Digital Commons Network^™

Cruces, Carlos Mario Tobon Franco

Theses

Cruces is a multimedia installation depicting immigrant conditions and experiences throughout landscapes, Latinx communities, and borderlands. Made during the last two years, it is constructed as a multivocal ethnography of immigrants with varying legal statuses, countries of origin, and stages in their journey. The imagery, sounds, and narratives are composed of the distributed yet relational geographies of immigrants’ experience and the pieces are structured to highlight the constitutive elements of human mobilities, such as trains, rivers and immigration hubs, as well as the natural obstacles they face in their perilous transit, such as forests and deserts.

The fieldwork was carried …

Dog Days On The Chaparral, Hugo Teixeira

Theses

Dog Days on the Chaparral is an installation comprised of three photographic sculptures made in response to the question “where are you from?” Although I define myself as both Portuguese and American, as someone who immigrated as a child, my identification as either ebbs and flows. The work embodies this slipperiness—a complicated emotional geography—in fabricated sculptures which collage images of two landscapes, the California chaparral and Portuguese montado, as proxies for these two homes and identities. I employ vernacular building materials and tools, such as lumber, engineered wood, common fasteners, house paint and steel clamps to create a literal and …

Because The Sun Hath Looked Upon Me, Granville Carroll

Theses

"Because the Sun Hath Looked Upon Me" is a photographic project examining identity construction on an individual, society, and cosmological level. It is a response to racial limitations and judgements thrust upon the African diaspora. I reimagine my identity through Afrofuturism by intersecting cosmology, philosophy, and spirituality. Using digital technology, I composite photographs to create new landscapes and self-portraits. The landscapes are my vision of the promised land; the ground references the physical world, the sky becomes a canvas for projection and imagination, and the horizon acts as a symbol for the liminal space between the physical and ethereal. The …

In Praise Of Shadows, Jiageng Lin

Theses

In Praise of Shadows is a body of work that explores and pushes the boundaries and meanings of photographic materials, apparatus, and perception. This project started with the desire to challenge the traditional view of photography as a purely representational medium and reveal its hidden processes. Photographs have always been something to look through; what is shown in the image area matters. In Praise of Shadows utilizes basic photographic elements, camera, paper, and photo-sensitive materials as subjects to challenge the perception of photography as simply something to look through. Each work in In Praise of Shadows exhibits varying characteristics that …

Polarization Engineering For Deep-Ultraviolet Light-Emitting Diodes, Cheng Liu

Theses

The new Coronavirus or Covid-19 has already became a world-wide pandemic. As of April 22nd, 2020, there are more than 2593129 confirmed case and 179725 total deaths. To fight against the Coronavirus, tremendous efforts have been made for slowing down the spread, such as social distancing. Recently, deep-ultraviolet (DUV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are demonstrated to be super effective to deactivate the virus/bacteria. In addition, the outstanding properties such as long life-time, compact size and environmental-friendly from DUV LEDs make them ideal for protecting people from the Coronavirus. However, all AlGaN-based DUV LEDs suffers from low external quantum efficiency issue. Among …

Effects Of Prior Land Use, Carbon Availability, And Hydrology On Nitrogen Cycling In Created Freshwater Wetlands, Michael Mcgowan

Theses

Freshwater wetlands are a critical feature of the landscape, providing important ecosystem services such as nutrient removal. However, created wetlands often fail to meet functional performance criteria, frequently due to shortcomings in management of key functional drivers, especially hydrology and soil quality. In natural wetlands, hydrology, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) availability play an important role in nutrient cycling. However, controls on the relative importance of denitrification and N fixation, and release of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O ) are poorly understood in created wetlands. The tradeoff between these processes and the mechanisms for improved management are are imperative …

The Public’S Reaction, Over Time, To The Findings Of The Warren Report, Adam T. Fry

Theses

Abstract

From the moment President Kennedy was shot, the public had difficulty accepting Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone assassin, and spoke in terms of conspiracy. Polling data indicated that while Oswald may have participated in the plot, the majority believed others were also involved. Examining the public’s response to the vocal critics of the Warren Commission, the findings of both the Church Committee and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), and the release of pertinent documents as a result of the Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, an image of an unconvinced public is seen. Evidence of this can …

A Social Game Design To Solve Young Peoples’ Loneliness Problem, Jiaxi Yuan

Theses

This project’s topic is helping solve young people’s loneliness problem. According to my research, young people are more likely to feel lonely than old people. Because young people need to work or study in other cities or countries, they have always been apart from their families and friends. Although loneliness is not a mental illness, it does have negative effects on young people’s mental health.

Therefore, I designed a warm and healing social game to help to solve young people’s loneliness problems. After the user research, I defined the major functions of this social game. The functions of this social …

Visualization & Automation Of Shams Dubai Report, Noora Ibrahim Alblooshi

Theses

Dubai’s Smart Grid strategy includes the implementation of Distributed Energy Resources and Distribution Automation (DA) facilities to continuous monitoring and remote control from DEWA’s Distribution Control Center (DCC) , and, in some cases, automatic control of electric distribution assets operated at 33kV or lower. The increase level of telemetry and automation in the field imposes a greater challenge in monitoring and live data visualization for establishing a decision support system that empowers distribution system operators and enables optimal control of existing and planned assets. This challenge can be overcome through introducing data science tools in the sector of energy. Through …

A Study On Dna Memory Encoding Architecture, Robert W. Mason

Theses

The amount of raw generated data is growing at an exponential rate due to the greatly increasing number of sensors in electronic systems. While the majority of this data is never used, it is often kept for cases such as failure analysis. As such, archival memory storage, where data can be stored at an extremely high density at the cost of read latency, is becoming more popular than ever for long term storage. In biological organisms, Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) is used as a method of storing information in terms of simple building blocks, as to allow for larger and more …

The Impact Of Pocket Parks To Enhance Public Space And Realm In Ajman, Uae, Manal Abdalla Al Shamsi

Theses

Green spaces in urban life play an important role in maintaining healthy lifestyle and providing a calm and peaceful place for roaming around. Large new urban park projects are gradually decreasing in dense cities, and small green spaces like pocket parks are likely to become more important. However previous studies showed that multiple research studies on small urban green spaces have been conducted. On infill sites and other overlooked city corners, pocket parks are created. Apart from the obvious benefits of the ecosystem and the environment, they can be a small but important step towards a fair architecture. The project …

Designing A Mental Health Institute For Adolescents In Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia (Healing Architecture), Heba Bin Seddeq

Theses

The society in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia obstructs people who want to see a psychiatrist, especially adolescents. Based on the lack of mental health support in Saudi Arabia, this thesis will introduce a mental health institute project for adolescents that puts more attention on specific design factors, such as daylighting, color, and green roofs. These aspects provide help for the recovery process by supporting healing according to many psychological studies. This psychiatric institute will be specialized for teenagers 10-19 because the early intervention at this critical period has the possibility for the potential for making a lifelong difference. by …

Effectiveness Of The Smart Government In Abu Dhabi Municipality: A Study Of The Customers’ Opinion, Hajar Saeed Alafreet Alkuwaiti

Theses

Smart government has become a new way of delivering services to the public that not only is efficient and quicker, but is also useful and convenient for the customers availing those services. By adopting advanced technologies government nowadays are transforming public services and offering enhanced experience to the customers. However, since these services are based on new technologies, people are often apprehensive of using them because of privacy security and other concerns and that creates challenges for smart government implementation. The current research that aims to understand if Abu Dhabi Municipality’s smart government initiatives are meeting customer service expectations and …

Animal Testing Sentimental Analysis Using Twitter, Afra Naji Saeed Almansoori

Theses

This research explores attitudes towards the testing of cosmetics on animals, as pressure is increasing all over the world to stop animal testing and different countries have introduced policies to ban it. It is estimated that more than 115 million animals worldwide are used in laboratory experiments every year. But because only a small proportion of countries collect and publish data concerning use of animals for testing and research, the precise numbers are unknown. This research was designed to investigate whether awareness of the issue impacts whether or not people support animal testing. The research hypothesis is that the reason …

New Technology For Old Models: Can Dioramas Resonate With A Modern Audience?, Carmen Ibis Lopez

Theses

This thesis uses visitor studies from the Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC) to investigate whether dioramas are still a useful, resonant tool for visitor engagement and if they do fulfill this purpose, how do they do so. The case study is the newly revamped diorama Rochester in 1838: Young Lion of the West at the RMSC. This diorama, a 70-year-old model, has been mixed with modern Virtual Reality (VR) technology to create an experience that will provide the visitor with a new perspective on an old model. As context, this thesis uses the history of the diorama to show …

Exhibition Labels: Language, Accessibility And Inclusion, Brienna Johnson-Morris

Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between language and visitor experience as key facets of accessibility and inclusion by asking how museums use language to address visitor experience and facilitate engagement. When museums are sources of exclusion, a barrier exists between potential visitors and the collections on view, effectively gatekeeping cultural heritage, arts, and humanities. To examine the extent to which language contributes to this, I discuss power dynamics and language, specifically how language contributes to and supports social hierarchy. Then I relate this research to museum education and evaluate how discursive power dynamics operate within these institutions. Combining museum education …

Decolonization Of Zimbabwean Museums: The Movement Toward Practices Informed By Indigineous Cultures, Rebecca Jarrett

Theses

Since Zimbabwe won its independence from the United Kingdom in 1980, the country has sought to embrace and reinterpret its own cultural history. Influences of the colonial era linger in museums, especially in the areas of architecture, interpretation, administration, and community relations. How can Zimbabwean museums systematically identify the colonial influences affecting them, deconstruct those influences, and form new models that reaffirm indigenous cultures and stimulate growth for cultural institutions? The sources cited within this document discuss Zimbabwean history, colonial history, and cultural heritage. The BaTonga Community Museum, the first museum to serve a minority ethnic group, is an important …

“Natural State”: Navigating The Experiences Of Black Women’S Natural Hair Identities, Leah Green

Theses

In 2009, The “Natural hair movement” developed and was widely discussed in online discourse. The goal of this contemporary movement was to encourage Black women to wear their natural hair to work in an effort to combat internalized negative images Black women might have surrounding natural hair. This transformative movement resulted in many books and articles being written on the shared experiences and adversities many Black women face about choosing to wear their natural hair today in the workplace. These inspiring books and articles prompted this project which will track my journey and the results of conducting a Black hair …

Walk A Mile In Their Shoes: Empathy And Rehumanization In Community-Based Programming, Rachel Baldwin

Theses

In the past decade, museums have been changing their missions, definitions, and exhibitions to focus on activism and the interpretation of the controversial and polarizing. Through exhibiting controversy and engaging visitors with it, museums have attempted to foster feelings of empathy. This paper summarizes the results of the research done on community-based projects from the 2020 exhibition Hostile Terrain 94 and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). Hostile Terrain 94 is an international pop-up exhibit concerning the humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border. RIT will be exhibiting a piece of this map which will come together at the National …

Randomizable Phenology-Dependent Corn Canopy For Simulated Remote Sensing Of Agricultural Scenes, M Grady Saunders

Theses

Crop health assessment and yield prediction from multi-spectral remote sensing imagery are ongoing areas of interest in precision agriculture. It is in these contexts that simulation-based techniques are useful to investigate system parameters, perform preliminary experiments, etc., because remote sensing systems can be prohibitively expensive to design, deploy, and operate. However, such techniques require realistic and reliable models of the real world. We thus present a randomizable time-dependent model of corn (Zea mays L.) canopy, which is suitable for procedural generation of high-fidelity virtual corn fields at any time in the vegetative growth phase, with application to simulated remote sensing …

Representations And Representation Learning For Image Aesthetics Prediction And Image Enhancement, Michal Kucer

Theses

With the continual improvement in cell phone cameras and improvements in the connectivity of mobile devices, we have seen an exponential increase in the images that are captured, stored and shared on social media. For example, as of July 1st 2017 Instagram had over 715 million registered users which had posted just shy of 35 billion images. This represented approximately seven and nine-fold increase in the number of users and photos present on Instagram since 2012. Whether the images are stored on personal computers or reside on social networks (e.g. Instagram, Flickr), the sheer number of images calls for methods …

Advancing Multi-Modal Deep Learning: Towards Language-Grounded Visual Understanding, Kushal Kafle

Theses

Using deep learning, computer vision now rivals people at object recognition and detection, opening doors to tackle new challenges in image understanding. Among these challenges, understanding and reasoning about language grounded visual content is of fundamental importance to advancing artificial intelligence. Recently, multiple datasets and algorithms have been created as proxy tasks towards this goal, with visual question answering (VQA) being the most widely studied. In VQA, an algorithm needs to produce an answer to a natural language question about an image. However, our survey of datasets and algorithms for VQA uncovered several sources of dataset bias and sub-optimal evaluation …

Design Approval Smart Application For Dubai Electricity Installations (Dasa-Dubai), Maryam Ahmad Mohammed Al Ali

Theses

Design Approval smart application for assure the healthy and safety installations for buildings and properties in Dubai using programming and automations. It will enable the engineers in the concerned departments to have effective use of time and effort through having automatic first line defends reviewing the submissions of the electrical engineers contractors/ consultants who will be referred to as customers through the project description. The application will be a data base that carries the original standards and regulations that related to the installations of the electricity wiring in the government of Dubai. That kind of information’s are already distributed as …

Young Patient Education On Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Margaret Jane Atieno Mcfarland

Theses

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder that primarily causes the degeneration of major muscle groups. It’s caused by the absence of an essential sarcolemma protein called Dystrophin due to mutations in its gene that is in the X-chromosome. DMD affects 1 out of 4,000 boys worldwide with most being diagnosed between ages 3-5 and if left untreated, most patients would succumb to the disorder by their late teens or early twenties. While there currently isn’t a cure for DMD, there are different treatments available that are effective in prolonging patients’ lives.

Because DMD is such a deadly disorder, …

Pleasure From Erotic Nipple Stimulation, Pre-Pregnancy, As A Predictor Of Successful Initiation Of Breastfeeding, Jessica Jolie Badonsky

Theses

The erotic association with breasts and nipples can be a barrier to breastfeeding due to fear and misunderstanding by breast feeders and health professionals alike (Polomeno, 1999). Little is known about erotic pleasure from nipple stimulation and its correlation to initiate breastfeeding. This study was to determine if erotic pleasure from nipple stimulation prior to pregnancy is a predictor of successful initiation of breastfeeding.

Hearsay, Lei Xue

Theses

The inspiration for my artworks comes from my life experience and cultural background. There is an idiom in China, “daotingtushuo,” which explains that “most people’s impressions of a certain person/thing are easily affected by irresponsible rumors.” In general, people are more likely to add their personal and emotional perspectives to a certain person/thing when describing it to others. After observation and research, the rumor propagation process needs a medium—the emotions of a human being. To materialize this concept of the emotions, I related color psychology to my work. Based on psychological research, I introduced five different colors to represent human …

Investigating The Synergistic Bioactive Effects Of Fruit, Vegetable And Protein Combinations In A Market-Ready Food Product For Young Adults, Jessica Eivers

Theses

Diets high in fruits and vegetables (FV), are widely recommended for their health-promoting properties. A low intake of FV among young adults, is associated with the risk of developing chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), hypertension, osteoporosis, obesity, type 2 diabetes, dental caries, hypercholesterolemia and certain cancers in later life. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), despite an increasing awareness of the health benefits of FV, consumption by young adult’s remains below the recommended intake of 400g per day. This project aims to develop innovative, FV products for young adults with demonstrated bioactivity and high nutrient density. Initially, …

Liquid-Based Extractive Fermentation Of Glycerol To Bio-Butanol, Jonathan Kilroy

Theses

Crude glycerol is generated as a major waste product of the biodiesel industry. Purification of glycerol is difficult and costly due to toxic impurities. Clostridium pasteurianum is capable of converting crude glycerol into butanol, a useful fuel additive. To optimize conversion of glycerol to butanol, a continuous culture chemostat was used to improve cell growth and fermentation. The use of an extraction column containing a hollow fiber membrane was explored as a possible method of separating butanol from the culture. Deionized water and liposome vesicles were both tested as possible extraction solutions. Continuous culture was found to induce a steady …

Security And Privacy Threat Of Scrubbed Nand Flash Memory And Countermeasure, Md Mehedi Hasan

Theses

Due to the high bit density and low-cost, NAND flash memory has grown popularity of various consumer electronics over the past decade. NAND flash memory is used as the primary storage medium of smartphones, USB drives, SSD and laptops. To ensure the high bit density and low cost, there is a tradeoff with security and reliability. To expedite the performance of a NAND flash and to mitigate the early wear-out, erase is not performed frequently. As erase is a costly operation that reduces the lifetime of a flash memory cell, a page-level digital sanitization is used to erase data temporarily …

The Use Of Social Media To Advance Sports Marketing: The Atlantic Hockey Conference, Erin Claybaugh

Theses

Social media has rapidly changed the world of communications, becoming a popular area of interest to many researchers. Sports marketing has also drastically developed and gained recognition within academia. This project evaluated the use of social media by Atlantic Hockey teams through an investigation of their social media strategies and the effectiveness of their channels. With only a small focus on the Atlantic hockey conference and the widespread growth of college hockey nationally over the years, this study was proposed out of personal interest and found necessary. Research was conducted through a series of interviews with social media coordinators of …