sequences from complete genomes available at Ensembl, The Arabidopsis Information Resource, SGD and GeneDB. For some protein sequences their encoding nucleotide sequences can be found in their corresponding websites. However, for some protein sequences their encoding nucleotide sequences are missing.

The goal of this thesis is to. collect all nucleotide sequences for the protein sequences in SYSTERS and store them in a common database. There are two cases. The first case is that if the nucleotide sequences can …

The Complex Behavior Of Poly(Dte) Carbonate And Its Blend Properties, Christopher George Elvin

Theses

Over the years a number of different polymers have been studied for bone applications. Polyesters such as the poly lactic acids (PLA), poly glycolic acids (PGA), and their copolymers have been studied intensely for bone regeneration purposes. Poly(DTE)carbonate has been found useful for bone regenerative purposes and is under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the properties of poly(DTE)carbonate when PLLA, PLGA, and P(LcoDL)LA was blended with it. The desired outcome was to produce miscible polymer blends or significant phase shift in the blended materials which will make them at …

Dynamic Recomposition Of Documents From Distributed Data Sources, Abhishek Verma

Theses

Dynamic recomposition of documents refers to the process of on-the-fly creation of documents. A document can be generated from several documents that are stored at distributed data sites. The source can be queried and results obtained in the form of XML. These XML documents can be combined after a series of transformation operations to obtain the target document. The resultant document can be stored statically or in the form of a command, which can be invoked later to recompose this document dynamically. Also, in case a change is made to a document, then only the change can be stored, instead …

Anxiety In Deaf High School Students About The Future Education And Career: Pilot Study Of A School For The Deaf, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, Theeratorn Lersilp

Theses

This study examines the anxiety level of deaf high school students about their future education and careers upon graduating from high school at Anusamsunthorn School for the Deaf, Chiang Mai province, Thailand. The purpose of this pilot study is to explore levels of anxiety in deaf high school students about their future upon graduating from high school in both the deaf students who plan to work and those who plan to continue study. Anxiety is defined as deaf high school students' feelings of uncertainty as they approach graduation from high school. Twenty-nine deaf students participated in this study by responding …

Acoustics In The Classroom, Carolyn Tully

Theses

"Acoustics in the Classroom: a Guide for Classroom Teachers" is a brochure developed specifically for teachers of the deaf who work with mainstreamed deaf and hard of hearing students and their teachers. A review of the current literature, input from my experience as a Teacher of the Deaf, and veteran Teacher of the Deaf were used to generate the brochure. The goal is to evaluate and enhance acoustics in the classroom therefore enabling the use of residual hearing for spoken language learning. Noise as a health issue in general has been so well documented scientists have referred to the problem …

The Impact Of Genetic Variations In Bipolar Disorder, Lee Edsall

Theses

Bipolar disorder is a devastating illness that affects the quality of life for millions of Americans. The current diagnostic system depends on an extremely subjective interview and can frequently result in an incorrect diagnosis and ineffective treatment. An improved, biologically based, classification system requires a thorough understanding of the genetic basis of bipolar disorder. This understanding has been hampered by the difficulty in diagnosing patients and by the heterogeneity of the illness. The number of linkage analysis studies and lack of organization have also added to the challenges involved in understanding the biological basis of the disorder. The Bipolar Disorder …

3-Dimentional Visualization Of Cancer Metastasis On The Liver, Thomas Nowacki

Theses

None provided.

Connections, Adam Werth

Theses

The thesis describes a project to create a cohesive body of work relating to the themes of the connections between individuals, personal accountability, social responsibility, and social passivity. In addition to creating this body of work, the artist also created a website related to it (which provided an opportunity for feedback as well as links to social resources), and placed advertisements in public papers directing the public to the website by using provocative statements such as 'You are fat'

Architectural Design Elements: A Guest Impact, Kristen Maria Delgado

Theses

Architecture evolved from a need for shelter to an experience for everyone to enjoy. Hotel chains, owners, employees and other industry experts realize that the static image they present does not appeal to a younger generation. Since the markets are changing to a younger generation, hotels are racing to meet demands.

The purpose of this research was to analyze the impact that design and style have on the overall patron experience, likelihood to recommend, likelihood to return to the particular hotel, and the influence the stay had on the hotel brand. Conclusions have been formulated using several regression analyses, and …

Biosorption Of Priority Pollutants Of Petroleum Refinery Wastewater, Deen Adnan Sheikha

Theses

Heavy metals and organic materials pollution in the aquatic system have become a serious threat today. Zinc, phenol and naphthalene are common environmental contaminants. The fate and transport of these chemicals must be sufficiently understood to predict detrimental environmental impacts and to develop technically and economically appropriate remedial action to minimize environmental degradation. In this study, microbial biomass has emerged as an option for developing economic wastewater treatment. Dead algal biomass may passively sequester metals and organic materials by the process of biosorption from dilute solutions, where biomass functions as an ion exchanger by virtue of various reactive groups available …

Does Exposure Science Support The Concern Over Indoor Air Quality?, Kenneth Kasper

Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the growing concern over indoor air quality (IAQ) and determine if such concern is warranted. The first questions that steer this effort include: Does scientific research substantiate a causal link between IAQ contaminants and human health? In addition, which indoor air contaminants appear to present the greatest health risks? These questions were answered primarily by reviewing exposure science based criteria that have been developed by federal and state agencies and then comparing these criteria to nominal concentrations that have been measured in the workplace. The second purpose of this thesis was to …

The Effect Of Patient Advocacy On Cancer Patients' Fear And Anxiety Levels, Joan Clancy Vezelis

Theses

Healthcare outcomes may be adversely affected by patients' fear and anxiety associated with communication with health care providers. The present study investigated whether patient advocates can affect levels of fear and anxiety in hospitalized patients as measured by the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension scale (PRCA-24), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Child Surgery Worries questionnaire (CSW). Decreases were found on all three scales subsequent to patient interaction with a patient advocate. Implications and future research are discussed.

Medical Equipment Planning And Construction Of A Interventional Neuroradiology Suite, Furqan Elahi

Theses

New York-Presbyterian Hospital is one of the most comprehensive university hospitals in the world, with leading specialists in every field of medicine. It is composed of two renowned medical centers, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The hospital's strategic planning group identified the need to expand the Interventional Neuroradiology service that the hospital provides. This brought upon the need to form a committee to plan the construction of an Interventional Neuroradiology. The problem statement of this thesis is to prepare a best practices guideline from a clinical engineering perspective on constructing the three …

Model Driven Architecture - A Tool For Enterprise Architecture : A Look At Emergency Response Systems, Ritu Lamba

Theses

Today's fast changing markets and technology drive software industry to deliver high quality enterprise software solutions. The enterprise system architecture should be designed to keep business functions separate from technological implementation to accommodate the fast changing business environment.

In this thesis we have studied the current best practices in defining enterprise architectures and Zachman's framework in particular. We have further examined the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) approach and its application to enterprise architecture definition. MDA separates the business logic from the underlying platform technology and defines a representation model based on precise semantics. Zachman's framework defines a set of views …

Non-Invasive Monitoring Of Bone Health Using Ultrasound, Nashit Jahan Meem

Theses

Bone fractures are estimated to afflict everyone at least once in his/her lifetime. Monitoring this becomes crucial especially when it comes to athletes in order for them to safely resume their regular activities as soon as possible. Technologies currently employed are either very expensive or use harmful radiation.

Ultrasound can monitor bone fractures in a non-invasive manner, as discussed in United States Patent # 5143069. Three transducers are mounted over the test specimen. A pulse generator excites the transmitting receiver. The second receiver is mounted next to the transmitter and acts as a reference receiver that displays the response across …

Qt Variability Calculation Using A Template Matching Algorithm And Power Spectral Analysis, Theodore Sami Rizkalla

Theses

ECG interval measurement and variability analysis has proven to be a useful tool in investigating autonomic nervous system function. Traditionally, the R to R interval has been the thrust of research conducted in this field. QT variability is another topic on which little research has been done.

This thesis uses an algorithm proposed by Dr. Berger, published in 2003. The algorithm stretches the template in the time domain, and composes a sum-squared error function, which is minimized to find the scaling factor for that beat. These scaling factors are compiled into an array, and an interpolated signal is generated of …

Classifying Rna Secondary Structures Using Support Vector Machines, Prathy Usha Sunkara

Theses

In contrast to DNA, RNA prevails as a single strand. As a consequence of small self-complementary regions, RNA commonly exhibits an intricate secondary structure, consisting of relatively short, double helical segments alternated with single stranded regions. The amount of sequence data available is rising rapidly day by day. One of the problems encountered on a specific molecule is finding the relevant data between the massive number of other sequences to be done by reading lists with a short description of all new entries in large databases already existing. One of the main objectives of this work is to take the …

Demarcation Of Coding And Non-Coding Regions Of Dna Using Linear Transforms, Krithika Venkat

Theses

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) strand carries genetic information in the cell. A strand of DNA consists of nitrogenous molecules called nucleotides. Nucleotides triplets, or the codons, code for amino acids. There are two distinct regions in DNA, the gene and the intergenic DNA, or the junk DNA. Two regions can be distinguished in the gene- the exons, or the regions that code for amino acid, and the introns, or the regions that do not code for amino acid. The main aim of the thesis is to study signal processing techniques that help distinguish between the regions of the exons and the …

Presentation Type, Perceived Credibility, And Perceived Validity : A Document Usability Analysis, Jason Langkamer-Smith

Theses

This descriptive research investigated usability measures reported by subjects who reviewed procedures formatted as decision tables and numbered lists taken from a microchip product specification document. The research subjects (n = 15) are employees of Agere Systems (headquartered in Allentown Pennsylvania, United States) where this researcher also worked as a technical writer. Subjects represented various national origins and were stratified into two groups of six Eastern and nine Western.

The independent variables, presentation type, perceived credibility, and perceived validity were studied for their interaction with the dependent variable, usability. The variable model was queried between the two groups. Three findings …

Do Industrial Back Support Belts Reduce Stress In Asymmetric Lifting?, Ryan Jamor Brown

Theses

The objective of this research is to determine the effects of wearing a back support belt during repetitive asymmetric lifting in terms of heart rate, blood pressure, static lift capacity, body discomfort rating and subjective rating concerning the effectiveness of a back support belt. The type of belt used in this study was of knit nylon and elastic construction designed for industrial use.

Eight female participants lifted a crate from the table to knuckle height at a rate of three lifts per minute for a period of 20 minutes; one set with wearing back support belt and one without back …

Traumatic Brain Injury : Traditional And Narrative Assessment Techniques, Sharon M. Katzman-Teller

Theses

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes impairment of executive functioning, as well as cognitive and language abilities of various degrees. Standard language tests currently focus on very specific language disorders and can not identify language disorders of TBI subjects with high-level language functioning. Although these standard tests can not adequately identify subtle language disorders, these TBI subjects lack cohesiveness in their conversation, which can have a strong effect on socialization.

Through the use of narrative analysis, research in narrative and conversational discourse, which incorporates linguistic, cognitive skills, as well as executive functioning and social abilities, seems to be more appropriately address …

The Impact Of Inequalities In Economic Performance On Their Health-Care Services Between Urban And Rural Areas In China, Lei Zhang

Theses

No abstract provided.

Creating A High Level Incident Response/Forensics Policy By Complying With State And Federal Regulations, Jennie Delucia

Theses

With the increasing number of threats involving organization's today, i.e., identity theft, fraud, and embezzlement, it's imperative that companies have an incident response/forensic policy in place in order to successfully retain and preserve potential evidence. Organizations need to not only combat current problems, but to prevent them from reoccurring. Organizations should not feel alone in this battle. The federal government along with state governments have passed legislation that mandates an incident response/forensic policy be implemented in order to comply with the newly passed regulations, such has Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and Gramm-Leach Bliley (GLBA). Also …

Solvent Targeting, Avoidance And Recovery Trials (Start), Kealan Allen

Theses

Solvent is the largest-volume raw material used at Janssen Pharmaceutical (Ire) Ltd. Over 2.2 million m³ were used in 2004. The top 13 solvents make up 99% of this amount. There are two main uses for solvent on site, processing and cleaning. Processing uses 55% of the total solvent used on site, cleaning uses the remainder.

Waste solvent forms the majority of the hazardous waste produced at Janssen. Three treatment options exist at present for this waste: incineration, recovery for reuse and energy recovery. All of the hazardous waste produced on site must be exported for these treatment options, …

Development Of A Service-Oriented Communication Platform For Heterogeneous Voice Over Ip Networks., Aisling O'Driscoll

Theses

As broadband services have become more widespread in recent years due to a variety of government initiatives and the establishment of Wireless Internet Service Providers, user requirements have evolved and the market has become more competitive. Whilst this is beneficial for consumers it means that Internet Service Providers must offer a more diverse range of services coupled with standard broadband packages to distinguish themselves from their competitors, generate new revenue and strengthen their competitive advantage. Therefore many providers are looking to Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) to provide communication platforms, enabling services such as Voice over IP (VoIP) along with other …

Linux Based Pda Gateway For Wireless Sensor Networks, Áine Mccarthy

Theses

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the development and deployment of intelligent sensors and their use with a plethora of networking protocol technologies. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) can be used to monitor the environment, objects in the environment and the interaction of these objects with each other. Examples include environment and habitat monitoring, structural monitoring, disaster management and emergency response. The deployment of such large-scale WSN possess many challenges, the most important being scalability, portability, fault tolerance, adaptability and ubiquitous connectivity. There also exist many challenges when trying to establish communication with WSN. WSN can function as a …

School Climate: Comparing Student To Teacher Perceptions, Catherine S. Curione

Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare student and teacher perceptions of school climate. The participants included 51 junior and senior high school staff members, 256 senior high school students, and 109 junior high school students. It was found that teachers have strong positive views on the following school climate factors; school building, equity and fairness, and staff dedication to student learning. There is more disagreement among staff members on the following school climate factors; order and discipline, school/parent/community involvement, collaborative decision-making, and leadership. High School students do not take on a controlling role as far as school climate …

Character Education: Efficacy Of Character Development Initiatives In High School Settings, Susanne M. Nowatzki

Theses

An outcome study of a character education program (CEP) was conducted in a high school setting, in order to illustrate efficacy of high school character development initiatives. This study measured character education performance outcomes by comparing the survey results and record reviews of high school students before and after the implementation of a CEP. Over 300 students in grades 9-12 completed the presurvey, and over 300 participants completed the follow-up character education profile. Follow-up participants have taken part in a CEP for two years, prior to completion of the School as a Caring Community Profile. Performance outcomes were measured based …

Self-Directed Work Teams: Do They Impact Employee Motivation And Accountability To Reduce, Melissa Noyes

Theses

This thesis attempted to tie Self-Directed work teams (SDWT) to safety performance through research, employee surveys and statistical analysis. The ultimate focus of the thesis was to answer two related research questions. To answer the questions required a trip down a road that is not, at this time, traveled frequently by safety professionals or other management. It is not to say that managers throughout the world are unaware of SDWT, but because SDWT are not used in many companies, it was difficult to obtain information to fully attack the problem. However, the focus remained on answering the problem, and defining …