Digital Commons Network^™

Portraits: A Study In Objects, Family Relations, And Race, Julie Quintero

Theses

My final project is a body of mixed-media portraits which were exhibited at SculptureWorks Ferguson in December, 2021. Each of the twenty works are visual representations of events, identities, or relationships, experienced in both the past and the present. The materials used to help push each narrative include fabric, yarn, coffee filters, embroidery, wood, stain, plaster, metal, concrete, inks, conte, paints, and/or found objects. Each piece demonstrates a unique combination of image, media, and technique in the field of contemporary art. Some of the works include objects made by the people being portrayed. Others include materials that were acquired via …

Cultural Connection: The Value Of Art History In Early Childhood Development And Education, Sara Ashley Turner

Theses

This thesis focuses on the utilization of art historical inquiry to improve the relationship and narrative of culture within appropriate settings. Although this thesis will prove the beneficial and important role that the subject matter of art history can have in early education, the subject matter will also show the specific possibilities of using such inquiries in art therapy, museum education, and in general education classrooms. The aim of the thesis is to present these practical and useful employments of art historical inquiry, within subject matter for young children, to be a tool for finding cultural identity and inclusivity in …

Further The Field: Revamping Collegiate Athletic Digital Marketing Efforts, Ryan Sells

Theses

This paper closely analyzes digital marketing strategies and athletic communications campaigns in a more technologically and content-driven era. Recent scholarly research has indicated the shift from traditional marketing methods to more current applications. This thesis paper helps to guide potential sports marketing or communications professionals in the everchanging industry of collegiate athletics. Successful campaigns have been closely analyzed and serve as an indicator of potential future marketing plans that can be put in action. Scholarly articles were strong components in the research process and helped to explain the impact of two-way communication and personalization content ideas. To implement successful digital …

2d Motion Graphics Enhancement Of The User Experience On Web Applications, Lora Paro

Theses

This project focuses on the creation and use of 2D motion graphics to enhance the user experience of applications on the web including but not limited to social media, educational and entertaining digital videos. The aim of this project is to enhance skills in the creation of 2D motion graphics using Adobe After Effects, Adobe Character Animator, and Adobe Illustrator while benefitting the user experience of visually delivered moving graphics to capture more of the audience’s attention rather than the traditional use of static imagery. Experience gained with research on 2D motions graphics and Adobe After Effects with then be …

Preferred Rendering Of Memory Colors, Anku Manderna Anku

Theses

With the rise in high quality displays and cameras following the mainstream adoption of smartphones, image quality has become an essential aspect of engaging and attracting consumers. In the case of smartphones, the bar raises with release of every new generation. There are many factors affecting image quality such as sharpness, image noise or non-uniformity, and geometric distortion, but it is fair to say that color plays a vital role in the perceived quality of an image. Colors not only spark emotions and engage a user but also decide the likability of a certain image. Over the past few years …

Futuristic Smart Solutions For People Of Determination In Schools And Universities, Luloa Alsayah, Shaikha Abdulrahman, Sanaa Enkeleya

Theses

In this project, future smart solutions for people of determination in schools and universities were discussed. The background was presented on the topic, as the issue of integrating people of determination in schools and then integrating them into society still takes a wide range of societal, family, and institutional attention, and it undoubtedly deserves much attention that befits this dear group in our society. The literature has shown the existence of previous studies and applications similar to those proposed in the project, which sought within the framework of this advanced vision to enable "people of determination" to provide quality services …

Smart Urban Solutions For Low-Income Neighborhoods In Dubai: Hor Al Anz Area As A Case Study, Alaa Yahia Ragab Eleraqi

Theses

The project’s main objective is to study and assess the current situation and future setup of implementing smart solutions technologies, and the main challenges facing the growth in Dubai in general and the Hor Al Anz neighborhood in Dubai in particular. The expected results and outcomes of this study are illustrated in this research report. The project report consists of 5 parts. Part 1 covers the implemented initiatives and presents the problem statement and the historical background of the case study area by showing why did I select the Hor Al Anz neighborhood in Dubai (Figure 1 below). The purpose …

Predicting Risk Of Readmission In Heart Failure Patients Using Electronic Health Records, Pradumna Suryawanshi

Theses

This thesis research investigates the prediction of readmission risk in heart failure patients using their electronic health record (EHR) data from previous hospitalizations. We examine three primary questions. First, we study the use of attention mechanism in readmission prediction model based on long short-term memory(LSTM) networks and investigate the interpretability it offers regarding the importance of critical time during the visit in readmission prediction. Second given that, generally dataset is curated by combining data from multiple hospitals we investigate model generalization across multiple sites. Finally since in real life scenario model will be trained on past data and used to …

Test Naming Failures. An Exploratory Study Of Bad Naming Practices In Test Code, Zachariah Wigent

Theses

Unit tests are a key component during the software development process, helping ensure that a developer's code is functioning as expected. Developers interact with unit tests when trying to understand, maintain, and when updating code. Good test names are essential for making these various processes easier, which is important considering the substantial costs and effort of software maintenance. Despite this, it has been found that the quality of test code is often lacking, specifically when it comes to test names. When a test fails, its name is often the first thing developers will see when trying to fix the failure, …

Survey And Analysis Of Deepfake Media As It Applies To The New Era Of Disinformation, Jade L. Wise

Theses

The world has become a place where technology and the internet is so integrated into every-day life that people rely on the media and internet access to stay informed and connected. But, that has exposed us to a whole new world of positives and negatives, and the negatives could be catastrophic for our society. It will very soon be very difficult for the average person to distinguish between figment and reality; primarily with video, which has always been seen as a credible form of evidence. Deepfake videos are a prime example of this growing phenomenon. They are videos in which, …

A Deep Learning Classifier For Detecting Atrial Fibrillation In Hospital Settings Applicable To Various Sensing Modalities, Kamil Bukum

Theses

Cardiac signals provide variety of information related to the patient's health. One of the most important is for medical experts to diagnose the functionality of a patient’s heart. This information helps the medical experts monitor heart disease such as atrial fibrillation and heart failure. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most major diseases that are threatening patients’ health. Medical experts measure cardiac signals usng the Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), the Photoplethysmogram (PPG), and more recently the Videoplethysmogram (VPG). Then they can use these measurements to analyze the heart functionality to detect heart diseases. In this study, these three major …

An Examination Of Environmental Applications For Uncooled Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing Instruments, Cody M. Webber

Theses

Advancements in system design for thermal instruments require assessment of potential environmental applications and appropriate data processing techniques. A novel multi-band thermal imaging system was proposed by DRS Leonardo for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Earth Science Technology Office Instrument Incubator Program, for which these criteria were assessed. The Multi-Band Uncooled Radiometer Imager (MURI) is a six spectral channel instrument designed to collect images in the thermal infrared, specifically in the range of 7.5 to 12.5 μm. The work detailed in this thesis characterizes the ability of a thermal imager with an uncooled microbolometer focal plane array to provide …

Elucidation Of The Cellular Mechanisms Underlying Missense Mutations In Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor Related Protein 6 (Lrp6) Associated With Cardiovascular Diseases, Huda Issa Samha

Theses

Low-density Lipoprotein Receptor Related Protein 6 (LRP6) is a member of the Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptors family (LDLRs) which is involved in the clearance of LDL from the bloodstream and the signaling of the canonical wingless signaling pathway. Several genetic variants in the LRP6 gene have been conclusively associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and metabolic syndrome. However, the structural and functional implications of those variations have not been fully elucidated. The CVD-associated LRP6 variants could be retained and possibly subjected to Endoplasmic Reticulum Associated Degradation (ERAD), a quality control and adaptive process employed by cells to eliminate misfolded proteins to maintain …

Estimating The Power Produced By A Roof Mounted Wind Turbine In An Urban Setting, Kyle Reed Ozier

Theses

Growing concern over the effects of carbon emissions and resulting climate change have highlighted the need to move away from fossil fuels and towards renewable sources of energy. Wind energy is a popular and proven renewables technology that it is mostly implemented in rural environments. For urban settings, building mounted wind turbines could be a solution as a local source of renewable energy generation. In this study, the open-source Computational Fluid Dynamics software OpenFOAM is used to determine the wind speed on a high-rise rooftop. The simulation results are then used in tandem with real wind data from the 2020 …

Nature And Nurture, Jessica Maffett

Theses

Nature and Nurture is an animated short film about a mother wolf raising her newborn cub through its first year of life. Humanity has started to develop near their home and we see how that affects their ecosystem and existence from the perspective of the wolves. It is fiction based on historical facts of grey wolf populations in the American Midwest from the 1960’s onward. Being a predator species, they have been viewed as the villain in the folklore of many different civilizations and have been considered a pest for the damages to livestock and farmland that they can cause …

Harnessing Intelligence In Implementing Smart Parking Systems Integrated With Interactive Guidance System In Distinctive Shindagha Historical Neighborhood To Enhance And Regulate Mass Experiences, Rahaf Ahmad Al Kassab

Theses

Under the light of the importance of finding smart solutions for cities strategic issues and in conjunction with the broad race for urban development in order to provide the best living environment and the most appropriate tourist destination, Mobility Management occupies the first place among these issues. Due to the variation in the urban fabric of cities, especially the old historical neighborhoods that are unique in their nature, composition, and conditions for their preservation, challenges related to mobility management raised in these critical areas. Therefore, in this study, we present a smart suggestion to solve the problem of providing smart …

Self-Care Agency And Self-Care Practice Of Adult African Americans With Type 2 Diabetes, Martha Eddings

Theses

The purpose of the study was to identify and examine the concepts of self-care agency and self-care practice of African American adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, living in the local community. The research questions addressed were:

1) What is the self-care agency of adult African Americans diagnosed with type 2 diabetes?

2) What is the self-care practice of adult African Americans diagnosed with type 2 diabetes?

3) Is there a relationship between self-care agency and self-care practice in adult African Americans diagnosed with type 2 diabetes?

“From The House Come Everything”: Macler Shepard And Jeffvanderlou, Inc’S Effort To Rebuild A North St. Louis City Neighborhood, 1966-1978, Mark Loehrer

Theses

This thesis charts the course of the JeffVanderLou (JVL) organization between the pivotal years of 1966 to 1976, using the life of a man named Macler Shepard as the primary lens of exploration. Born in Marvell Arkansas, Macler Shepard followed in the footsteps of tens of thousands of other Southern migrants to cities like St. Louis, hoping to find a new life in the industrial North. However, no sooner had he settled in, he was displaced by the construction of Pruitt-Igoe, one of St. Louis’ first large-scale urban renewal programs. In response, Shepard became involved in neighborhood organizing, focusing on …

Cultural Competence In The Baccalaureate Degree Nursing Curriculum, Angela E. Silvestri-Elmore

Theses

Health care providers are members of a helping profession and need to provide quality care to all members of society. As a result of current and projected demographic changes within the United States (U.S.), health care professionals are faced with the challenges of providing culturally competent care and fulfilling the role as the "helping profession." In the past 10 years, minority populations have increased in the U.S. For example, the African American population experienced an approximate 12.3% increase, and the Hispanic population increased by 43%. Just as it is necessary for health care professionals to respond to the increase in …

Aerial Planning For Flying Taxi Of Dubai, Maitha Ali Salem Alnuaimi

Theses

Urban air mobility is the future of transportation in cities, and Dubai is one of the first cities to announce the use of air mobility models in the city. The air taxi is expected to be operational in 2023. It is announced to be electric and autonomous and will be the first in the region. The overall goal of the study was to prepare the infrastructure to operate the taxi. The problem was that the Dubai authorities have not yet started this phase, while the target date for operation has already been announced. The basic design of the study involved …

Hand-Tracking Object Interaction System, Zihao Li

Theses

At this point, VR, AR and MR technologies are thriving in different industries and business. They are increasing substantial productivity for large enterprises like Boeing and Ford at this point. Therefore, it’s well recognised that in future, VR, AR and MR will dive deeper into people's life, especially in to-business area. With VR, AR and MR being applied deeperly, more use cases and scenarios will show up. However, from interaction design and user experience perspective, current interactions for VR, AR and MR is still very primitive and not user-centered enough along with several major problems. Problems include limited accessibility, being …

Evidence Based Practice In School Nursing: A Study Of School Nurses In Central And Eastern North Carolina, Lisa M. Barnes

Theses

The purpose of the study, Evidence Based Practice Use: A Study of School Nurses in Central and Eastern North Carolina, is to gain insight of the barriers and facilitators of evidence based research in the school setting. The unique and autonomous nature of school nursing makes evidence base practice and research utilization especially important to achieve optimal outcomes in this setting that is often isolated from other health care providers. A descriptive cross sectional survey design using the BARRIER scale was used in this quantitative study (Funk et al., 1991). Using the BARRIER scale by Sandra Funk, school nurses from …

Identification Of Nurses' Stressors During Electronic Records Implementation, Brooke Brantley

Theses

The problem was a gap in knowledge regarding the stress nurses experience with electronic medical records. The participants were mostly female nurses working in a hospital during and 6-months after implementation of an electronic medical record. The Clinical Index of Stress was used to measure stress levels and two questionnaires were utilized to determine specific stressors and coping mechanisms. The findings represented no significant increase in stress overall at implementation and 6-months after implementation. There was a significant correlation between increased stress levels and increased age of participant with a Pearson coefficient of 0.771. The conclusions drawn indicate that age …

The Song Of The Soul: Transforming Disabling Illness Through Art, Zulis Yalte

Theses

The focus of this qualitative, arts-based inquiry was to understand how disabling illness might be transformed through art. A/r/tography - art/research/teaching and writing, was the method used to explore and understand the meaning(s) held within the art: Border Crossings - a conceptual, figurative, sculptural installation. The installation embodied the experience of disabling illness, symbolically depicting power relationships, identities, subjectivities and the multi-dimensional nature of being, of one coming up against the institution, the illness and the self. Guided by the work of Heidegger (Hermeneutic Circle), Deleuze and Guatarri (Rhizome and The body without Organs) and Foucault (Power Relationships), the A/r/tographer …

Smoking And Violence: An Exploratory Study Within A Maximum Security Forensic Institution, Yvonne Lapp Cryns

Theses

Nicotine addiction among the mentally ill occurs at a high rate and aggressive behavior frequently occurs in forensic psychiatric facilities. Few studies focused on psychiatric forensic inpatients and their behavioral response to nicotine withdrawal. This study was an analysis of the association between nicotine and aggressive acts, reported in Special Incident Reports, before and after a smoking ban at a forensic hospital. The findings indicate a notable increase in aggressive acts in the week following implementation of a smoking ban with a parallel rise in use of seclusion and restraint. A significant decrease in self harm and a notable increase …

Self-Reported Confidence Levels And Satisfaction By New Graduate Nurses Practicing Independently In A Nurse Residency Program, Kaitlynn Thurman

Theses

The current challenges in retaining and maintaining confident and satisfied new graduate nurses are attributed to three primary factors: lack of competence, lack of self-confidence and lack of peer support (Twibell et all, 2012). There has been a call for nurse residency programs to supplement the transition from student nurse to working nurse. The purpose of this study was to determine if new graduate nurses enrolled in the University of California Davis' Nurse Residency program reported satisfaction with their current job and to determine their level of confidence with specific nursing situations and tasks.

Culture Of Safety: Beyond The Safety Survey: A Cross-Sectional, Mix-Methods Study, Kim Whitney

Theses

Assessing the safety climate of healthcare organizations is an important step in embarking on creating processes to improve overall patient safety. Nursing leadership considerations for improving safe practice must begin with a measurement of the current perception of safe practice in order to correct unsafe practice. If the present culture is not responding to interventions to improve unsafe practice, there is no point in measuring safety culture (Pronovost P., Sexton, B. 2006). The Agency for Health Research and Quality's (AHRQ), Culture of Safety Survey (COSS) poses questions in key areas affecting patient safety from frontline staff's lived experience and perceived …

A Measure Of Perceived Fatigue Among Nurses In Western North Carolina, Karen R. Cochran

Theses

We are anticipating a heightened shortage of nurses as our aging population retires. A shortage of workers tends to lead to overtime for those still in the work force. Previous research has demonstrated a link between working long hours, fatigue, and decreased performance among nurses. Fatigue has specifically been linked to on the job injuries and poorer patient outcomes. This research study examined perceived fatigue among nurses in western North Carolina.

Mathematically Modeling Plastic Pollution In The Great Lakes, Juliette Daily

Theses

Mass estimates of plastic pollution based on open water surface samples differ by several orders of magnitude from what is predicted based on production and input rates to the world’s oceans and the Great Lakes. Researchers have proposed that this missing plastic may be located in other reservoirs, including beaches, nearshore water, the water column, or sediment. Studying plastic via sampling efforts is logistically challenging and time consuming. Models, which provide full spatial and temporal distributions, can help fill in the knowledge gaps that sampling efforts leave. Here we present the first three-dimensional modeling effort in the Great Lakes to …

Job Satisfaction Of Registered Nurses In Muscat, Sultanate Of Oman, Asma S. Al Yahyaei

Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the level of job satisfaction of Registered nurses in Muscat and relationships to Herzberg's motivation and hygiene factors. The theoretical underpinning of this study is based on Herzberg's concepts, in which an individual's motivation and hygiene factors are met within an organization, to the extent that the individual employee will express in job satisfaction. A descriptive, nonexperimental research design was used. The Work Quality Index and a demographic survey were given to 202 registered nurses at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) and Royal Hospital (RH) in Muscat. The data was collected over …