Digital Commons Network^™

Tourism Trails And Resurgent Pathways: An Exploration Of The Nexus Between Indigenous-Led Tourism And Resurgence Discourses Alongside Karajarri Traditional Owners Of The Saltwater Kimberley, Australia, And Beyond, Bobbie Chew Bigby

Theses

This research explores the intersections between Indigenous-led tourism and resurgence among Indigenous communities. Resurgence is understood as practices promoting connections with culture, Country (i.e. Indigenous lands and waterways), and community. The research utilises a comparative case study approach to specifically analyse the experience of Karajarri Traditional Owners (TOs) of the saltwater Kimberley region of northwestern Australia. Comparative examples are drawn from Indigenous-led tourism development by other coastal Kimberley Aboriginal tourism leaders, as well as from the author’s own Tribal Nation, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, United States.

The conceptual framework for this work is derived from the following concepts from …

Intraperitoneal Instillation Of Local Anaesthetic (Ipila) In Bariatric Surgery And The Effect On Post-Operative Pain Scores: A Randomised Control Trial, Ramandeep Kaur

Theses

Background
Effective analgesia during bariatric procedures may be vital as it could reduce post-operative opioid use. This can lead to less nausea which may be associated with shorter post- operative length of stay (LOS). Understanding analgesic requirements in patients with obesity is important due to the varied physiology and increased number of comorbidities.

Objectives
The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of IntraPeritoneal Instillation of Local Anaesthetic (IPILA) to reduce opioid requirements in patients undergoing laparoscopic bariatric surgery.

Methods
A double-blinded randomised control trial was conducted to compare intraperitoneal instillation of ropivacaine to normal saline in 104 …

Does Acupuncture/Dry Needling Improve Pain And Itch In Abnormal Hypertrophic Scars, Catherine Tuckey

Theses

This research program investigated the use of acupuncture intervention as an adjunct for hypertrophic scar (HTS) management. Mechanistic evidence from ex vivo and animal studies suggests that acupuncture has the potential to modulate neurogenic inflammation to influence pain and itch associated with HTS. Further, acupuncture may mediate non-neuronal cells involved in the proliferation and remodelling stage of healing to promote scar maturation. Previous studies using acupuncture for scar management demonstrated positive outcomes, however low-quality clinical trials and case studies provide limited evidence for treatment benefit.

A treatment protocol was designed to investigate the effects of locally applied acupuncture compared to …

Exploration Of The Role Of The Enrolled Nurse Within A Team Nursing Model: Perspectives Of Enrolled Nurses And Registered Nurses, Anna Gardner

Theses

Background: The role of the nurse and the way in which nursing care is delivered has undergone significant change in recent years. Enrolled nursing, in particular, epitomises the extent of these changes. The scope within which enrolled nurses (ENs) may now practice grows ever wider, reaching into the skill domains once reserved for registered nurses (RNs). Medication administration is one such example. These changes, while addressing issues of nursing shortages and workforce flexibility, have also resulted in increasing role confusion between RNs and ENs, creating issues around appropriate delegation and adequate supervision.

Aim:The study aim was fourfold. First to …

From Isolation To Inclusion: Embracing Local Perspectives In Examining The Treatment Model Of Care For Aboriginal Persons Affected By Tuberculosis Or Leprosy In The Kimberley Region, North Western Australia, Stefanie Jane Oliver

Theses

In the remote Kimberley region of North Western Australia, tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy continue to affect a small number of Aboriginal people, despite historical efforts to eliminate either disease. Treatment, predominantly antibiotic therapy, is a principal therapeutic intervention used to cure TB and leprosy and halt infection transmission. Decisions made around treatment therefore impact not only the individual person affected, but also their families and communities. The well-worn models of Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) and case management are used nationally to assist treatment continuity and completion. Neither model has been substantiated for cultural appropriateness nor for meeting the specific needs …

Community Development Supporting Ecological Conversion, As Identified In Laudato Si’: On Care For Our Common Home, Anne Jennings

Theses

In this extraordinary time of multiple, intersecting crises with compounded costs in social, economic, and environmental degradation, calls for transformative change are emerging from all levels of humanity – global to local. Within that setting, my study concentrated on investigating change at a local level to address the research question ’How can community development theory and practice contribute to ecological conversion, as identified in Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home?’

Since its release, Laudato Si’ has provoked considerable academic/theological and scientific/environmental debate that does not necessarily contain local people’s views and everyday lived experiences, given their often-limited access …

Reinterpreting The Villain: Changing The Pattern Of The Fairy Tale Through Sleeping Beauty’S Maleficent, Mackenzie Waldon

Theses

Recent filmic representations of the fairy tale villain can offer powerful counter-narratives to archetypal fairy tale stories. This thesis examines how certain contemporary representations of fairy tales have reinterpreted the traditional ‘villain’ archetype, revealing a greater diversity of perspectives. Using John Stephens’ and Peter Stockwell’s cognitive poetics theory on schema and scripts as a theoretical framework, this thesis closely analyses the known Disney fairy tale villain, Sleeping Beauty’s (1959) Maleficent, as she is portrayed in the live-action films Maleficent (2014) and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019), as well as Disney’s Descendants (2015, 2017, 2019) films. By analysing the patterns and …

Making Accessible The Rich Spiritual Tradition Of The Catholic Church Explored Through The Lens Of Four Different Saints, Anthony Chidiac

Theses

This thesis seeks to make the rich spiritual tradition of the Catholic church expressed through the lens of four saints accessible to a wide audience of people. Each saint provides key insights into the faith based upon their different life experiences and unique encounters with Christ. Upon encountering Christ, they see themselves and their role in the world in a completely different perspective. As a result, they change seeking to live fuller richer lives as they give more of themselves to Him.

St Augustine after living a pleasure-seeking lifestyle discovers that God is the Truth, that he is looking for. …

Genetic Selection For Improved Efficiency And Profitability In Beef Cattle, David Kelly

Theses

Despite the importance of feed intake and efficiency in beef production, there are still gaps in our knowledge on optimal production efficiency traits and breeding strategies for improved feed, production and economic efficiency. The objectives of this thesis were to redefine production efficiency in growing cattle by exploiting carcass information and to validate current beef breeding goals for improving efficiency, and to investigate the relationships of feeding behaviour with performance, feed efficiency, and carcass merit. Feed intake and liveweight data were available on up to 6,088 cattle, of which 3,146 had carcass data, 4,672 had ultrasound data and 1,548 had …

Model-Based Cognitive Communications For Low-Power Wireless Networks, Indika Sanjeewa Abeywickrama Dhanapala

Theses

Our world is increasingly being instrumented with low-power wireless networks that deliver data for diverse application domains such as energy management, health and well-being, security, and other Internet of Things services. As these wireless networks operate in the unlicensed radio spectrum while co-existing with various other communication networks, their communication reliability and energy efficiency are affected by the radio environment. Because of this vulnerability to radio interference, low-power wireless networks may be unable to deliver their application requirements and be inefficiently consuming energy, functioning as a low-dependability network. The situation is exacerbated in indoor environments such as office and residential …

Itraconazole Nanocomposites Prepared Via Rotary Evaporator Drying Of Nanomilled Suspensions, Alexander Santos Coelho

Theses

The aim of this study is to explore the feasibility of rotary evaporation for drying wetmilled drug suspensions as a novel approach to produce drug nanocomposites that exhibit fast redispersion and immediate drug release. To this end, the physical stability of the nanomilled itraconazole (drug) suspensions, a.k.a., nanosuspensions, during the milling and storage; the drying of the itraconazole nanosuspensions via the rotary evaporator; and the type/loading of various polymers/surfactants (dispersants) on aqueous redispersion and drug release from the nanocomposites were examined. Our results suggest that smaller drug particle size, owing to nanomilling, and smaller nanocomposite particle size, owing to optimized …

Energy Consumption Forecasting Using Machine Learning, Mahdi Mohammadigohari

Theses

Forecasting electricity demand and consumption accurately is critical to the optimal and costeffective operation system, providing a competitive advantage to companies. In working with seasonal data and external variables, the traditional time-series forecasting methods cannot be applied to electricity consumption data. In energy planning for a generating company, accurate power forecasting for the electrical consumption prediction, as a technique, to understand and predict the market electricity demand is of paramount importance. Their power production can be adjusted accordingly in a deregulated market. As data type is seasonal, Persistence Models (Naïve Models), Seasonal AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Averages with eXogenous regressors (SARIMAX), …

Sentiment Analysis Of News Tweets, Haya Fathim

Theses

Sentiment Analysis is a process of extracting information from a large amount of data and classifying them into different classes called sentiments. Python is a simple yet powerful, high-level, interpreted, and dynamic programming language, which is well known for its functionality of processing natural language data by using NLTK (Natural Language Toolkit). NLTK is a library of python, which provides a base for building programs and classification of data. NLTK also provides a graphical demonstration for representing various results or trends and it also provides sample data to train and test various classifiers respectively. Sentiment classification aims to automatically predict …

Marketing Automation Customers Segmentation, Hamad Murad

Theses

Understanding the various facets of a customer’s data is very important for businesses. This insight can help them identify patterns and opportunities to improve their operations. RFM values are often used to identify which customers are valuable for a company. They are then used to identify which promotional activities are most appropriate for them. K-means clustering is an unsupervised learning technique that works when you have unlabeled data. It allows the identification of new data points and groups. This paper proposes a novel approach that combines data cleaning and analyzing customer data to divide a broad market into various consumer …

Analysis Of Car Accidents Causes In The Usa, Mohamed Aljaban

Theses

Over the past decade more people are opting in to purchase and own their own personal vehicle and in some instances several, which means that road accidents rates are doomed to increase. And this presents a challenge to the government, individuals and the collective community as car accidents are in most cases life threatening and a hazard to society. Thus, this paper aims to tackle this issue and dig deep to explore the main factors contributing to the increase of car accidents rate. The dataset used in this research is data collected from traffic accidents events captured by the department …

Building A User-Based Recommendation System Using A Model-Based Collaborative Filtering Approach, Shaheer Airaj Ahmed

Theses

The modern day internet faces a very famous problem called information overload. Where the amount of information is huge and the need for personalized results to match ones preferences for ease of access to other information like it. This is especially a problem in the e-commerce and streaming industries where the amount of items available is massive and users need a way to surf through results quickly and efficiently to find the exact items they are looking for and possibly look at similar recommendations. Modern day recommendation engines use user-item data to find items an active user may like based …

Solar-Powered Bike Lanes, Eman Al Ali

Theses

The problem of lack of bike paths in urban areas is a common problem with the increase in the number of riders. Riding the bikes in the main roads due to the lack of cycling tracks affects negatively on the urban area, its residents, visitors, and in many other aspects. To solve this problem, this study examines the design of a solar-powered cycling path in one of the areas of Umm Al Quwain city that located in the northern region of the United Arab Emirates. The research included secondary data sources derived from best practices research for solar-powered cycling paths …

Correlating Sentiment In Reddit’S Wallstreetbets With The Stock Market Using Machine Learning Techniques, Sultan Ali Alzaabi

Theses

The issue that this study addresses is to observe whether there exists a statistical relation between the stock market and Reddit’s wallstreetbets. Previous research mainly focused on the relation between the stock market and Twitter. To gather data for the study, comments were scrapped from the subreddit wallstreetbets for a period of four months, Jan 1, 2021, till April 30, 2021. Different sentiment classifiers were, then, applied on a sample of the data to observe the most accurate classifier for the study. The study concluded that the most accurate sentiment classifier was an SVM classifier trained on 80% of Reddit …

Solving Commuting Challenges With Rts Bus Rapid Transit (Rts-Brt) Rochester, Ny, Lelise Tesfaye Bekele

Theses

The public transport service in Rochester, NY, is inefficient in terms of reliability, safety, comfort, security, waiting, transfer, and longer commute hours. The public transportation system needs significant transformation to overcome this alleviating issue and relieve the burden on low-income residents, pedestrians, and non-motorized vehicle users. The research objective of this thesis is to advance and discover a connection pattern between transportation, urban sprawl, poverty, and unemployment in Rochester, NY. It targets the low-income resident’s detachment from diverse uses, residential settlement, locations of jobs, and transportation options. The research analyses how-: people commute to work, how long the commute takes, …

The Artemis Project: Exploring Mass Communication Utilizing A Visual Exploration Of Influential Imagery., Brooke K. Collins

Theses

Society struggles to have difficult conversations. Polite silence is often preferred to dredging up uncomfortable topics. This silence is deafening as the majority of Americans do not consider topics such as The American Sex Trafficking Crisis. In a post-pandemic world, how do we initiate difficult conversations in both digital forums and public domains? The Artemis Project seeks to visually explore this gap in conversation, undergoing an optical investigation of utilizing design and illustrative practices as tools for mass communication. This project conceptualizes the development and application of imagery to introduce a conversation, facilitating understanding and empathy. In short, The Artemis …

Esaal (Smart Delivery System In Dubai), Banout Alketbi

Theses

Delivery sector has been facing many issues lately due to covid 19 pandemic mainly delivering items and packages late and some of them being in bad condition. The new smart delivery system ( will help in making the delivery system in Dubai more sustainable and at the same time more accurately functioning The proposed system will achieve that by running on their own tracks that are especially made for them to deliver Furthermore, the new designed system will be running and functioning depe nding on solar energy. These routes will be designed to have way to all of the areas …

Calculating Common Vulnerability Scoring System’S Environmental Metrics Using Context-Aware Network Graphs, Christopher Thomas Enoch

Theses

Software vulnerabilities have significant costs associated with them. To aid in the prioritization of vulnerabilities, analysts often utilize Common Vulnerability Scoring System’s Base severity scores. However, the Base scores provided from the National Vulnerability Database are subjective and may incorrectly convey the severity of the vulnerability in an organization's network. This thesis proposes a method to statically analyze context-aware network graphs to increase accuracy of CVSS severity scores. Through experimentation of the proposed methodology, it is determined that context-aware network graphs can capture the required metrics to generate modified severity scores. The proposed approach has some accuracy to it, but …

Analyzing The Arguments And Opinions Surrounding Space Privatization, Henry Yaeger

Theses

As space exploration technology advances and more private actors engage in independent space activities, national governments and international organizations need to reform and modernize their approach to regulating private space activities in order to better capture and distribute the benefits of those activities. This paper examines several disparate suggestions and ideas found in 38 articles ranging from current space policy literate to international treaties in order to generate four possible policy approaches to private space activities: the Status Quo, Self-Regulation, New International Treaties and Expanded Public-Private Partnership models. It then compares and contrasts these four alternatives to determine which can …

Health, Productivity, And Engagement: Using Modular Product Design To Integrally Improve The Workplace Environment, Xinyue Guo

Theses

With the fast pace of city life and workplace stress, there are growing concerns in relation to well-being and staying healthy. As a space that has relatively undefined functions in a work environment, breakrooms are increasingly expected to contribute to reducing these concerns. However, the vast majority of workplace breakrooms that exist are insufficiently designed achieving only basic functions such as sitting and eating. This thesis questions why existing workplace breakrooms are so neglected, when they have great potential to play a much more important role in the workplace. Firstly, this thesis discusses current literature and qualitative research on the …

Pun Monster: How To Effectively Maintain Fitness And Improve Socialization, Yue Yuan

Theses

With the global outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2020, national governments have introduced policies of home quarantine and closing public places, and following social distances. As people spent more time at home, lifestyles changed dramatically, people spent more time looking at their phones and computers, and eating habits changed. This has brought about weight gain and increased anxiety and stress. People have started to do fitness activities at home, but have encountered various problems such as lack of motivation to exercise and lack of peers to supervise each other. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the key factors …

Access To Physical Activity: How Does Access To Physical Activity In Deaf Adolescence Affect Their Activity Levels In College?, Kenly Nicole Vater Ciampaglione

Theses

Background: Individuals who identify as deaf and hard of hearing are overlooked or excluded from public health research, surveillance, and outreach and education programs. Studies have shown that there is a connection between motor skill development in children and their participation in physical activities. Generally, deaf children lag in motor skill development when compared to their hearing peers, and these developmental discrepancies can be minimized with increased participation in physical activity and sports. Purpose: This project involved the creation and validation of a survey that retrospectively assessed how both parental hearing status and the number of barriers experienced by a …

Fruffeltin, Jared Ratzel

Theses

Fruffeltin is a short 2D animated film following the journey of a goofy children’s book character trying to win back the affection of a child after being replaced by a fighting video game. The film’s core message regarding mental health awareness is illuminated through the visualization of character-driven animation, juxtaposing environments and symbolic details. The concept stems from my own personal growth trajectory and reflection upon it within the framework of animated creatures and robots. The narrative follows Fruffeltin, a children’s book character with three leaves on his head, who lives to make a young boy laugh by performing silly …

Ivalet – A Smart Parking Reservation System, Aaesha Alrefaei

Theses

In the current time with the continuously increasing population in the world generally and in big cities like Dubai particularly, many problems arise related to traffic and transportation. Due to covid-19 virus spread pandemic, WHO is submitting different regulations and recommendation for the need of social distancing along with avoiding any activities that might increase the possibility of the virus spread and minimize the number of infected people to save more lives. The need for decreasing the usage of the public transportation in Dubai have created parking issues in the city, streets, and buildings. One of the preferred solutions by …

Blue Light, Rachael Greenfield

Theses

During a steamy afternoon at the beach, a seagull makes its way through crowds of phone-distracted humans in its search for a meal. When it lays its eyes on a fresh box of french fries, the seagull stops at nothing to get a taste, even while increasingly strange fates are befalling the humans. While everyone is distracted, by fries or by cell phones, a vortex opens in the sky and carries everyone into the unknown. Finally, with the people vanished, the seagulls reap the benefits of an abandoned beach full of snack foods left behind. Blue Light began as an …

Augmented Reality Emergency System, Chun-Hsiang Yang

Theses

Fire hazards in a building can be deadly. Knowing what to do is extremely important when a fire occurs in order to survive. However, even with the emergency exit sign, it can still be dangerous to escape recklessly. The goal of this thesis is to find solutions to increase victims' chance of survival during a building fire hazard. This thesis project aims to design an interactive augmented reality system that provides real-time information in fire hazard situations as well as guided escape routes. Specific instructions help to remove the decision-making process from panicked victims who may not be able to …