Digital Commons Network^™

Electoral Reform In Kosovo (2010-2015) / [Presentation Given In May 2011], Besnik Osmani

Theses

In recent years Kosovo has made efforts to organize elections in accordance with democratic principles. The results from the questionnaire introduced in this project indicate that 60 % of the respondents believe that the electoral process is not credible, citizens do not trust the voting system, and some respondents believe that votes are manipulated. The main objectives of the Capstone Project were to assess the opinion of voters and ascertain some key recommendation for improvement ... The findings and recommendations of this project aim to influence adequate changes in the electoral system in Kosovo and underline the importance to (i) …

Biomechanical Analysis Of Asymmetric And Dynamic Lifting Task, Xiaopeng Jiang

Theses

Lifting tasks is one of the leading causes of occupational lower back disorders (LBD). Aimed at deriving internal forces of human musculoskeletal system during lifting, biomechanical models are utilized to address this problem. This thesis provides an indepth literature review of such modeling, and the results of experiments used to address LBD issues.

An isometric pulling experiment was conducted to study the correlation between electromyography (EMG) and predicted muscle forces by AnyBody Modeling System™ with increasing hand loads. An infinite order polynomial (min/max) optimization criterion predicted percentage of maximum muscle forces, which achieved 98% correlation with normalized EMG. In a …

Spherical Distance Metrics Applied To Protein Structure Classification, James Defelice

Theses

Observed protein structures usually represent energetically favorable conformations. While not all observed structures are necessarily functional, it is generally agreed that protein structure is closely related to protein function. Given a collection of proteins sharing a common global structure, variations in their local structures at specific, critical locations may result in different biological functions. Structural relationships among proteins are important in the study of the evolution of proteins as well as in drug design and development. Analysis of geometrical 3D protein structure has been shown to be effective with respect to classifying proteins. Prior work has shown that the Double …

Development Of A Deep Submicron Fabrication Process For Tunneling Field Effect Transistors, Michael Barth

Theses

The requirements placed upon next-generation devices include high on-state current, low power supply voltages, and low subthreshold swing. Tunneling Field Effect Transistors (TFETs) have been of recent interest because they have the potential to fulfill these requirements. The TFET is a gated tunnel junction. The TFET operates by modulating the probability of band-to-band tunneling between the source and the channel of the device. When the tunnel transistor is off, there is a potential barrier between the source and the channel. The width of this potential barrier is large enough to prevent electrons tunneling from the valence to conduction bands, the …

Flanking Numbers And Its Application To Arankings Of Cyclic Graphs, M. Daniel Short

Theses

Given a graph G with a ranking function, f: V(G) --> {1,2,...,k}, the ranking is minimal if only if G does not contain a drop vertex. The arank number of a graph, [psi]r(G), is the maximum k such that G has a minimal k-ranking. A new technique is established to better understand how to analyze arankings of various cyclic graphs, Cn. Then the technique, flanking number, is used to describe all arank properties of all cyclic graphs fully by proving the following proposition: [psi]r(C_n) = [floor]{log₂(n+1)[floor] + [floor]log₂(n+2/3)[floor] + 1 for all n > 6.

Re Learning To Learn, Erika Heffernan

Theses

This thesis follows the personal story of a struggle with a learning disability and the resultant creation of a conceptual body of visual artwork titled "Re Learning to Learn." This work is a celebration of how we all process and interpret information differently. How we learn, comprehend, and interpret information is an internal process, rarely seen from the outside. Through using conceptual art in the form of video, photographs, installation, ceramic, glass, and interactive art this work questions how we are expected to learn, and also the ways we are taught in the classroom. This paper utilizes David Ausubel's theory …

Integration Of Mobile Technology Into Museum Education: A Discussion Of The State Of The Art, Mark P. Diemer

Theses

No abstract provided.

Robust Adaptive Control For A Hybrid Solid Oxide Fuel Cell System, Steven Snyder

Theses

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are electrochemical energy conversion devices. They offer a number of advantages beyond those of most other fuel cells due to their high operating temperature (800-1000 ° C), such as internal reforming, heat as a byproduct, and faster reaction kinetics without precious metal catalysts. Mitigating fuel starvation and improving load-following capabilities of SOFC systems are conflicting control objectives. However, this can be resolved by the hybridization of the system with an energy storage device, such as an ultra-capacitor. In this thesis, a steady-state property of the SOFC is combined with an input-shaping method in order to …

The Vehicle Routing Problem With A Volunteer Workforce, Leonardo Gala

Theses

Non-profit organizations like the Meals on Wheels association of America rely on a volunteer workforce to prepare and deliver meals to approximately one million home-bound citizens nation-wide. At the community level, hundreds of volunteers are routed through rural, sub-urban, and urban sectors daily. These communities can benefit from optimization techniques that effectively route volunteers. Lack of volunteer availability requires Meals on Wheels to maintain a waiting list for people who require meals but cannot be incorporated into the current delivery schedule. The consistency of delivery routes is also of concern, as there are service and operational benefits gained when volunteers …

Automatic Registration Of Multi-Modal Airborne Imagery, Xiaofeng Fan

Theses

This dissertation presents a novel technique based on Maximization of Mutual Information (MMI) and multi-resolution to design an algorithm for automatic registration of multi-sensor images captured by various airborne cameras. In contrast to conventional methods that extract and employ feature points, MMI-based algorithms utilize the mutual information found between two given images to compute the registration parameters. These, in turn, are then utilized to perform multi-sensor registration for remote sensing images. The results indicate that the proposed algorithms are very effective in registering infrared images taken at three different wavelengths with a high resolution visual image of a given scene. …

The Efficacy Of Native And Non-Native English Teachers On Teaching And Learning: Perceptions Of Students And Advisors, Sobhi Yousef Abu Hatab

Theses

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perception of students and teacher advisers on the efficacy of native and non-native English teachers on the language teaching and learning in Abu Dhabi schools. The data was collected by surveying 400 students and 59 teacher advisers and interviewing 40 students and 10 advisers. The findings of this study indicate significant differences between the efficacy of both native and non-native English teachers in four aspects; (a) teaching competencies, (b) pedagogy, (c) students' learning and (d) awareness of students' cultural and social background. The students and teacher advisers perceive English native teachers …

Towards A Human Centered Economy, Joseph Featherall

Theses

Not included

Real-Time Software Electric Guitar Audio Transcription, Xander Fiss

Theses

Guitar audio transcription is the process of generating a human-interpretable musical score from guitar audio. The musical score is presented as guitar tablature, which indicates not only what notes are played, but where they are played on the guitar fretboard. Automatic transcription remains a challenge when dealing with polyphonic sounds. The guitar adds further ambiguity to the transcription problem because the same note can often be played in many ways. In this thesis work, a portable software architecture is presented for processing guitar audio in real time and providing a set of highly probable transcription solutions. Novel algorithms for performing …

Multiple Scale Landscape Pattern Index Interpretation For The Persistent Monitoring Of Land-Cover And Land-Use, Alvin Spivey

Theses

Mapping land-cover land-use change (LCLUC) over regional and continental scales, and long time scales (years and decades), can be accomplished using thematically identified classification maps of a landscape--a LCLU class map. Observations of a landscape's LCLU class map pattern can indicate the most relevant process, like hydrologic or ecologic function, causing landscape scale environmental change. Quantified as Landscape Pattern Metrics (LPM), emergent landscape pat- terns act as Landscape Indicators (LI) when physically interpreted. The common mathematical approach to quantifying observed landscape scale pattern is to have LPM measure how connected a class exists within the landscape, through nonlinear local kernel …

A Comparison Of Native And Colonial American Conceptions Of Self: Implications For Competing World-Views, Marjorie R. Cavey

Theses

Native and Colonial Americans had vastly different approaches to the world, and viewed nature and other people in quite dissimilar ways. The concept of self is central to this project because personal values and attitudes toward others are grounded in agency - actions that emerge from the self and define the way that one treats his or her surroundings and everyone or thing in it. The way that one's self is perceived is necessarily communicated within the context of social settings. Situation in a world of other people (and of nature) requires that actions be weighed in accordance with agency. …

History Of The Observatory As An Institution: From Maragha To Mount Wilson, Rihab Sawah

Theses

The astronomical observatory has existed since ancient times and has served a number of public causes—religious, astrological, practical, and, more recently, scientific. In this thesis, I show how the observatory underwent three major transitions, beginning with its “institutionalization” in the thirteenth century, with the founding of the Maragha Observatory. I discuss how the Maragha observatory (located in the northwestern part of Persia) became a model for future observatories, including the Mount Wilson Observatory. The Maragha Observatory produced a revolutionary school of thought known as the “Maragha School.” This school marked a sharp departure from Ptolemaic Greek astronomy. I argue that …

Galileo's Philosophy Of Science, Jason Eugene Gavin

Theses

The work of Galileo Galilei has, perhaps more than any other singular historical example, been used to support a huge variety of positions within philosophy of science. This simple fact immediately yields two questions: “what is it about the case of Galileo that lends itself to be so easily reinterpreted to fit such a wide variety of interpretations”, and “what can we say with certainty about Galileo’s philosophy of science?” In this essay, I show that many interpretations of Galileo’s thought suffer from very specific problems and fallacies. These in turn allow a distorted view of Galileo’s work to be …

Turing Instability In Discrete Replicator Systems, Alex Bryce

Theses

When analyzing a discrete reaction-diffusion dynamical system, one primary area of interest is locating where in the parameter space Turing instabilities occur. It will be shown that Turing instabilities cannot occur in the react then diffuse equations if all diffusion coefficients are equal. The replicator dynamic is a system of equations that is used in evolutionary game theory applications to study behavior types in animal populations. Conditions for a Turing instability in first order discrete replicator systems will be discussed and illustrated with computer simulations of the results.

Appearance-Based Image Splitting For Hdr Display Systems, Dan Zhang

Theses

High dynamic range displays that incorporate two optically-coupled image planes have recently been developed. This dual image plane design requires that a given HDR input image be split into two complementary standard dynamic range components that drive the coupled systems, therefore there existing image splitting issue. In this research, two types of HDR display systems (hardcopy and softcopy HDR display) are constructed to facilitate the study of HDR image splitting algorithm for building HDR displays. A new HDR image splitting algorithm which incorporates iCAM06 image appearance model is proposed, seeking to create displayed HDR images that can provide better image …

Environmental Impact Analysis Of Alternative Pallet Management Systems, Ainoa Mazeika Bilbao

Theses

Pallets, the most common unit-load platform, allow the transportation of goods in an efficient and reliable way. Every year, 700 million new pallets are manufactured and become part of the approximately 2 billion pallets that are in circulation in the U.S. The total life-cycle environmental impact of pallets depends on materials, manufacturing, handling processes, and the disposal practice (end-of-life). Plastic pallets can be lighter and might last longer but their manufacturing processes are energy intensive and could contribute significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. On the other hand, wooden pallets can be cheaper and easily repaired but present a shorter …

Scaling The Bulk-Driven Mosfet Into Deca-Nanometer Bulk Cmos Technologies, Christopher Urban

Theses

The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors predicts that the nominal power supply voltage, VDD, will fall to 0.7 V by the end of the bulk CMOS era. At that time, it is expected that the long-channel threshold voltage of a MOSFET, VT0, will rise to 35.5% of VDD in order to maintain acceptable off-state leakage characteristics in digital systems. Given the recent push for system-on-a-chip integration, this increasing trend in VT0/VDD poses a serious threat to the future of analog design because it causes traditional analog circuit topologies to experience progressively problematic signal swing limitations in each new process generation. …

User Experience With Cybercollaboration Technologies, Jessica Smagner

Theses

This study focused on evaluating the usability of technologies for cybercollaboration via determining if traditional usability testing methods capable of evaluating virtual team collaboration among professionals and scientists of different disciplines. Exploration of this research was conducted via online survey administered to 72 participants from varied professional and scientific disciplines. This study explored several themes related to computer mediated collaboration, collaboration in science in general, usability of collaboration technologies, and usability testing. Past research was divided on whether software tools or processes are more important to team success. This research suggests that both together are important. Further, usability of cybercollaboration …

Sculptural Life Forms, Jaiik Lee

Theses

The purpose of my art is to express the mystery of life. Through the shaping of material mass, I induce my work to influence space and time in an attempt to discover special meaning about the life phenomenon of all creatures from the beginning of time to their present manifestations today. The origin of life has been the subject of numerous debates including those pitting creationism against evolution and churchmen against scientists. There remain, however, discoveries and artifacts like ancient fish fossils, that connect features of our humans ancestors with other living organisms. Perhaps this is a riddle that will …

Time And Space, Doroteia Johnson

Theses

Aesthetic moments created by the interaction of human beings everyday become more exciting and valuable when a simple shape takes the viewer to another place, time, or state of mind. I am interested in engaging simplified shapes in order to generate a heightened experience of movement and an acute sense of belonging within time and space. Through the use of tungsten inner gas (TIG) welding, I translated geometric forms of steel into sculptures. The eye follows lines that evoke a sense of balance in motion and boundaries. Investigation of geometric lines as a mapping element reflects memories and relationships that …

Electro-Optic Adaptive Microlens, Dale Ewbank

Theses

The goal of the present research was to demonstrate the viability of an electro-optic adaptive microlens (EOAM) system in imaging applications requiring broadband illumination in the visible region. Previous works illustrate devices that are adaptive optics but are limited in capability. Most have been designed and optimized for a particular wavelength and many of them are polarization dependent. An adaptive optical system that will function over a broadband of visible wavelengths will be useful in many imaging applications. The tasks completed for EOAM system design and build required understanding and implementation of the imaging theory, the materials' properties, the control …

Measurement, Modeling And Perception Of Painted Surfaces : A Multi-Scale Analysis Of The Touch-Up Problem, Suparna Kalghatgi

Theses

Real-world surfaces typically have geometric features at a range of spatial scales. At the microscale, opaque surfaces are often characterized by bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDF), which describes how a surface scatters incident light. At the mesoscale, surfaces often exhibit visible texture - stochastic or patterned arrangements of geometric features that provide visual information about surface properties such as roughness, smoothness, softness, etc. These textures also affect how light is scattered by the surface, but the effects are at a different spatial scale than those captured by the BRDF. Through this research, we investigate how microscale and mesoscale surface properties …

Compact Modeling Of Thin-Film Silicon Transistors Fabricated On Glass, Christopher Nassar

Theses

The semiconductor industry, now entering its seventh decade, continues to innovate and evolve at a breakneck pace. E. O. Wilson, the famous Harvard biologist who is an expert on ants, estimates that there are 1017 ants on earth. The semiconductor industry is now shipping 100 transistors per ant every year. In addition, the pace of growth means we are building more electronics in a year than existed on January 1st of that year! A major driver for this growth in recent years is the portable consumer electronics market which includes cell phones, personal digital assistants, and tablets. The focus of …

Non-Invasive Interventions Top Reduce Low Back Dysfunction, Nadi Atalla

Theses

This study aims to quantitatively evaluate the low back condition so that low back dysfunction can be identified and classified when measurements show a variance from the normal. The evaluation is done by using the hysteresis concept. In this study, subjects received two different types of treatment: massaging using a mechanical massager for ten minutes and manual massaging by a professional physician. Using the Automated Anatomic Torsion Monitor (A-ATM), the low back of the subject was evaluated before and after treatment. The change in Hysteresis Loop Area (HLA) was -12.5% for mechanical massaging and -15.7% for manual massaging. The negative …

Aminormotiffinder - A Graph Grammar Based Tool To Effectively Search A Minor Motifs In 3d Rna Molecules, Ankur Malhotra

Theses

RNA Motifs are three dimensional folds that play important role in RNA folding and its interaction with other molecules. They basically have modular structure and are composed of conserved building blocks dependent upon the sequence. Their automated in silico identification remains a challenging task. Existing motif identification tools does not correctly identify motifs with large structure variations. Here a “graph rewriting” based method is proposed to identify motifs in real three dimensional structures. The unique encoding of A Minor Searcher takes into consideration the non canonical base pairs and also multipairing of RNA structural motifs. The accuracy is demonstrated by …

Modeling Next Generation Air Traffic Control System With Petri Net, Hang Wu

Theses

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is one of the largest Air Navigation Service Providers, managing air traffic for more than 15% of the world's airspace. Today's Air Traffic Control (ATC) system cannot meet the growth of the air traffic activities, which brings with more unprecedented delays. At the same time, Air Traffic Controllers are facing higher workload than ever before. The FAA has declared that the existing ATC system will transition to a new system known as “Free Flight”. “Free Flight” will change today's ATC system by giving pilots increased flexibility to choose and modify their routes in real time, …