Digital Commons Network^™

Museums And The Tax Code: A Fraught Friendship, Elisha Muir

Theses

Museums benefit immensely from their position in the American tax code and its peculiarities, but the fundamentals of this relationship are often muddled, confusing, and difficult to explain. But with recent alterations to the federal tax code and an atmosphere of apprehension in the field, understanding and explanation are critical to proper decision-making and governance. This thesis addresses that need through multifaceted research and analysis of historical data, expert analysis, and crucially case law at both the federal and state level. The result of this will be to expand the currently anemic body of current literature on the topic and …

Creating A Safer Running Experience: Reducing Runner And Vehicular Traffic Incidents, Chad A. Cooper

Theses

A routine run can turn into a final run in a matter of seconds. Runners and drivers are exposed to a variety of distractions that hinder their ability to safely react to potential incidents. With the help of Augmented Reality and wearable technology, runners can help reduce traffic related incidents by staying focused on the road and their surroundings. This project looks to investigate how AR technology can be leveraged to offer the safest run without diminishing the running user-experience.

Behind The Door, Pengxu Cheng

Theses

Behind the Door is a three-minute, nineteen-second 2D animation film. This story is about three rabbits, a hunter and a wolf and is told in two segments. The first segment of the film tells a linear story of a hunter who hunts rabbits, but fails continuously. The second segment of the film is told from the angle of the rabbits and a wolf. The wolf wants to hunt the rabbits, but also fails to catch them. The hunter also hunts the wolf, but the wolf outsmarts him. Although the rabbits are small and vulnerable animals, in this story they work …

Urban Infill – Revitalize Downtown Almaty, Kazakhstan, Madi Zhunussov

Theses

This design proposal would provide a solution for a specific area of downtown Almaty, Kazakhstan and is based on research and analysis of city information, as well as on the author’s own experiences that were gathered onsite.

Almaty is very car-dependent; the city contains 1.8 million people and sprawls across an area of 263 square miles. Low-height structures to accommodate seismic activity, long travelling distances, wide roads, and vehicular parking chaos can be observed within the city center of Almaty. Having similar population – Munich, Germany and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA were compared to Almaty, where Floor Area Ratio (FAR) showed …

When Linguistics And Heritage Intersect: Language Preservation And Revitalization In Cultural Institutions, Katharine Maclaren

Theses

This work explores the ways in which cultural institutions, namely museums, libraries, and archives, can help save dying languages. It first introduces language preservation and revitalization as a field and then evaluates current efforts, including those outside the museum sphere. The question guiding this research is: Given the missions of cultural institutions, their collections, and their relationships with surrounding communities, how can these institutions successfully contribute to the preservation and revitalization of endangered languages in the long-term, and how might success be evaluated? The preservation of Scottish Gaelic will be considered as a specific case study by looking at several …

Synthesis And Biological Applications Of Some Novel Urea And Thiourea-Quinoline Derivatives, Aysha Mohammed Alkaabi

Theses

Extensive literature survey reveals that 8-Hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ), urea, thiourea and piperazine exhibit wide biological activity profile such as anticancer, anti-Alzheimer, anti-viral, antibacterial and antifungal activity. Novel urea and thiourea-quinoline derivatives connected by piperazine moiety have been synthesized and purified using appropriate techniques (extraction, crystallization and column chromatography) followed by characterization using IR spectroscopy and NMR spectroscopy (both ¹H and ¹³C).

Biological activity, metal chelation properties and the photo-physical properties were studied for these novel compounds. Anti-bacterial study shows moderate activity for most of the compounds against P.aereginosa, S.aureus and Enterococcus at concentration 250 μM. Antifungal study showed …

Enhancement Of Vegetative Growth And Nutrient Concentration Of Date Palm After Inoculation With An Isolate From Uae Of The Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus Rhizoglomus Intraradices, Khuloud Nasser Mohammed Al Kayyoomi

Theses

The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is considered the main agricultural crop in many dry regions of the world, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It has been demonstrated that the date palm forms a beneficial symbiotic association with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. AM fungi are known to improve plant growth, increase nutrient uptake and assist plant growth under biotic and abiotic stress conditions. The main aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficiency at which an isolate of the AM fungus Rhizoglomus intraradices improves the vegetative growth and nutrient content of two date palm varieties in …

Evaluating The Performance Of Digital Micromirror Devices For Use As Programmable Slit Masks In Multi-Object Spectrometers, Anton Travinsky

Theses

Multi-object spectrometers are extremely useful astronomical instruments that allow simultaneous spectral observations of large numbers of objects. Studies performed with ground-based multi-object spectrometers (MOSs) in the last four decades helped to place unique constraints on cosmology, large scale structure, galaxy evolution, Galactic structure, and contributed to countless other scientific advances. However, terrestrial MOSs use large discrete components for object selection, which, aside from not transferable to space-based applications, are limited in both minimal slit width and minimal time required accommodate a change of the locations of objects of interest in the field of view. There is a pressing need in …

“15 Miles On The Erie Canal”: Navigating The Erie Canal Through A Digital Exhibit, Mason Lezette

Theses

The Erie Canal is one of the engineering marvels of the world and was largely responsible for Rochester’s transformation into an economic powerhouse, yet there is little representation of it in the cultural institutions throughout Rochester. In collaboration with the Office of the City Historian, I created a digital exhibit to commemorate the Erie Canal and its economic and social effects on the City of Rochester. This paper tracks the many decisions I made throughout the process of creating the exhibit and goes into detail about how best to select items, craft a narrative, and put the exhibit together in …

A Comparative Evaluation Of The Structure Of Primary Care In The United States And The United Kingdom, Lindsay Thompson Munn

Theses

The condition of the United States (US) health care system is currently at the center of national debate; and attempts to reform a flagging system are underway (Rutenberg & Calmes, 2009; Stolberg & Herszenhorn, 2010). The American health care system is in distress. An estimated 43.8 to 46.3 million individuals in the US are uninsured (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2009; DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Smith, 2008; U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). The majority of health coverage in the US is provided through employer-based insurance (Blumenthal, 2006; Congressional Budget Office [CBO,] 2007); but with the current economic crisis and a …

E-Nable: Diy-At Production In A Multi-Stakeholder System, Jeremiah L. Parry-Hill

Theses

The e-NABLE community is a distributed collaborative volunteer effort to make upper-limb assistive technology devices available to end users. e-NABLE represents a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to traditional prosthetic care. In order to learn about the attitudes and challenges of stakeholders working in and around e-NABLE, we conducted interviews with 12 volunteers in the e-NABLE movement and 3 clinicians. We found that volunteers derive a rich set of benefits from this form of altruistic activity; that both volunteers and clinicians recognize that end users benefit from aesthetic customization and personal choice in device selection; and that volunteers and clinicians bring separate, …

A Comparison Of Conventional And New Technology Gravure Cylinders In Terms Of Image Quality, Chandramohan Seetharamiah Srinivasaraju

Theses

Gravure is losing package printing market share to Flexo in North America. Closing the cost gap between flexo and gravure is a prerequisite to regaining market share. This could be accomplished by adopting new cylinder technologies that reduce the cost of cylinder preparation and the size of cylinder inventories. This study examined one such technology, RotoHybrid Cylinders. RotoHybrid is new to the gravure industry and has just entered beta testing. Gravure printers would like to understand how RotoHybrid and Conventional Chrome cylinders compare in term of ability to print images. This research assessed image quality differences between conventional Chrome cylinders …

Controlled Release Chemical Oxidation: Sodium Persulfate Encapsulated In Pvac Polymer, Mosarrat Samiha Kabir

Theses

In this study, sodium persulfate was encapsulated in polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) polymer to investigate the potential of activated persulfate to remediate total coliform and E. coli bacteria from contaminated water through a control release system. Controlled release structures were produced with the polymer and persulfate melted to form pellets at two different baking times. CRP structures containing 60 weight % sodium persulfates blended with 40 weight % polyvinyl acetate (PS- PVAc) were baked for 4 minutes and 10 minutes at 120ºC. The kinetics release of sodium persulfate was studied in a water system and in sand columns. Experimental results showed …

Exploring The Role Of Twitter As A Public Sphere That Facilitates Civil Discourse, Niamh Smith

Theses

Recognising the polarising nature of discourse today, this research analyses online discussion platforms and their potential as modern public spheres. It is particularly concerned with the importance of civility as an aspect of conversation, and whether the online environment aids in civil discourse. Twitter has been chosen as the online platform that is the focus of this study. This is to allow for a more in-depth exploration of a public sphere that exists online. Key themes that distinguish Twitter from public spheres that exist offline are discussed. These include: anonymity, public shaming, social control, and distortions. This research relies on …

Occupant Evacuation Behavior In Wildfires: Gap Analysis, Agnes Ampomah

Theses

This thesis investigates the impacts wildfires have on those who live within the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) areas. The Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF) sponsored this investigation to provide insight on information concerning evacuee pre-movement delays and behaviors before the beginning of an evacuation, both in terms of types of behaviors and elapsed time for these delays. Furthermore, the analysis of evacuee behavior in wildfire past and present evacuations will assist in the construction of future evacuation models that will mitigate evacuee loses during evacuations. The investigation is based on literature reviews on wildfires and their evacuation processes, past and …

Investigating A Cyber-Human System For Millennial Caregivers, Ashley Lofton

Theses

Research indicates that most caregiving of persons with dementia (PwD) is done by adults 49 years of age and older. However, millennials make up 25% of the estimated 44 million caregivers in the United States. Although the definition varies, “millennials” for this research is defined by those born between 1984 - 2000, which aligns with the research by Strauss and Howe (2003). Millennial caregivers are taking on this task as their parents or grandparents get older and diagnosed with dementia. Taking on the task of caring for a loved one with dementia can present itself as difficult because of competing …

Feedback Control For Leader Follower Architecture Of Unmanned Arial And Ground Vehicles, Mahmoud El Mahmoud

Theses

This thesis presents development of a feedback controller for a cooperative mission using unmanned aerial vehicle and unmanned ground vehicle. This developed controller offers a solution to the time delayed collaborative autonomous systems for multiple robot systems. There are many motivating applications for these missions including exploration, search and rescue in damaged areas. The architecture developed in this thesis consists of an unmanned ground vehicle as a leader and an unmanned aerial vehicle as a follower. To be specific, the unmanned ground vehicle navigates through a damaged environment and leads the mission. The unmanned aerial vehicle follows the leader and …

Examining How Student Social Organizations Aid In The Professional Development Of Undergraduate Students, Megan K. Parker

Theses

Student social organizations can play a vital role in a college students’ lives. Undergraduate students have many opportunities to join student organizations during their time on campus. The literature found focused on students who are members of degree-specific organizations and Greek-letter organizations and the transferable skills that employers identify as essential for recent college graduates. This study examined how students who are involved in student social organizations develop transferable skills that will assist them as they transition from their undergraduate careers into their professional careers. A total of five undergraduate students were interviewed for this study. The students who participated …

Optical Properties Of Iii-V Nanowire/Nanopillar Lasers Grown On Si, Juan Salvador Dominguez Morales

Theses

Nanowires (NW) /nanopillars (NP) offer the possibility of reducing the mismatch of III-V semiconductor materials grown on different substrates such as Si, SiN, SiO2 and are hence being considered potential candidates for coherent light sources in optoelectronics technologies. The difference between NPs and NWs lies in the growth process. The NPs are site-controlled using a patterned mask, while the NWs use a self-catalysed such as gold or Ga-droplet.. In this dissertation, the emission properties of GaAs/AlGaAs (core-shell and core-multishell) and InGaAs (unpassivated and passivated with InGaP) nanolasers have been studied with excitation powers above and below the lasing threshold at …

An Investigation Into The Management Of Branding In Irish Artisan Food Businesses, Daniel David Hickey

Theses

A consumer’s lifestyle is busier now then in the past and is moving towards products that reduce preparation and cooking times (Bia, 2015). The demand for value added convenience products has created opportunity for the Artisan food sector. This has lead to the expansion of food Small Medium Enterprises (SME’s) in Ireland. There were 235 specialty food producers in Ireland in 2018, a 2.7% increase on the previous year. SME’s are growing in popularity among consumers but there is very little research been completed into Irish SME’s. A 2016 study by Kennedy and Wright identified that the area is scant …

Crystallographic Structure Determination Of Bacteriophage-Encoded Enzymes That Specifically Target Pathogenic Bacteria, Marta Sanz Gaitero

Theses

Antibiotic resistance is becoming a serious public health concern. Infections that some decades ago could be treated with antibiotics now sometimes do not respond to traditional treatment, causing higher mortality and economic losses. An alternative to the use of antibiotics are bacteria's natural predators, bacteriophages (or phages), and specifically their lytic enzymes. These proteins are produced by phages to degrade bacterial peptidoglycan to inject their genetic material into the bacteria (virion-associated peptidoglycan hydrolases) or to release their progeny once the infection is finished (endolysins). They can be applied exogenously to lyse Gram-positive bacteria or be genetically engineered to lyse Gram-negative …

Migration Of Artificially Activated B Cells In A Microfluidic Device-Induced Cxcl-12 Gradient, Rachel Lauren Stokes

Theses

No abstract provided.

Oxime Cross-Linked Alginate Hydrogels With Tunable Stress Relaxation For Immune Cell Encapsulation, Hector Sanchez-Moran

Theses

Sodium alginate hydrogels have served as a versatile and reliable tool for biomedical applications such as 3-D cell encapsulation, both in vitro and in vivo. In the past, these hydrogels have formed via ionic or covalent cross-linking of the alginate chains upon the modification of its functional groups. Hereby, we employ a technique to modify hydroxyl groups of the alginate backbone to alkoxyamine groups (-O-NH2), and we verify such modifications in 1D and 2D NMR. Alkoxyamine groups belong to the field of click bioorthogonal polymer cross-linking. In the presence of aldehyde-modified alginate chains, both polymers can form an oxime reversible …

Wi-Fi 6 : Performance Analysis Of Ieee 802.11ax, Umeshwarnath Surendranathan

Theses

Faster internet is always in demand for both consumer and professional use cases. The wireless network standard IEEE 802.11ac, also known as Wi-Fi 5, was published in 2013 and has a theoretical maximum data rate of 867 Mbps per stream. Upcoming Hi-Resolution VR technology, streaming 8k media, competitive gaming and its low-latency demands, all require higher data rates and lower latency than what the 11ac technology can provide. The new IEEE 802.11ax standard or Wi-Fi 6, promises higher bandwidth and higher throughput in a dense user environment. It aims not only at improving individual user speed but also at improving …

Quantification Of Butanol Produced By C. Pasteuranium And Isolated By L-A-Lecithin Liposomes Using Quantitative Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (Qnmr), Luke X. Viegas

Theses

A cleaner and more efficient option to ethanol in the alternative fuel industry is n-butanol. The focus of this study was to establish that quantitative Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (qNMR) is a viable method to determine levels of n-butanol as it is produced by Clostridium pasteurianum in the fermentation of glycerol. Extractive fermentation using L-α-Lecithin liposomes is proposed to separate n-butanol, hence the spectroscopic behavior of n-butanol in the presence of liposomes was studied and partition coefficients were determined. Additionally, qNMR was used to quantify glycerol and other fermentation products during the fermentation of C. pasteurianum using a bioreactor. Two …

Genetics And Molecular Dynamics Of L,L-Diaminopimelate Aminotransferase (Dapl): An Enzyme Involved In Lysine And Peptidoglycan Biosynthesis, Lily E.J. Adams

Theses

The marked increase of bacteria that are resistant to clinically relevant antibiotics in recent years has sparked a push in the development and discovery of novel antibiotics. Complementary to this, the identification of novel antibiotic targets is also of great interest. The lysine biosynthesis pathway is an ideal candidate for these efforts because its product is an essential amino acid. Lysine cannot be synthesized by humans and thus poses minimal risk of side effects if synthesis is targeted. The penultimate product in the lysine biosynthesis pathway, meso-DAP, is also a key component of the gram-negative bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan layer. …

A Modified Rcm Medium For The Growth Of Lactobacillus Bulgaricus, Ayowole Caleb Oyeniran

Theses

In this study, we modified reinforced clostridial medium (RCM) to selectively enumerate and isolate Lactobacillus bulgaricus, a probiotic and an important starter culture in the dairy industry. The disparity in the reported carbohydrate fermentation pattern of L. bulgaricus was used to develop a growth medium not only selective for L. bulgaricus but significantly inhibitory to the growth of other lactic acid bacteria. A recently modified RCM (mRCM) was optimized for this study by the addition of 0.5% fructose, 0.5% dextrose, 1% maltose and 0.25% sodium pyruvate while replacing lactose as a carbohydrate source. The cell recovery and bacterial counts of …

What Supports Are Needed To Encourage And Assist Community Festivals And Events To Succeed And Grow? An Empirical Study., Helen Mcdwyer

Theses

Abstract: Communities are motivated to host festivals and events for a myriad of reasons. They generate important economic and social benefits for an area with increased visitor numbers, increased local spending and greater community cohesion. Festival and event tourism is an important segment of the overall tourism product in Ireland, particularly in an area such as Kerry where there is a heavy reliance on tourism. Many festivals and events in Kerry are organised by community and voluntary groups and yet these groups are increasingly pressurised to increase the professionality of their offering to compete for regional funding and sponsorship. Changes …

St Thomas Aquinas On Affectivity: A Way Forward For Seminary Formation, Bernard Gordon

Theses

St Thomas Aquinas on Affectivity: A Way Forward for Seminary Formation, is a theological argument that St Thomas’ teaching can be applied to the affective formation of men preparing to be Catholic priests. St Thomas’ teaching provides a very helpful understanding of affective maturity and its integral importance for a truly Christian and priestly life in the service of others. It flows from a theological anthropology that recognizes proper affective growth as an integral part of human life and interpersonal relationships. Affective maturity is an essential attribute for the seminarian to acquire because he is preparing to be a priest …

Perceptions Of Parental Awareness, Knowledge And Anxiety Levels Regarding Infant Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Training Amongst Parents Residing In Southern Tasmania, Nakita Stephens

Theses

Prenatal and postnatal education help to prepare parents to care appropriately for their newborn child. This education however, rarely includes learning infant cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR. CPR for Infants differs from both adult and paediatric resuscitation techniques, and most people who do learn CPR usually only learn adult techniques. Research shows that bystander intervention with CPR improves the chances of both survival and survival without sequelae in out of hospital arrests. Including Infant CPR education as part of the general parent education could assist in scenarios of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or other emergency situations. Some concern has been …