Digital Commons Network^™

Immigration, Crime, And Policy, Tiara Grayson

Theses

When viewing the criminal justice system, it is always investigated through a criminological approach. Meaning, there are numerous studies that attempt to get an understanding of why crime occurs, rather than the “why” in regards to the criminal justice system. The actors of the criminal justice system and their methods of crime control are rarely examined. In this paper, I will examine the behaviors of those who are attached to the criminal justice system; this includes the police, the media, politicians, and the public, who all play a role in how the criminal justice system functions, regarding immigration. Studying the …

Low Frequency Cyclical Potentials For Fine Tuning Nonlinear Electrokinetic Separations, Cody Justice Lentz

Theses

This work has shown a novel method for the separation of particles inside a nonlinear EK device using low frequency cyclical signals. The utility of this method was demonstrated by successfully separating micron sized polystyrene particles based on differences in particle size (2 µm vs. 5.1 µm) and by differences in particle charge (19 vs. 60 mv). In order to discover a usable signal for separation, a custom Matlab program was developed to simulate particle migration inside the device. The custom program utilized data from finite element analysis of the electric field in the device using the COMSOL Multiphysics program. …

Human-In-The-Loop Learning From Crowdsourcing And Social Media, Tong Liu

Theses

Computational social studies using public social media data have become more and more popular because of the large amount of user-generated data available. The richness of social media data, coupled with noise and subjectivity, raise significant challenges for computationally studying social issues in a feasible and scalable manner. Machine learning problems are, as a result, often subjective or ambiguous when humans are involved. That is, humans solving the same problems might come to legitimate but completely different conclusions, based on their personal experiences and beliefs. When building supervised learning models, particularly when using crowdsourced training data, multiple annotations per data …

Building A Handmade Business, Jordan Khusnulgatin

Theses

The purpose of this project is to build a small scale handmade product and business from scratch with innovative ways to incorporate sustainable practices. There are many factors that make up a business. For this project in particular, the main concern will be centered around all aspects of the product and customer experience, including finding a niche, the aesthetic, branding, packaging, pricing, sustainable practices, conducting sales, marketing, and creating a business plan. This project will follow the steps described above to discover a niche and the basis upon which this handmade business will be 3 derived from, providing a physical …

Disruptive Bussiness Model For Higher Education, Aya Rizik Abushawish

Theses

A business model is a plan for the successful operation of a business, identifying the source of revenue, the intended customers, value proposition, key resources, activities, and financing. It describes how organizations create, deliver and capture value. The recent developments in information and communications technology (ICT) disrupted most business models in different industries. The higher education industry is no exception, where it witnessed enormous integration of information and communications technologies. E-learning in higher education has made a tremendous shift in students’ life and raised the expectations of higher education service quality. The main objective of this thesis to develop a …

The Association Between Problematic Internet Use, Depressive Symptoms, Selfesteem, And Personality Traits, Basma Mubarak Yaslam Bensumaidea

Theses

A number of international studies have investigated the association between problematic internet use (PIU), personality traits, and psychopathology, however, despite their widespread prevalence, such investigations in the Middle East region remain rare. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between PIU and depression, self-esteem, and personality traits in a sample of 350 university students, aged between 17 and 33 years (mage=20.69, SD=2.14), who were residents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Participants completed several assessments of sociodemographic variables, a validated measure of PIU, depression, self-esteem, and a measure of their personality traits. A total of 75.1% of the sample was determined …

Poly (Lactic Acid)/Nanoclay Nanocomposites For Packaging Applications, Maissa Akram Adi

Theses

With increasing stringent environmental regulations and attempts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels for polymer production, bio-based polymers are receiving appreciable global attention. In this context, bio-based poly (lactic acid) (PLA) is one of the most frequently used polymers in packaging applications. However, despite of its high versatility, this polymer is limited in packaging applications due to its low mechanical properties. The two-dimensional nanofillers such as nanoclay and graphene are well known for improving the thermo-mechanical properties of polymers at low concentrations. However, increasing higher filler concentration to improve barrier properties of polymers reduces their mechanical properties which is a …

Biological Control Of Fusarium Wilt In Date Palm (Phoenix Dactylifera L.) In The United Arab Emirates By Endophytic Actinobacteria, Aisha Abdullah Darwish Shambeh Alblooshi

Theses

Date palm trees suffer from many various serious diseases, including sudden decline syndrome (SDS). External symptoms were characterized by whitening on one side of the rachis, progressing from the base to the apex of the leaf until the whole leaf dies; while the internal disease symptoms included reddish roots and highly coloured vascular bundles causing wilting and death of the tree. Although three Fusarium spp. (F. oxysporum, F. proliferatum and F. solani) were isolated from diseased root samples, the fungal pathogen F. solani was associated with SDS on date palm in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Fusarium spp. were identified …

Interactive Range Queries Under Differential Privacy, Asma Mohammed Alnemari

Theses

Differential privacy approaches employ a curator to control data sharing with analysts without compromising individual privacy. The curator’s role is to guard the data and determine what is appropriate for release using the parameter epsilon to adjust the accuracy of the released data. A low epsilon value provides more privacy, while a higher epsilon value is associated with higher accuracy. Counting queries, which ”count” the number of items in a dataset that meet specific conditions, impose additional restrictions on privacy protection. In particular, if the resulting counts are low, the data released is more specific and can lead to privacy …

Integrated Framework For Data Quality And Security Evaluation On Mobile Devices, Igor Khokhlov

Theses

Data quality (DQ) is an important concept that is used in the design and employment of information, data management, decision making, and engineering systems with multiple applications already available for solving specific problems. Unfortunately, conventional approaches to DQ evaluation commonly do not pay enough attention or even ignore the security and privacy of the evaluated data. In this research, we develop a framework for the DQ evaluation of the sensor originated data acquired from smartphones, that incorporates security and privacy aspects into the DQ evaluation pipeline. The framework provides support for selecting the DQ metrics and implementing their calculus by …

Self-Supervised Video Representation Learning By Recurrent Networks And Frame Order Prediction, Sai Shashidhar Nagabandi

Theses

The success of deep learning models in challenging tasks of computer vision and natural language processing depend on good vector representations of data. For example, learning efficient and salient video representations is one of the fundamental steps for many tasks like action recognition and next frame prediction. Most methods in deep learning rely on large datasets like ImageNet or MSCOCO for training, which is expensive and time consuming to collect. Some of the earlier works in video representation learning relied on encoder-decoder style networks in an unsupervised fashion, which would take in a few frames at a time. Research in …

Expectations Of Generation Z When Entering The Job Market In Croatia, Goran Pekica

Theses

A new generation called Generation Z is about to enter the labor market in Croatia where employers are already facing challenges with recruitment and retention processes. With a new cohort at their doorstep, more different than similar to its predecessors, employers are presented with additional challenges. The focus of this qualitative study is on exploring early career work experiences of ten Generation Z members who study in either International Business or Information Technologies programs in Zagreb, Croatia and who are about to become part of Croatian labor force. By exploring their initial work experiences, their expectations about the work environment …

Prediction Of Gas-Hydrate Equilibrium, Stability And Kinetic Nucleation In Porous Media, Yali Zhang

Theses

Natural gas-hydrates are crystalline inclusion compounds with gas molecules (guest compounds) trapped within a host lattice formed by water molecules in an ice-like hydrogen-bonded framework. Natural gas-hydrates have the potential to become an important carbon-based resource addressing the increasing energy demand, and they pose a risk in terms of climate change. Accurate estimates of gas-hydrates global inventory, understanding of formation and dissociation processes of gas-hydrates, and evaluation of their environmental impact require models that accurately describe gas-hydrate stability in sediments and predict gas-hydrate kinetic nucleation processes. The hypothesis driving this work is that incorporation of selected sediment properties, i.e., surface …

Customer Complaints Auto-Assignment Using Machine Learning Algorithms, Muammar Nasser Saleh Mohammed

Theses

Managing customer complaints is a very challenging activity, especially when it comes to a government entity like Roads a Transport Authority (RTA) that manages the roads infrastructure and services. RTA for the management of the customer complaints requires a sophisticated and intelligent responsive system for the large volume of cases and calls, which result in needs to a lot of human resources to receive, record and handle customer calls and cases. "The key customer-save course of action is the complaints-handling process. Customers who complain to service providers and are well treated by the process are less likely to churn than …

Predicting And Enhancing Employee Daily Performance For Dewa-Hv Design Department, Maryam Abdulrahim Alshenaini

Theses

The most measurement tool used to measure daily employee performance is the daily productivity rate. It is an important indicator to understand employee daily performance and achievement. As a management level or as any successful manager, they are looking to achieve a higher percentage of daily productivity per employee to increase their department's total outcome. The primary purpose of this project is to implement the predicting and model and analysis techniques to improve and forecast the productivity of HV-design employees and reduce the lost time per day. Also, this project aims to identify the current situation of daily employee performance …

Impact Of Social Media On Dubai Stock Market Using Sentiment Analysis, Khaled Fawzi Hawas

Theses

One of the main objectives of having securities stock markets is to ensure fair trading. Our analysis of this study will show how sentiment analysis and text mining techniques can help stock markets to sense wipes in the market participants' behaviors and how the market community can benefit from it. The ability to detect potential insiders and investors' mood would help the stock market to take necessary actions to protect the trading environment and enhance investors’ trust in the market. In this project, we will be building a pilot proof of concept utilizing sentiment analysis on Twitter, one of the …

The Infratemporal Fossa: Visual Communication & 2d Animation To Present Anatomical Forms, Gwendolyn Fuller

Theses

Gross Anatomy is the study of human organs and tissues that are visible to the naked eye. It is a keystone class intended for medical students, where they can gain hands-on knowledge of human anatomy by dissecting each region of a human cadaver. The class consists of a lecture, where the instructor will discuss a specific anatomical region, and a subsequent lab, where the students will then dissect that region of the cadaver. The goal for lecture is to present an anatomical region to the students with the intention of aiding them to identify the structures later in lab. Most …

An Analysis Of The Components Of Terrorism, Rhianna Hayes

Theses

Terrorism is a complex topic to study. There is no consensus on what the word terrorism means, and there is even less consensus on why groups of people go out of their way to use terrorism as a form of political expression. Various analyses and studies have been conducted to attempt to explain this complex topic. Many of these studies have drawn from criminal justice research to apply criminological theories as an explanation for terrorism. The application of criminological theories provides one baseline for people to attempt to understand terrorism. At first glance, it may seem that criminological theories will …

Digital Communication Tools Used By Those 65 And Older: The Benefits And Barriers Of Use, Susan Quatro

Theses

Utilizing the technology acceptance model theory (TAM), this study focuses on current digital communication tools used by those who are 65 and older, and the benefits and barriers of use. Using a mixed methods approach, individual interviews were conducted with those in this age demographic. The interviews captured older individuals’ preferences of digital communication tools, their primary uses of these tools, and any barriers that hinder their use and acceptance. A survey of caregivers was conducted to gain their perspective on the benefits and barriers they see older people face when using digital technology media. The survey was sent to …

[Iteration 2491-J], Jeff Leavitt

Theses

When one considers the macro scale of human existence, it is ultimately a never-ending cycle of futility. We are born, some of us reproduce, and then we die. No matter what exists within that cycle, those facts remain true. However, a futile existence does not have to be a meaningless one. When one considers the micro scale of human existence, there is beauty and joy within the lives of individuals. Individuality is an essential component our existence, and it allows us to spend our time on this planet in a meaningful way. Futility, as a concept, is not inherently pessimistic. …

An Analysis Of Communication Apprehension Between Stem And Non-Stem University Students, Samantha Schreiber

Theses

This study compares communication apprehension (CA) of undergraduate STEM and non-STEM students at a private university in the United States. Using a variation of the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension, undergraduate students were surveyed online and during in-person class sessions. Based on 409 (N = 409) survey responses, there was no significant difference in CA between STEM and non-STEM students. However, independent sample t-tests revealed differences in STEM for gender and year-level. Male students have significantly higher CA than their female classmates in all contexts. Additionally, senior students have significantly higher CA in group discussions and public speaking settings compared …

Untitled, Rachel Yan Gu

Theses

The surface of the world is composed of innumerable points which may be abstracted for the sake of comprehension, like molecules, numbers, and pixels, they may also be an apple, a road, or a single person. Under these points, there are numerous nets, which are independent but also link everything together. They combine all of the numerous points together, and are the foundation of the points. I hope to see the nets through the points to explore the core of the world underneath.

I reconstruct the points and nets to create a visual representation of their relationships within our physical …

The Perception Of Lgbtq Influencers On Social Media, Stephanie Sabala

Theses

Social media brand influencers have become one of the biggest marketing and public relations trends of 2017, especially those who promote lifestyle brands (Glucksman, 2017). While many social media users are capitalizing on the “brand influencer” trend, people who identify as the LGBTQ, still struggle to connect with the heterosexual audience as brand influencers source. YouTube and Instagram are visual mediums that allow brand influencers to craft their expertise verbally and visually to communicate their expertise and enhance credibility. Using the source credibility theory, which posits that persuasiveness of the message is based on the perceived credibility of the source …

Token, Kathleen Marie Ripton Johnson

Theses

Token is a thesis body of work that combines two and three-dimensional printmaking and sculpture techniques, to highlights contemporary issues and poetry through the lens of a fable. This body of work deals with how culturally relevant information is spread by using traditional storytelling to reveal, with a certain level of absurdity, an underlying lesson, warning, or teachable moment.

In the work, the tooth is a symbol of payment or sacrifice and in our contemporary capitalist world, everything costs something. In this reality, the number of teeth lost demonstrates who you are, what you have and what you have had …

Clearing The Clouds: Extracting 3d Information From Amongst The Noise, Alexander Fafard

Theses

Advancements permitting the rapid extraction of 3D point clouds from a variety of imaging modalities across the global landscape have provided a vast collection of high fidelity digital surface models. This has created a situation with unprecedented overabundance of 3D observations which greatly outstrips our current capacity to manage and infer actionable information. While years of research have removed some of the manual analysis burden for many tasks, human analysis is still a cornerstone of 3D scene exploitation. This is especially true for complex tasks which necessitate comprehension of scale, texture and contextual learning. In order to ameliorate the interpretation …

Exploration Of The Motion Graphics Educational Tools Based On The Animations ‘Weddings’, Xichen Yang

Theses

With the development of science and technology, computer networks and smart devices are widely used in our life and strongly driving social growth, including the field of education. Cities are becoming bigger and bigger. People are getting busier in modern times. People have lots of free but short time slots every day, but attending traditional classes is limited by the factors of geographical location, distance, time, etc. Thus the demand for on-line meetings and remote learning is sharply increasing. People are seeking a convenient and effective method to gain knowledge or information with their fragment time. This thesis is under …

Link-Family Safety Mobile Application Design, Yingxin Xie

Theses

The safety and health of children are essential issues not only for households but also for society. Missing Child is a severe strike to a family. It causes severe trauma memory and affects family members both psychologically and physically. Incidents like this also spread a feeling of fear among the local community. Many efforts have been made to help with this problem, such as the Amber Alert system, the location-tracking functions in the operating system in smartphones. There are also many safety apps in the app stores trying to prevent this kind of incident. However, there are still things that …

Design For Optimizing Food Waste, Maitrayee Sohni

Theses

Having a sustainable food system, which compliments the food production today is a global need. This paper aims to answer what can be done to make the system and products, not just sustainable but how to create a behavioral change towards a sustainable lifestyle and conscious consumption. This paper was initiated to research a solution for food waste in the current system. At the beginning itself, it shows how elaborate the problem is, and needs to be narrowed down. Thus it has been focused on an American household of young adults.

By understanding their behavior, habit, and lifestyle, it leads …

Leverage Social Filtering To Enhance Viewing Experience With Amazon Prime Video, Wen-Hua Chen

Theses

The development of technology has changed the way viewers consume video contents. With the rising of streaming services, video contents are gathered in one big platform, making them much more accessible than ever before. However, in the meantime, the ever increasing content choices on streaming services overwhelm and frustrate us, reducing our satisfaction with the experience. In addition, as recently as just a few years ago, television was a communal experience. We would watch TV together, on one shared screen. Now, we are isolated when using video streaming services on personal screens.

This project is aimed to enhance viewing experience …

Analyzing Efl Teachers’ Technology Preparedness To Promote Call In Indonesia, Eugenie Mainake

Theses

In recent decades, technology has played a significant role in English language teaching. Current Indonesian policies in education encourage teachers to integrate technology into teaching and learning activities to bolster the effectiveness and efficiency of their teaching practice (Ministry of National Education Indonesia, 2013). Previous studies found that various technology-based pedagogies yielded rewarding results for learners’ language skills in Indonesia, yet teachers report a lack of skills and knowledge necessary for CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) integration (Cahyani & Cahyono, 2012; Ridwan, 2017). There are, however, limited studies examining teachers’ readiness and skills to implement technology use in their classroom …