Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding Effects Of Presentation On Concept Learning In Technology Supported Learning, Nivedita Singh

Theses

The world of technology has had a significant impact on learning and instructional domain. Today, a large number of devices and software are specifically designed to afford faster and effective learning and instruction. They have not only erased the physical boundaries to resources in education but have also helped create new interactions and engagements for learners and instructors. With this changed scenario, the content or instructional material also needs our attention to become usable and compatible with the changed learning styles and preferences of the learners today. Not only does the content need to seamlessly integrate with the delivery methodology …

The Influence Of Media Displays And Image Quality Attributes For Hdr Image Reproductions, Kristen Oney

Theses

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography has been in existence at least since the time of Ansel Adams, with his experiments using analog film and darkroom techniques for the production of black and white prints in the 1940's (Ashbrook, 2010). This photographic method has the ability to provide a more accurate representation of a scene through a greater range of the light and dark areas captured in an image. In the mid-20th century HDR Photography it has continued to grow in popularity among those interested in photography wishing to optimize their resulting image beyond a more commonly used technique. Presently, the …

Aquifer Characterization And Quantitative Assessment Of Over Exploitation Of The Shallow Aquifer In Al Maqam Al Saad Area, The Eastern Region, Abu Dhabi Emirate, Ismail Mohammed Hamad Ai Badi

Theses

Al Maqam-AI Saad area is located to the west of Al Ain city on Al Ain-Abu Dhabi Highway. This area was chosen to be studied because of the rapid decline of the water levels in the shallow aquifer as a result of continuous heavy withdrawal of the ground water. In 1990-1991, the area was recognized as one of the major ground water depressions in the Eastern Region where more than 40 meters of draw down were noted in the center of depression. The objective of this study is to determine the hydraulic status of the aquifer by means of characterization …

Mimicking Mesh Refinement To Construct Initial Data For A Binary Black Hole System, Bradley James

Theses

In order to perform an evolutionary calculation in General Relativity, accurate initial data is needed. A pseudospectral numerical method to solve both linear and nonlinear ordinary differential equations is introduced. We then calculate solutions to the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints for a binary black hole system utilizing such a pseudospectral method. The error resulting from the implementation is discussed at three locations in space: near the black holes, far from the black holes, and in between. A method to mimic mesh refinement through appropriate coordinate transforms is introduced with the result of lowering the maximum error in the system.

Solving Hard Graph Problems With Combinatorial Computing And Optimization, Alexander R. Lange

Theses

Many problems arising in graph theory are difficult by nature, and finding solutions to large or complex instances of them often require the use of computers. As some such problems are $NP$-hard or lie even higher in the polynomial hierarchy, it is unlikely that efficient, exact algorithms will solve them. Therefore, alternative computational methods are used. Combinatorial computing is a branch of mathematics and computer science concerned with these methods, where algorithms are developed to generate and search through combinatorial structures in order to determine certain properties of them. In this thesis, we explore a number of such techniques, in …

Qsar Modeling Of Chemical Penetration Enhancers Using Novel Replacement Algorithms, Hui Qiu

Theses

The applications of transdermal delivery are limited because of the resistance of the skin to drug diffusion. Only potent drugs, with molecular weight less than 500 Da, are suitable to cross the skin barrier. Chemical Penetration Enhancers (CPEs) are used to promote the absorption of solutes across the dermal layers. In this investigation, a Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) model is applied to relate chemical penetration enhancer structures with the flux enhancement ratio through a statistical approach.

A database, consisting of 61 non-polar CPEs, is selected for the study. Each compound is represented by 777 QSAR descriptors, which encode the physical …

Online Resources For Technical Communication In Writing Across The Curriculum At Technological Universities - A Case Study, Deborah A. Hulse-Miksiewicz

Theses

Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) initiatives have begun to embrace multiple resources to aid in the evolution of writing and technology. WAC initiatives enhance the teaching of writing across the disciplines by incorporating the writing instruction directly into the discipline courses, in addition to providing guidance designed to complement the instruction provided in the technical classroom. This thesis will explore the WAC initiative, discuss why this initiative is important, and examine case studies of successful implementations in technological universities.

Hollow Fiber Membrane-Based Air Gap Membrane Distillation, Xuan Wang

Theses

Membrane Distillation (MD) is a thermally-driven separation process. In this research, desalination of 1 % NaCl solution is achieved by one type of MD namely, Air Gap Membrane Distillation (AGMD). The characteristics of AGMD are evaluated by using a hollow-fiber-set-based compact device. Hot brine solution and cold water are passed through two different fiber sets separately: porous hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride hollow fibers of the E type (PVDF E) and solid polypropylene (PP) hollow fibers. Vapor from the hot brine crosses the membrane pores of the PVDF fibers and the air gap, and finally condenses over the surface of solid hollow …

Genome Wide Search For Pseudo Knotted Non-Coding Rnas, Meghana S. Vasavada

Theses

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are the functional RNA molecules that are involved in many biological processes including gene regulation, chromosome replication and RNA modification. Searching genomes using computational methods has become an important asset for prediction and annotation of ncRNAs. To annotate an individual genome for a specific family of ncRNAs, a computational tool is interpreted to scan through the genome and align its sequence segments to some structure model for the ncRNA family. With the recent advances in detecting an ncRNA in the genome, heuristic techniques are designed to perform an accurate search and sequence-structure alignment. This study uses a …

Finite Element Modeling Of Temperature Elevation Due To Nir Exposure In Neural Tissue, Atabek Can Yucel

Theses

Near infrared (NIR) lasers have been used in various types of medical applications. Heating is one of the most important concerns in the neural tissue when illuminated with NIR light. Rodent models are frequently used to study laser-tissue interactions. As a part of ongoing research project in the neural interface laboratory, direct measurements of temperature in the rat brain cortex as a response to a pulsed sequence of NIR laser beam are available. In this thesis, finite element modeling approach is used to model and simulate the temperature elevation in neural tissue under the effect of NIR laser pulsing. Steady …

Rna-Sequence Analysis Of Human Melanoma Cells, Jharna Miya

Theses

RNA-sequencing refers to the use of high throughput sequencing technologies that are used to sequence cDNA in order to get the complete information of a sample’s RNA content. The objective of this study is to analyze this data in different aspects and to characterize gene expression. Besides this characterization, the data was also used to investigate the effect of sequencing depth on gene expression measurements.

This research focuses on quantitative measurement of expression levels of genes and their transcripts. In this study, complementary DNA fragments of cultured human melanoma cells are sequenced and a total of 139,501,106 million 200-bp reads …

Performance Comparison Of Five Rna-Seq Alignment Tools, Yuanpeng Lu

Theses

Aligning millions of short reads to a reference genome is a critical task in high throughput sequencing. In recent years, a large number of mapping algorithms have been developed, all of which have in common that they align a vast number of reads to genomic or transcriptomic sequences. RNA-Seq data is discrete in nature, therefore with reasonable gene models and comparative metrics RNA-Seq data can be simulated to sufficient accuracy to enable meaningful benchmarking of alignment algorithms. To provide guidance in the choice of alignment algorithms, five different alignment tools for RNA-Seq data are evaluated. In order to compare the …

Polyaseeker: A Computational Framework For Identifying Polyadenylation Cleavage Site From Rna-Seq, Xiao Ling

Theses

Alternative polyadenylation (APA) of mRNA plays a crucial role for post-transcriptional gene regulation. Recently, advances in next generation sequencing technology have made it possible to efficiently characterize the transcriptome and identify the 3’end of polyadenylated RNAs. However, no comprehensive bioi nformatic pipelines have fulfilled this goal. The PolyASeeker, a computational framework for identifying polyadenylation cleavage sites from RNA-Seq data is proposed in this thesis. By using the simulated RNA-seq dataset, a novel method is developed to evaluate the performance of the proposed framework versus the traditional A-stretch approach, and compute accurate Precisions and Recalls that previous estimation could not get. …

Validation Of Solar Flare Forecasting & Evolution Of Magnetic Helicity Of Two Active Regions, Qin Li

Theses

This thesis includes two components: (1) Validation of the NJIT flare-forecasting model that was established in recent years is carried out based on the statistical correlation between solar magnetic parameters and flare productivity of active regions (ARs). 378 ARs are examined, comparing observation with prediction. It is found that the accuracy rate to some extent decreases with the level of flares. (2) The temporal evolution of the relative magnetic helicity of two ARs, AR 11072 and 11158 is investigated. The former is flare-quiet while the latter is flare-productive over the 5-day observation period. It is found that for both regions, …

Research On Mppt Methods For Photovoltaic System Based On Microgrid, Jingchu Ji

Theses

This thesis introduces some basic concepts about a microgrid. Then it discusses the structure of photovoltaic system (PVS) which contains a solar panel and simplified PV models. Next, it discusses and compares different methods for Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) with PVS. It presents three types of DC-DC converters -- Buck, Boost and Buck-Boost converter. This work proposes to apply a DC-DC converter of Buck-Boost type to make PVS controllable because this type of converter has the largest range for operational region so that it can get the best result on MPPT. Finally, this thesis presents a kind of new …

A Gpu Program To Compute Snp-Snp Interactions In Genome-Wide Association Studies, Srividya Ramakrishnan

Theses

With the recent advances in the next generation sequencing technologies, short read sequences of human genome are made more accessible. Paired end sequencing of short reads is currently the most sensitive method for detecting somatic mutations that arise during tumor development. In this study, a novel approach to optimize the detection of structural variants using a new short read alignment program is presented.

Pairwise interaction effects of the Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) have proven to uncover the underlying complex disease traits. Computing the disease risk based on the interaction effects of SNPs on a case - control study is a …

Systems Evaluation For Computer Graphics Rendering Of The Total Appearance Of Paintings, Lin Chen

Theses

One of the challenges when imaging paintings is recording total appearance, that is, the object's color, surface microstructure (gloss), and surface macrostructure (topography). In this thesis, various systems were used to achieve this task, and a psychophysical paired comparison experiment was conducted to evaluate their performance. A pair of strobe lights arranged at 60° from the normal on either side of the painting captured color information where the strobes produced either directional or diffuse illumination geometry. By adding a third strobe, arranging them 120° apart annularly, and cross polarizing, diffuse color and surface normal maps were measured. A fourth strobe …

Thermal & Electrical Simulation For The Development Of Solid-Phase Polycrystalline Silicon Tfts, Seth Slavin

Theses

Solid phase crystallization (SPC) is a processing technique used for conversion of amorphous silicon (a-Si) to polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si). SPC can potentially be used as an alternative to excimer laser annealing to fabricate the semiconductor layer for thin-film transistors (TFTs) in active-matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD). It is a technique suitable for large-area applications since it involves easily scalable thermal processes in the form of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and furnace annealing (FA). The SPC parameter space involves the time and temperature of the FA, and the time, temperature, and number of pulses in the RTA process. In developing new …

Emotion In Motion: A Study On Representation Of Sculpture And Body Form By The Theme Of Human Emotion In Motion, Jiwon Han

Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between human emotion and physical expression. The ultimate objective is to communicate essential aspects of the human condition in order to improve understanding and appreciation of our common attributes. In this way, this study is intended to establish artistic identity of the human being through imaginative expressions. In the introduction, essential aspects of specific human emotions and the corresponding physical expressions will be identified. For my initial research, I studied the work of various inspiring artists in their portrayal of human emotions. I attempted to identify the expressions and techniques they used to communicate human …

Identifying Medical Resident Stress With Work Domain Representation, Daniel Nystrom

Theses

Resident physicians must endure substantial amounts of stress to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to become competent, certified physicians. Multiple factors that contribute to high levels of stress in different areas of the healthcare domain have been identified, but stress continues to be a major problem despite this knowledge and efforts to reduce it. This thesis describes a holistic approach to the problem of resident stress by employing methods of Cognitive Work Analysis to systematically review and organize relevant research literature, observations, interview responses, and survey information according to the area of the work domain where each stressor is …

Multigrid Solution Of The Debye-Hückel Equation, Benjamin Quanah Parker

Theses

Multigrid algorithms are fast solvers for elliptic partial differential equations. In this thesis, we apply multigrid methods to the model of protein charge-regulation of Hollenbeck, et al. The model of protein charge-regulation requires computing work of charging matrices for two low dielectric spheres in a salt solution, which in turn requires many solutions of the linearized Poisson-Boltzmann equation, or the Debye-Huckel equation. We use multigrid methods to reduce the run time of computing solutions to the Debye-Huckel equation, and compare the results of some simple and more complicated examples. Using the work of Brandt and others, we also construct an …

Reliability Theory: Properties Of Probability Distributions For Lifetimes Of Systems Of Components, Rachel Santiago

Theses

The purpose of this paper is to make the concepts of reliability theory manageable even for those without an extensive mathematics background. This paper will break down the types of systems, explore the aspects of probability distributions which are important in reliability theory, as well as examine some concepts regarding the differences between system lifetimes and lifetimes of components. The goal of this paper is to allow the reader to gain an understanding of some of the key concepts explored in this theory, to provide examples for the reader to try, and to include proofs that have been broken down …

Cross Section, Joanna Poag

Theses

I plan to make sculpture using modules to build monolithic structures. The sculptures will explore equilibrium as it relates to an interaction and balance between elements. Weight, both visual and physical, will be a key focus of each piece. The sculptures incorporate gravity and mass in a way that exaggerates or defies the weight of the pieces. The formal strategy of breaking symmetry is employed to develop sculptures that incorporate gravity and mass and express visual movement in opposition to predictable mathematical sequencing. Line is used as a sculptural means to explore form. It has been used in a way …

Digital Camera Identification Using Neural Network Algorithm And Pattern Noise In Imaging Sensors, Chandni Bhowmik

Theses

In forensic investigation of criminal cases like child pornography, image forgery, identity theft, steganography, movie piracy, insurance claims, and other cases of scientific frauds, some of the most significant challenges may be to detect the origin of an image or the photographing camera, detect forged images or hidden messages in images from retrieved digital evidence. There has been much interest in developing camera fingerprints for the forensic task of digital camera identification; that is, to be able to tie an image to it's photographing camera with high certainty or good assurance metrics, specially when the camera is not present in …

Valuing A European Option With The Heston Model, Yuan Yang

Theses

In spite of the Black-Scholes (BS) equation being widely used to price options, this method is based on a hypothesis that the volatility of the underlying is a constant. A number of scholars began to improve the formula, and they proposed to employ stochastic volatility models to predict the behavior of the volatility. One of the results of the improvement is stochastic volatility models, which replaces the fixed volatility by a stochastic volatility process. The purpose of this dissertation is to adopt one of the famous stochastic volatility models, Heston Model (1993), to price European call options. Put option values …

Packaging Print Buyer Willingness To Trade Off Image Quality For Environmental Benefits, Rattana Mayteekriengkrai

Theses

Consumers are increasingly concerned about environmental friendliness, in addition to product quality. However, widely used technologies are not yet capable of producing packaging that combines the highest level of image quality with the highest level of environmental friendliness. As a result, print buyers are forced to trade-off image quality for increased environmental friendliness. The amount of image quality that a print buyer is willing to trade-off for a given improvement in environmental friendliness is unknown. This is a problem for printers and print suppliers who are attempting to develop products without access to this potentially critical empirical design information. This …

Extreme Weather, Jeff Turof

Theses

Extreme Weather is an instructional website that provides a solution for people who have an interest in the weather to learn more about the topic of extreme weather. Extreme Weather events covered include Supercell Thunderstorms, Downbursts, Lake Effect Snow and Hurricanes. Each topic includes multiple pages of information presented through various methods including animated diagrams, photography with callouts and a variety of interactive exercises, all supported by an audio narrative.

Reliable And Secure Body Fall Detection Algorithm In A Wireless Mesh Network, Sanjana Rakhecha

Theses

Falls in elderly is one of the most serious causes of severe injury. Lack in immediate medical help makes these injuries life threatening. An automatic fall detection system, presented in this research, would help reduce the arrival time of medical attention, reduce mortality rate and promote independent living. Therefore, the algorithm finds its application in the medical field, specifically in nursing homes. The system designed and presented in this research is not only capable of detecting human falls but also distinguishing them from routine fall-like activities. Falls are detected with the help of a small wearable embedded device, i.e. Texas …

The Sound Of Music: The Influence Of Evoked Emotion On Recognition Memory For Musical Excerpts Across The Lifespan, Sherrie L. Parks

Theses

TITLE: THE SOUND OF MUSIC: THE INFLUENCE OF EVOKED EMOTION ON RECOGNITION MEMORY FOR MUSICAL EXCERPTS ACROSS THE LIFESPAN Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carstensen, 1999) posits that as people age, they selectively focus on positive aspects of emotional stimuli as opposed to negative as a way of regulating emotions. Thus, older adults remember positive information better than negative. This hypothesis has been tested extensively with visual stimuli, but rarely with auditory stimuli. Findings from this study provide support in the auditory domain. In this study, 135 younger, middle-aged, and older adults heard consonant (pleasant) and dissonant (unpleasant) musical excerpts. Participants were …

"Because I Like It? No, They Made Me Do It!!" Why Juveniles Engage In Sexting, Jennifer Ann Haegele

Theses

Developments in technology have changed the way we do everything; advanced our research capabilities, enhanced our communication abilities and speeds, even the way people commit crimes. It provides perpetrators with a new way to commit traditional crimes as well as new forms of crime. One of the many opportunities involved with increased communication devices is known as sexting. Adolescent sexting has received national and local attention due to possible long-term implications such as registering as a sex offender and even suicide. Sexting, which is considered an antisocial behavior among adolescents, has progressively become implicated in peer pressure as well. Peer …