Digital Commons Network^™

Encouraging Children To Actively Recycle: A Mobile Application To Promote Recycling In The Dominican Republic, Noelia A. Rivera Pagan

Theses

The Dominican Republic generates 14,000 tons of solid waste daily, 49% of this is recyclable, but only 5% is. This waste is causing health problems, affecting the tourism industry, and the quality of life of its residents. Problems of confusion, lack of motivation, and lack of prioritization of the activity, affect the decision-making process when recycling.

What if there was a way to motivate the Dominican population to recycle, and change the behavior towards this activity? Children learn new behaviors faster than adults. Why not use this opportunity to incorporate the engaging factor of design and technology to help improve …

From Cast-Out To Community: Identifying Barriers In Design That Keep Lgbtq+ Youth From Accessing Homeless Shelters, Leah Przybylski

Theses

There is a gap in homeless youth services in the United States. A vulnerable population, LGBTQ+ individuals comprise nearly 40% of all homeless youth and are particularly susceptible to repeated victimization, trauma, and violence from their community. Current shelters re-traumatize and fail to address the needs of this unique population triggering an extreme aversion to the institutional design aesthetic that many of these services inhabit. LGBTQ+ youth enter a cycle of homelessness and disengagement that perpetuates into adulthood as a result. Why do existing shelters fail to meet the needs of LBGTQ+ homeless youth?

Utilizing a series of diverse theories …

Artifact, Jacob Martin

Theses

During the creation of this work, I identified and acquired various contemporary objects relating to branding, consumerism, and fads. Through a process of artificial aging, ranging from abrading, cutting, and sandblasting to burying them in soil and chemical treatments of bleach, salt and ammonia, I made the objects appear as if they had been removed from an archeological site after centuries under ground. I incorporated these apparently ancient contemporary consumer items into new compositions using mostly silver and aluminum. These new objects are created using traditional metal-smithing techniques and bearing a resemblance to classicism in form as well. The designs …

Study Of Human Hand-Eye Coordination Using Machine Learning Techniques In A Virtual Reality Setup, Kamran Binaee

Theses

Theories of visually guided action are characterized as closed-loop control in the presence of reliable sources of visual information, and predictive control to compensate for visuomotor delay and temporary occlusion. However, prediction is not well understood. To investigate, a series of studies was designed to characterize the role of predictive strategies in humans as they perform visually guided actions, and to guide the development of computational models that capture these strategies. During data collection, subjects were immersed in a virtual reality (VR) system and were tasked with using a paddle to intercept a virtual ball. To force subjects into a …

Representing Mathematical Concepts Associated With Formulas Using Math Entity Cards, Abishai Dmello

Theses

We introduce Math Entity Cards, a modified version of existing Entity Cards specifically tailored for Math Information Retrieval. Math Entity Cards help connect formulas to titles and description and make the navigation between formulas and text related to formulas, seamless. These cards are populated from a new knowledge base, created by extracting and combining formulas, titles and descriptions from three different sources, Wikidata, Wiktionary & ProofWiki. We demonstrate a novel approach of using entity cards for auto-complete by integrating our cards into a Math-Aware Search Interface: MathSeer. This helps create a new ecosystem for consuming information during formula editing and …

The Impact Of Epidemics On Future Residential Buildings In China, Jinyan Xu

Theses

With global pandemics such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the recent novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), awareness of disease prevention and control is increasing. Concern over the spread of viruses within residential buildings, especially multi-unit apartment and condominium buildings, is growing. The design of residential buildings in China is often focused on comfort, aesthetics, appearance, and lifestyle. This is in contrast to Western countries, where physical and mental health considerations are integrated with the design of residential buildings. Many recent reports and investigations have focused on infection and cross-infection of diseases and viruses occurring in residential buildings, especially in …

Unfold—An Interactive Experience On Mixed Reality Platform To Solve Communication Problems Faced By Children With Asd In The Age Group Of 4-7 Years., Akanksha Vishwakarma

Theses

Improving communication with a child with ASD has become an indispensable need in order to make the life smooth for the special child. Research has shown that communication gets driven by mood dynamics, non-verbal interactions, gestural communication and expressions. With the growth in technology, mixed reality and eye tracking are playing a major role in imparting experiences and making us learn about an environment without having to physically be in them. This research work explores how mixed reality can take a child with ASD through an experience that could help them open up and communicate well with others both with …

Kick Boxing Coaching System, Wentian Chen

Theses

There are three key considerations when training for kickboxing; correct body position, motivation, and how to achieve different training goals. Training gear available on the market does not provide enough relevant feedback to the user to validate the effectiveness of their training. I will design a coaching system for recreational and avid kick boxers that records user input while also providing an interactive experience that tracks training in a more meaningful way. This is a project focused on user experience and product testing. User Experience requires me to study the response of the human body when it is hit, and …

Feng Shui: A Comparison Of The Original Concept And Its Current Westernized Version, Shih-Jung Wu

Theses

Feng Shui is an ancient art, science, and philosophy that originated in China 3000 years ago. Followers of Feng Shui believe that they can find a better place or create a better living environment through the Feng Shui principles. Feng Shui is not only popular in China and Asia; its popularity also has dramatically increased in Western countries. Architects, interior designers, and landscape architects in the West have used Feng Shui as a design guideline for pursuing a harmonious living environment for many years. However, the different cultural backgrounds, the lack of basic knowledge of its true principles, and the …

Human Auditory Discrimination Of Bottlenose Dolphin Signature Whistles Masked By Noise: Investigating Perceptual Strategies For Anthropogenic Noise Pollution, Evan L. Morrison

Theses

Anthropogenic masking noise in the world’s oceans is known to impede many species’ ability to perceive acoustic signals, but little research has addressed how this noise pollution affects the detection of bioacoustic signals used for communication. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) use signature whistles which contain identification information. Past studies have shown that human participants can be used as models for dolphin hearing, but most previous research investigated echolocation. In Experiment 1, human participants were tested on their ability to auditorily discriminate among signature whistles from three dolphins. Participants’ performance was nearly errorless (M = 98.8%). In Experiment 2, participants identified …

Uses And Gratifications Of Watching Youtube Beauty Vlogs, Katherine Ray Lantigua

Theses

YouTube Beauty vlogs is a growing area on the YouTube platform. There are over one billion users who use this platform to watch videos about beauty products and tutorials, and they generate billions of views (YouTube, 2017). This quantitative study employs the uses and gratification theory to understand the needs of people who watch YouTube beauty vlogs on a regular basis and the gratifications they seek. A survey of 426 participants found that YouTube users seek for mostly entertainment and habit gratifications when they interact with the beauty vlogs. The audience’s age was found to be a factor in gratifications …

Aesthetics Of Food: The Role Of Visual Framing Strategies For Influence Building On Instagram, Shuhan Yang

Theses

This thesis employs quantitative content analysis to investigate how social media influencers use aesthetic image design to engage followers. The study investigates the ten most-followed food influencers on Instagram in the United States. The study looks at the effectiveness of visual framing strategies, focusing on the images (N = 120) of influencers which have received more than 10,000 likes in 2017. Results show that food influencers prefer to post images about cooked food, without any decorations, using high contrast colors and close-up shots. Raw food images were found to be associated with cluttered composition and far away shoots, whereas cooked …

Tool For The Analysis Of Human Interaction With Two-Dimensional Printed Imagery, Anjali K. Jogeshwar

Theses

The study of human vision can include our interaction with objects. These studies include behavior modeling, understanding visual attention and motor guidance, and enhancing user experiences. But all these studies have one thing in common. To analyze the data in detail, researchers typically have to analyze video data frame by frame. Real world interaction data often comprises of data from both eye and hand. Analyzing such data frame by frame can get very tedious and time-consuming. A calibrated scene video from an eye-tracker captured at 120 Hz for 3 minutes has over 21,000 frames to be analyzed.

Automating the process …

A Preliminary Investigation Of A Values Intervention And A Values Reminder On Clinically Relevant Outcomes, Bruce Clark

Theses

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is designed to target psychological flexibility, broadly defined as engagement with personal values regardless of the presence of difficult private events. As engagement with valued behaviors is imperative to psychological flexibility, clarification of values is an essential skill for clients to learn. Practicing of skills in treatment has historically been a difficult hurdle for clinicians to implement between sessions for clients as well. The present study examined the utility of a novel values card sort activity, as well as the utility of a rubber band to act as a reminding agent for engagement with values. …

An Evaluation Of The Impact Of Anger On Aggression In Pretend Play And The Role Of Pretend Play In Regulating Anger In Preschoolers, Kristen Boog

Theses

Multiple studies have supported the link between anger and aggression. It is not uncommon for anger to result in aggressive acts, especially in children still learning socially appropriate ways of coping. Furthermore, childhood aggression is typically viewed as a concerning act that should be reduced or eliminated. However, some research shows that within pretend play, aggression can be adaptive. Studies have supported the Mastery/Catharsis hypothesis, the theory that aggression in pretend play acts as a release of emotions and processing of events, by showing that children who exhibit more aggression within their pretend play exhibit less aggression outside of play. …

Social Media Footprints Of Public Perception On Energy Issues In The Conterminous United States, David Leifer

Theses

Energy has been at the top of the national and global political agenda along with other concomitant challenges, such as poverty, disaster and climate change. Social perception on various energy issues, such as its availability, development and consumption deeply affect our energy future. This type of information is traditionally collected through structured energy surveys. However, these surveys are often subject to formidable costs and intensive labor, as well as a lack of temporal dimensions. Social media can provide a more cost-effective solution to collect massive amount of data on public opinions in a timely manner that may complement the survey. …

Human Resource Technology And The Changing Role Of Human Resource Professionals, Eris Çunaku

Theses

The focus of this research is to understand the changing role of HR professional through technological advancements. This includes looking into recruitment technologies which reduce the amount of time it takes recruiters to go through every application. Additionally, this thesis will focus on understanding these implications in different countries who have introduced these technological advancements and comparing them to a developing country, such as Kosovo. Kosovo, as a case study, provides an insightful view of how an under-research and under-developed HR program and field can affect the businesses and organizations in the country. The research shows that the role of …

Predicting The Emotional Intensity Of Tweets, Intisar M. Alhamdan

Theses

Automated interpretation of human emotion has become increasingly important as human-computer interactions become ubiquitous. Affective computing is a field of computer science concerned with recognizing, analyzing and interpreting human emotions in a range of media, including audio, video, and text. Social media, in particular, are rich in expressions of people's moods, opinions, and sentiments. This thesis focuses on predicting the emotional intensity expressed on the social network Twitter. In this study, we use lexical features, sentiment and emotion lexicons to extract features from tweets, messages of 280 characters or less shared on Twitter. We also use a form of transfer …

Making Tricks More Accessible: Empowering Adults With Intellectual Disabilities To Create E-Textiles, Taylor Gotfrid

Theses

E-textiles are a newly emerging technology that can be seen in consumer, educational, and hackerspace environments. Specifically, the development of e-textiles requires a minimum level of familiarity with a variety of concepts; one of which is circuit design and prototyping.

Unfortunately, people with disabilities are rarely included in the design and development of e- textiles, so methods to manipulate these wearable interactive technologies are not always accessible to creators with disabilities. Therefore, we conducted this study to begin understanding how adults with intellectual disabilities perceive and interact with this new type of electronic technology.

This research explores an accessible process …

/Səm/ Of The Parts, Marija Ratkeviciute

Theses

This thesis focuses on the role of memory in identity development and discusses the creation of work that explores transitions that we go through in life, the effects of time on our relationships, and the shifts that happen within the person involved. The emphasis of my exploration is the investigation of states of being where the past is more than a memory, and the future is yet unclear.

Everyone grows through liminal states, especially in this time of globalization and social change. There are some rituals to help us transition into different social roles and stages of life, such as …

Multiple Identity Tracking And Motion Extrapolation, Ashley Buck

Theses

Multiple Identity Tracking (MIT) is a paradigm in which individuals track the location and identity of moving objects in the environment. The first goal of the present study was to determine if individuals are able to extrapolate the position of moving objects and their identities while objects are occluded. There is conflicting research on the source of a decline in tracking ability. Either the amount of time an object is occluded for, or the distance an object moved during an occlusion (i.e., displaced) could equate to a decrease in performance. The present study aimed to evaluate which variable (occlusion time …

An Exploration Of Emirati Parents’ Involvement In Their Children’S English Reading Of Primary Grades: A Mixed-Method Study, Shaikha Mohammed Ali Saeed

Theses

This study aimed at exploring the Emirati parents’ involvement in their children’s English reading in primary grades (1 through 3). The Study used an Explanatory Sequential Mixed Method Design. In the first phase of the study, a questionnaire (PIQ) was distributed to parents (n=498) who have children in those grades. In the second phase of the study, parents (n=10) were interviewed with regards to their involvement with their children in English language reading. The study found that: Parents have high involvement in their children’s English reading. Parents also reported high involvement in terms of communication, followed by involvement in academic …

Breaking The Stigma: Major Depressive Disorder, Joanna Cox

Theses

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a mood and mental disorder affecting the brain; it is caused by the reduction of three monoamine neurotransmitters: serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine (Rot, M. A., Mathew, S. J., & Charney, D. S. 2009). MDD is one of the world’s most common mental disorders, affecting a predicted 4% of the world’s population and roughly 16.1 million adults in United States alone (Major Depression. 2019; Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. 2018). The concentrations of these neurotransmitters are reduced in the brains of people with MDD due to their increased reabsorption from synapses in the brain back into …

My Guest From Afar, Yuan Yao

Theses

An elderly American old man accepts a young Chinese visiting scholar to live in his house. They argue for trifles, they fight for money, but they build up the friendship as time goes by. One day the scholar finishes his research then the old man suddenly realizes that he has already been embedded in his life.

An Exploration Of Microaggression Awareness In Real-Time Conversations And Long-Term Tracking And Learning System, Feifei Guo

Theses

Microaggression is a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group. Microaggressions are often subtle and ambiguous, it's often hard to know if you're committing one or if you're on the receiving end. The recipients of microaggressions always feel a sense of powerlessness and invisibility, while the aggressors are often unaware of the harm they’ve brought. The impact of microaggressions always negatively affects both mental and physical health of recipients and results in persistent health problems.

My goal of the thesis is to make the invisible visible. …

Sedentariness, Productivity, Perception And Long Term Health Effects Of Sit-Stand Workstation At Work: A Literature Review, Danielle Mengistab

Theses

Sedentary behavior has been increasingly identified as a contributor to poor health outcomes and sit-stand workstations (SSW) have been introduced in offices to potentially reduce these adverse effects. This thesis presents a review of literature on SSW as they relate to musculoskeletal complaints, sedentary behavior, users’ perception after short- and long-term use, productivity and cardiometabolic markers. To be included in the review, studies were required to include the adult working population subject to a sit-stand workstation intervention with above outcome measures. The review indicates that on an average, SSW has decreased sitting time by about 85 minutes per eight hour …

A Study Of Machine Learning And Deep Learning Models For Solving Medical Imaging Problems, Fadi G. Farhat

Theses

Application of machine learning and deep learning methods on medical imaging aims to create systems that can help in the diagnosis of disease and the automation of analyzing medical images in order to facilitate treatment planning. Deep learning methods do well in image recognition, but medical images present unique challenges. The lack of large amounts of data, the image size, and the high class-imbalance in most datasets, makes training a machine learning model to recognize a particular pattern that is typically present only in case images a formidable task.

Experiments are conducted to classify breast cancer images as healthy or …

Interaction Design Needs Modified Principles Of “Design Affordance” For Navigation Applications, Shannon Connell

Theses

It is a common scene for many of us getting from point A to point B these days. One we forget did not exist a little over a decade ago. A phone or device is taken out, a destination is typed into a search box, and a route or several are offered. The user then makes a route decision, places the device within sight, or holds it as they travel. The user relies on provided instructions for most of the route taken and tangential subsequential decision-making. These behaviors are not only accepted as the norm, but our reliance deems them …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Impulsivity In Individuals With And Without Trauma Exposure, Amanda K. Hautmann

Theses

Around 80% of adults indicate being exposed to at least one traumatic event within their lifetime. Some individuals may develop PTSD, which is comprised of four main symptom clusters: Intrusions, Avoidance of event related stimuli, Negative Alterations in Mood and Cognitions (NAMC), and Alterations in Arousal and Reactivity (AAR). Impulsivity is a multi-faceted construct assessed through both self-report and behavioral measures. Prior literature has suggested an association between impulsivity and trauma/PTSD but has been limited in terms of assessment. The current study examined different facets of impulsivity through self-report and behavioral measures in individuals with and without trauma exposure while …

The Line, Angelica Alegria Agelviz Rodriguez

Theses

The Line is an animated fairy tale for adults, meant to ask the age-old question of “who am I?” through the lens of its main character, Espe, a child born with skin made of mirror.

With this thesis, I wanted to delve deeper into my understanding of the themes of individuality, freedom of thought, fragility of ego and the unreliability of ‘truth’, as seen through the eyes of a child. The idea for this story was simple enough: What would happen if somebody was born made out of mirror? And what if that mirror were to look at itself? Though …