Digital Commons Network^™

Haunted Echoes, Stuti Kasat

Theses

Haunted Echoes explores the narrative and emotional possibilities of interactive digital fiction by creating a room-based haunted experience. By placing the users within a haunted manor the project encourages emotional discovery through narrative exploration. As a room-based exploratory experience, users get to navigate a dollhouse-style 3D interface, interacting with objects to reveal layered micro-stories and uncover the manor’s haunted past. The experience turns spatial exploration into emotional discovery, drawing inspiration from immersive theater, point-and-click adventures, and environmental storytelling in video games. The thesis examines the intersection and overlap of interactive storytelling, visual communication, and emotional immersion, integrating 3D modeling (Blender/Cinema …

3d Printing Of Short Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene: Novel Lattice Architecture And Material Characterization, Mohammad Ghazi Alshneeqat

Theses

This study explores the enhanced compressive behavior of 3D-printed single and double gyroid solid-networks lattices. Where the double gyroids are constructed from two intertwined single gyroid structures. These structures were designed by nTop implicit modeling tool and then fabricated by material extrusion additive manufacturing method at optimized printing parameters, including optimized nozzle temperature and raster angle. The main objective of this study is to reveal the compressive behavior of the novel double gyroid lattice structure and then to tailor its response through variable gyroid heights. Standard polymer tests were performed, considering thermogravimetric analysis, to confirm the thermal stability of the …

The Evolution Of The High Redshift Quiescent Population In Cosmos-Web, Carter B. Flayhart

Theses

Understanding the quiescent galaxy population is incredibly important in the context of galaxy evolution. These galaxies are defined as having a low star formation rate, and their evolved stellar populations makes them identifiable by their redder colors in both the observed and rest-frame. Since their rest-frame optical emission lies in the infrared (IR) regime, observations of these galaxies at high redshifts were quite difficult prior to the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Recent observations of this high redshift population conflict with galaxy formation and evolution models that existed prior, with quiescent galaxies being detected more frequently than …

Product, Process, And Behavior Influences On Value Retention Processes: Toward A Circular Economy In Consumer Electronics, Kyle Parnell

Theses

Consumer electronic products (CEP) manufacturing and retail contribute markedly to global industrial activity; worldwide estimates suggest revenue growth from $1 trillion in 2020 to $1.5 trillion by 2026. Consequently, the production, distribution, use, and end-of-life (EOL) disposition of these products are responsible for considerable social and environmental impacts, including 35 million metric tonnes of waste to landfill per year, 793 million metric tonnes (MMT)—and growing—of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per year, and innumerable adverse effects on human health and development. Driving these impacts are the inherent characteristics of CEPs themselves, which increasingly require critical materials in design, …

A Place To Pause: Designing Ritual Space In The Domestic Realm, Elise Miller

Theses

Modern society in Western developed countries is focused on the rush and go, often leaving people feeling discombobulated from constant running around, task-oriented days and switching of roles one must play in different areas of their life, such as at home, work, socializing, parenting, etc. How can ritual bring a sense of calmness and order to lives of those on the go? Ritual studies are often only categorized under psychology, sociology, or religious studies. However, as industrial design encompasses human interaction with objects, often with an emotional quality, ritual can be studied more wholesomely with the added lens of industrial …

On The Adaptation Of Latent Dynamics Models, Ryan Missel

Theses

Predicting future states of high-dimensional, partially observed dynamical systems - such as cardiac electrical propagation - is crucial for advancing fields like healthcare and physics. While univariate time-series forecasting is well-explored, high-dimensional time-series forecasting presents unresolved challenges. These challenges include the computational burden of processing high-dimensional data and the difficulty of accessing the system’s underlying dynamics directly. Classical optimization and analytical approaches become impractical as the dimensionality increases, leading to a growing interest in data-driven deep learning models, particularly those based on latent dynamics functions. Latent dynamics models provide an efficient way to map high-dimensional observations into lower-dimensional latent spaces, …

Retrofitting An Fdm Printer For 3d Printing With Cotton Yarn: A Novel Approach And Mechanical Property Evaluation, Muhammad Aghead Al Arnaout

Theses

The rapid rise of 3D printing in industry has intensified research into developing advanced and sustainable printing materials, as the properties of the feedstock directly influence the performance of the final product. This thesis investigates the integration of natural cotton yarn into PLA (Polylactic Acid) to enhance mechanical behavior while maintaining cost-effectiveness, using a standard 3D printer without any modifications. Experimental results across three phases demonstrated consistent improvements. In the first phase, cotton–PLA composites exhibited higher ductility (+22.27%) and toughness (+10.51%) than pure PLA, albeit with lower stress values and a slight decrease in Young’s modulus. In the second phase, …

Model Explainability: From Post-Hoc To Self-Explainable, Xin Miao Lin

Theses

Deep learning models have achieved remarkable success across diverse domains, yet their ``black-box" nature poses significant challenges to trust and adoption, particularly in high-stakes applications. This dissertation addresses the critical need for explainable artificial intelligence by advancing model interpretability through three complementary approaches: improved post-hoc explanation methods, internal mechanism understanding, and inherently interpretable architectures. First, we tackle the challenge of explaining video understanding models by proposing Frequency-based Extremal Perturbation (F-EP), which generates spatiotemporally consistent explanations for video classification. By leveraging frequency domain analysis and extending perturbation-based methods to the temporal dimension, F-EP achieves superior spatiotemporal consistency while maintaining high classification …

Evaluating Ai-Powered Predictive Analytics For Public Transport Demand In Dubai, Sara Ismail Dhalam

Theses

This thesis examines the application of AI-driven predictive analytics to model demand for metro and tram rides in Dubai, utilizing machine learning models in SAS Viya, as Dubai advances its innovative city initiatives. Research focuses on how seasonal variations, the use of metro lines, and types of communities affect trends in passenger flow. Gradient Boosting emerged as the most reliable predictive model, achieving the highest KS values in all scenarios. It effectively captured the increase in ridership during winter on the Red Metro Line and identified summer declines on the Green Line. The findings highlight significant seasonal fluctuations in residential …

A Web Application For Generating Argument Maps For Essays Using Llms, Alexis R. Chalmers

Theses

Argumentative writing is a critical skill that strengthens students’ reasoning, communication, and analytical abilities. However, maintaining a clear and organized argument structure while writing can be challenging. Argument maps — visual diagrams which explicitly show an argument’s structure — have been shown to improve students’ writing, but are rarely used outside of the planning stage of an essay due to the time and effort required to create them. Automatically generating argument maps from student essays helps students to evaluate the structure of their argument as they write and makes identifying unsupported claims visible. To evaluate whether large language models (LLMs) …

Critical Black Expressionism: A Womanist Manifesto, Rolanda Jw Spencer

Theses

This thesis introduces Critical Black Expressionism (CBE) as a visual, spiritual, and intellectual methodology rooted in Black feminist traditions, ancestral knowledge systems, and artistic practice. Grounded in womanist theory and decolonial inquiry, the central argument asserts that Black women’s lived experiences, cultural memory, and spiritual cosmologies constitute a rigorous and sovereign framework for artmaking. Rather than borrowing from Eurocentric pedagogies, this approach draws from oral traditions, sacred ritual, and master-apprentice models that have long existed within African and African American communities. The Iyami Aje: Mothers + Witches collection is the visual embodiment of this research. Composed of multimedia sculptures, altar-based …

Real-Time Fraud Detection Using Big Data, Abdulla Matar Alketbi

Theses

In today’s digital world, fraud detection has become an important part of financial security. This study explores and compares the performance of different machine learning models in identifying fraudulent transactions using the IEEE-CIS Fraud Detection dataset. Techniques such as Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, Deep Neural Networks, and Logistic Regression were evaluated. The dataset was pre-processed using SMOTE to balance the classes and improve model sensitivity to fraud cases. Each performance of the model was assessed using accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. The Random Forest model achieved the highest overall performance with an F1-score of 99.23

Limitations Of Using Large Language Models For Automated Essay Scoring, Thomas A. Fink

Theses

Background: Automated essay scoring (AES) is a challenging deep learning problem. The two most widely used methods for predicting essay quality scores, supervised learning-based and LLM-based, have their own limitations. Although supervised learning-based methods are more accurate, they only predict a score and do not offer descriptive feedback to students. On the other hand, LLM-based methods can offer rubric-guided feedback but are known to be less accurate.

Methods: This work focuses on improving the accuracy of state-of-the-art LLM-based AES methods. We began by thoroughly investigating why these methods were performing poorly for certain datasets and certain examples. This led us …

Calibration Of Detectors For The Tomographic Ionized-Carbon Mapping Experiment, Tessalie A. Caze-Cortes

Theses

Observations of the intensity of the sky at millimeter (mm) wavelengths require accurate calibrations for the spectrometers to work with radio telescopes. However, calibrating is a complex and lengthy process for sensitive detectors that catch single photons. To improve efficiency in locating defective detectors and optimizing bias current, my research involves taking data from previous lab characterizations and creating an algorithm that analyzes and plots the code of all 1920 detectors. This thesis will discuss the importance of mm-wavelength intensity mapping and the questions the TIME research team aims to address. Also, a detailed description of mechanical and computational components …

Macroscopic Roughness Modeling Of Satellite Multi-Layer Insulation Reflectance, Kevin P. Donnelly

Theses

Reflectance modeling of specular surfaces with irregular geometries remains difficult to solve for an array of applications. In the growing space industry, there are many spacecraft materials with high specularity and varying levels of roughness. Modeling these materials in simulations becomes difficult as any realistic amount of roughness is added, necessitating more accurate physical models to represent how light is interacting with these surfaces. While some work has been done to attempt to characterize the spectral signatures of the materials themselves using hyperspectral imaging systems, the scope of these efforts has been fairly limited and not representative of the conditions …

Bridging Classical Rhetoric And Ai: A Systematic Framework For Developing Authorial Voice Through Large Language Models, Daniel Plate

Theses

This project addresses critical gaps in AI-assisted writing by developing the first systematic framework that integrates classical rhetorical principles with modern large language model capabilities for authorial voice development. The primary focus is on creating reliable methods for stylistic control through strategic AI collaboration rather than ad hoc prompting approaches. The project develops a comprehensive coding system for analyzing prose style, creates ten distinct authorial personas, and establishes a dual curation methodology that structures both stylistic analysis and content preparation. Implementation through the AI Writing Guide website provides practical tools including prompt templates, annotated examples, and instructional materials that demonstrate …

Zoo Visitors Learn By Observing Olive Baboons (Papio Anubis) Participate In Cognitive Research Or Engage In Natural Behaviors, Anna Sofia Hege

Theses

I conducted two experiments at the baboon exhibit at the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, New York to measure attitudes and actual knowledge in children and adults, as well as perceived learning in adults. I also recorded caregiver-child conversations in the presence and absence of live research. Experiment 1 included 150 adult participants, and Experiment 2 included 18 caregiver-child dyads. In each experiment, the research on-scientist present and research on-scientist absent group watched the baboons engage with live cognitive research while the research off-scientist present and research off-scientist absent group watched the baboons carry out their natural behaviors. A scientist …

The Effects Of Multiple Exemplar Instruction On A Bidirectional Naming Repertoire In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Madison Appelbaum

Theses

Neurotypical children normally acquire language skills in their natural environment. However, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) typically require specialized interventions to acquire language and communication skills (Yoon et al., 2023). A behavior repertoire that has been shown essential for the fast and incidental acquisition of language in children is bi-directional naming (BiN). Multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) has been used to facilitate the acquisition of BiN in children with ASD. In the present study, we replicated and extended previous research (e.g., Yoon et al., 2023) to evaluate the effect of MEI on the emergence of BiN repertoire in three elementary …

Effects Of Self-Monitoring On Teachers’ Behavior-Specific Praise And Students’ Behavior In A Center-Based Classroom, Samantha Walsh

Theses

The current study explores the effects of self-monitoring on teachers' use of behavior-specific praise (BSP) and its impact on student behavior in a center-based classroom. Self-monitoring, a cost-effective and time-efficient intervention, has been proven effective in previous research for enhancing educator performance. However, previous studies have often combined self-monitoring with other interventions, leaving a gap in understanding its effects in isolation. This study aims to replicate the work of Justus et al. (2023) by examining the impact of self-monitoring on paraprofessionals in a center-based classroom with students aged 6-10. Using a multiple baseline design across participants, three paraprofessionals were trained …

Protein Language Models-Based Representation For Post-Translational Modification Prediction, Suresh Pokharel

Theses

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are chemical changes that occur after translation and play a key role in regulating protein function and cellular processes. Their dysregulation is associated with various diseases, making accurate prediction of PTM sites essential for understanding cellular mechanisms and informing therapeutic strategies. This work focuses on the computational prediction of two biologically significant PTMs, namely succinylation and O-GlcNAcylation, utilizing recent advances in protein language models (pLMs). Drawing an analogy to natural languages, amino acids are treated as words and sequences as sentences, allowing pLMs to capture contextual dependencies within protein sequences. One of the earliest contributions of this …

Dynamic Defenses To Systematically Secure Exposed Attack Surfaces In Wireless Systems, Naureen Hoque

Theses

While modern wireless systems rely on strong encryption, this alone does not secure the entire attack surface, including exposed signal attributes, pre-authentication exchanges, and protocol metadata. This dissertation challenges the assumption that existing cryptographic protections are sufficient to protect these vulnerabilities. Signal attributes, including phase and amplitude variations due to modulation, are physical-layer characteristics of encrypted data communication that remain observable and exploitable for attacks like traffic analysis. The pre-authentication phase—during which session keys are negotiated and installed—is vulnerable to spoofing and denial-of-service attacks. Protocol metadata, such as operating channel, sender’s address and location, and timestamps, is unencrypted and can …

Benedictine Art And Design: How Color Psychology Can Positively Influence Department Enrollment, Claire Pauline Fink

Theses

This thesis examines how design strategies informed by color psychology and experimental aesthetics can be used to strengthen the visual identity and recruitment efforts of the Benedictine College Art & Design Department (BCAD). Following the recent addition of Graphic Design as a major and the department’s name change in 2021, there has been a noticeable gap in public awareness and printed promotional materials tailored to prospective students. Grounded in theoretical frameworks, such as D. E. Berlyne’s optimal arousal theory, and supported by survey responses from current Art & Design students, this project identifies key needs in marketing to prospective students. …

How Do You Know? Parsing The Infocalypse Using Art-Based Data Visualization, Michelle Sylvia Weintraub

Theses

Since the advent of the World Wide Web, vast interconnected digital networks have increasingly provided access to diverse data sources for Internet users. Towards the turn of the 21st century, social media sites opened opportunities to produce and consume (i.e., prosume) data, empowering users to publish their own content online (Manovich, 2009). The ability to publish user-generated content results in more voices being heard, creating more seats at the proverbial table. However, more recently, persuasive media has increasingly been weaponized to disseminate misinformation and disinformation online (Howard, 2020). Consequently, the agency exercised by Internet and social media users is diminished. …

Connecting Children With Artists Through A Children's Art History Book, Katie Meyer

Theses

This project is a children’s art history book that is set in an art museum. The goal of the book is to help children connect with Contemporary artists and their art. A museum setting is utilized to introduce children to museums and as an appropriate environment for viewing art. The theme of the exhibit that will be presented in the book is titled the “Innovators Exhibit.” This exhibit features six Contemporary artists from different art styles/mediums. The artists come from diverse backgrounds to expose children to a variety of cultures. Thought provoking questions will also be asked throughout the book …

Heroic Sacrifice And Christ-Like Bodies: Conceptions Of Immortality In Jacques-Louis David's Death Of Marat, Ingelise Johnson

Theses

This thesis posits a reinterpretation of Jacques-Louis David’s late-eighteenth-century martyr-portrait, The Death of Marat, within its French Revolutionary political function and theological associations. The revolutionary body in Marat is rendered from a corporeal language of antique heroic figures and Renaissance depositions David observed during his study in Rome. It is especially in the iconography of the hanging arm that David illustrates Marat’s association with heroic and sacrificial deaths of antique and Christian imagery. These references convey the artist’s exploration of death within religious beliefs germane to the sociocultural contexts of the revolutionary period. Within antique and Christian theologies, David explores …

Beyond Suprematism: Carpenter Ii And The Reimagining Of The Peasant In Malevich's Late Work, Elizabeth Leslie Lancaster

Theses

Every artistic creation is influenced by the dynamics of its origins and the specific intentions of both the artist and the audience to interact with it in a particular way. In abstract art, human elements may be less apparent than in representational art, where recognizable imagery can be more readily linked to the cultural backdrop of its time. Kazimir Malevich’s body of work can superficially be divided into representational pieces and non-objective works. However, a more nuanced interpretation of his oeuvre is warranted. This is particularly relevant to Malevich’s enduring engagement with the peasant motif and the layers of influence …

Engraving Goddesses: Hendrick Goltzius’S Mannerist Prints, Emily Seils

Theses

This project analyzes the reception of Hendrick Goltzius’s (1558-1617) prints within the court of Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), specifically how his technical expertise in his mythological compositions presented bodily transformation as an alchemical act. He produced images that were intellectually coded for a sophisticated audience while simultaneously capturing the viewer’s gaze and emotions. In doing so he created, alongside his contemporaries, a niche market of high demand art and enabled the "viral" circulation of collectable prints among Northern European elites. Three main topics structured my approach. First, the distinctive development of Rudolf II of Prague’s prestigious art collection, the Kunstkammer, …

Through A Mother's Eyes: The Psychology Of Color, Katie Kutz

Theses

This project investigates the intersection of color psychology, maternal experience, and visual perception through a series of five artworks. Using a qualitative methodology, this project draws upon interdisciplinary research such as neuroscience, marketing, art history, and personal experiences as a mother. This work explores how sensory changes during pregnancy and postpartum influence the emotional perception of color, and how this can be represented in art. Inspired by artists that have explored the theme of motherhood such as Mary Cassatt, Käthe Kollwitz, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Jenny Saville, and Alice Neel, this project uses an emotionally charged approach to depicting motherhood. Color changing …

The Evolution Of Agriculture Marketing: Harnessing Data Analytics To Understand Generational Shifts And Influencer Trends, Lexi Schweigert

Theses

The findings reveal that data analytics plays a crucial role in shaping marketing strategies in agriculture. Generational shifts, particularly among Gen Z and Alpha, are driving changes in consumer preferences and expectations. Influencers are also playing an increasingly important role in shaping the perception of agriculture and food among these generations.

Customizing Ai Strategies Across Multiple Generations, Matthew Harrer

Theses

This project investigates how artificial intelligence can help brands and marketers connect more effectively with Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z. The literature review lays the groundwork that focuses on consumer behaviors and the integration of AI into digital marketing practices for each generation. The second part of the project involves a secondary data analysis of 21 recent marketing surveys and reports that explores topics related to trust, personalization, and social media. By integrating the findings into an insightful guidebook, marketers will be able to maximize these insights into clear actionable strategies.