Digital Commons Network^™

Parallelizing The Cluster Rank Analysis Application, Anthony G. Esposito Jr.

Theses

A wide range of researchers is beginning to utilize customized statistical methods for analyzing data as hardware and software become cheaper and more widely available. Cluster Rank Analysis (CRA) is an existing multivariate statistical algorithm that existed as an inefficient service-oriented application. Here it is described how CRA was optimized and parallelized using an available computing cluster and both open source and custom software. This was followed by the development of a command-line submission system for CRA jobs, as well as a Web retrieval system for the results of analyses. A subsequent timing study revealed speedup that quickly rose to …

The Manta Project: Conception, Implementation, And Reflections On A Cable Array Robot And Its Interfaces, Brian Ballsun-Stanton

Theses

We have created and flown a cable array robot based flying sculpture. This sculp ture, in its various versions, flew in both Rochester, New York and London, England. This thesis both explores the construction of the flying sculpture and presents a pub lished paper wherein an Human-Robotic Interaction design space is proposed to facilitate discussion of robotic interfaces.

Parental Perceptions Of School Climate And Middle School Students' Performance, Christine Demart

Theses

This research study explored the relationship between parental perceptions of school climate and middle school students' academic and social success. In particular, this study investigated what specific school climate factors may have the greatest impact on students' academic achievement, disciplinary referrals, and school attendance.

Mutually Adaptive Distributed Heterogeneous Agents For Data Classification, Joshua Alan Harlow

Theses

Efficient and effective data classification is one of the most fundamental problems of computer science due to a huge number of important applications. As such, there have been many models that are capable of doing some form of data classification using a large number of varied algorithms and architectures. However, few share properties that implicitly take advantage of the distributed environment where classification has its most potential.

Therefore, to resolve this dilemma in this thesis a generic classification architecture com posed of mutually adaptive distributed heterogeneous agents was designed, implemented and experimentally analyzed. The system defined creates a multi-agent distributed …

Ivee: Interesting Video Event Extraction, Jeremy Paskali

Theses

The Video Exploitation and Novelty Understanding in Streams (VENUS) system is a complete software solution for video surveillance, which consists of motion detection, motion tracking, novel event detection, missed expected event detection, object recognition, scene description, and database mining. This research focuses on the assignment of degrees of interest for events in motion and at rest for the VENUS system. The Interesting Video Event Extraction (IVEE) system is the second module in the processing pipeline of the VENUS system. The novel features of the IVEE sysem include the ability to assign a degree of interest to an event, to develop …

Effective Approaches To Minimize The Problem Of Pharmaceuticals And Other Personal Care Products In The Environment, Papun Pramanick

Theses

Studies have shown that pharmaceuticals and other personal care products (PPCPs) are present in the environment, especially in water, due to different human activities. Some of these compounds are toxic to our eco-system. Although there is no evidence of adverse human health effect from the presence of PPCPs in the environment to date , some adverse effects on aquatic life cycle already have been found. Therefore, protecting our environment as well as human health from adverse effect(s) of PPCPs is a growing concern. The objective of this thesis work was to collect information about the principal approaches available to pharmaceutical …

Visualization Analysis Of Astrophysics N-Bodied Problem Using Image Morphological Processing Techniques, Thomas J. Borrelli

Theses

This project’s primary goal is to detect points of interest within the output data resulting from running a simulation of the Astrophysics N-Bodied problem (GRAPEcluster). Morphological Image Processing techniques will be applied to the visualized data in order to detect areas of interest within the original data. Several Morphological Image Processing techniques will be used and the results compared in the analysis. The final output of the VRAD (Visualization of Raw Astrophysics Data) System will be two-fold: first, the VRAD system will output a text file that contains the x, y and z coordinates of each region of interest in …

Fouling In Silicon Microchannel Designs Used For Ic Chip Cooling And Its Mitigation, Jeffrey L. Perry

Theses

Particulate fouling studies with alumina and silica dispersions were performed in silicon, rectangular microchannels having hydraulic diameters between 220-225 μm. The particulates used ranged from the colloidal size range up to tens of microns in size (for particle aggregates). Data show for the most part the absence of particle depositions within the microchannels. This is even the case when there is an electrostatic attraction between the particles and the microchannel surface. The primary reason for this is due to the high wall shear stress at the microchannel walls. In contrast, the headers for the microchannels are quite susceptible to particulate …

Light Pollution: A Case For Federal Regulation, Timothy Berthaume

Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the body of evidence concerning light pollution and exposure to artificial light and determine if the scientific research warrants regulatory oversight in the United States. The first question that guided this effort was: Does improper artificial lighting and exposure to light-at-night constitute a risk to human health and safety? The follow up question being: Is light pollution a concern to ecological systems, and if so to what extent? A comprehensive literature review was conducted to ascertain the status of the research—if any—in these two areas and what the findings were. The overarching …

In Tension, Alicia Ross

Theses

The conceptual subject matter of in_tension falls between two major categories: the personification of two conflicting female roles (the need to be a nurturer and the longing to be an object of sexual desire) and the amalgamation of biological and societal foundations in which we see ourselves and others. These two major categories are more principally bound by the larger schema of relations between the sexes and the molding of our desires through social conventions. My artwork tends to explore the conflict many women encounter—including myself—of which roles they wish to partake and the friction between the voyeur or the …

Assessment Of Marine And Coastal Pollution A Long The Eastern Coast, United Arab Emirates (Uae), Shaheera Ali Juma Ali Bahwan

Theses

The present study aims to quantifying and assessing the orgasmic and

Inorganic pollutants extents along eastern side of the United Arab

Emirates UAE offshore on the Gulf of Oman, which consist of Fujairah,

Khor Fakkan and Kalba. Rapid development and the highly usage of the

coastal region for industrial activities, sewage disposal and marine

transportation has led to obvious changes in sediments quality of the

marine environment. Twelve coastal sampling stations were selected to

cover the maximum area of the eastern side, three sampling stations were

selected from marine sediments and six sampling collected from spilled

oil near investigated area. …

The Effects Of Histone H1 And Benzo[A] Pyrene On Chromatin Modifying Complexes., Zeina Salim Al Natour

Theses

Packaging of DNA into the condensed structure of chromatin presents a barrier to many cellular processes that require DNA access such as transcription and replication. This problem is solved, in part, by the action of various complexes that modify the chromatin structure so that it becomes more accessible and, therefore, a more suitable platform for these processes. ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes and histone acetyltransferases are examples of many chromatin modifying complexes that work to alleviate chromatin-mediated repression. Histone H1 is an important component of chromatin which serves in both stabilizing and folding of chromatin into a higher order structure. Many …

Personality, Perception, Perseverence And Peers - Managing The Transition From Year 10 General Education To A Residential Agricultural Course In The Upper Secondary Years, Francis W. Donohoe

Theses

This intensive single-site case study has taken the entering cohort of Year 11 students in the year 2000 and has used: Point-of-entry and post-experience interviews of students admitted to the course, Parallel entry and on-course surveys, On-course administration of the well-credentialed Adolescent Coping Scale (Frydenberg and Lewis, 1993), and Staff interviews to identify and describe the environmental, personal and contextual factors that are associated with a student’s completion/non-completion of the two year Course and thereby help the College Administration address the on-going unacceptably high numbers of students not completing the Course. By making extensive use of the Adolescent Coping Scale …

Nietzsche’S Conception Of Friendship, Ryan C. Kinsella

Theses

Interpreting Friedrich Nietzsche’s unorthodox conception of friendship is the focus of the following dissertation. In couching his conception of friendship within his naturalistic philosophy of the human person and his morality, I aim to establish the central importance of friendship in Nietzsche’s philosophy. An equally important second aim is to demonstrate how Nietzsche’s philosophy of friendship is distinctly constructive in contrast to other aspects of his philosophy. These aims are addressed in three chapters: in the first chapter I examine how Nietzsche discusses friendship in his works, in what tone he discusses friendship, and I will briefly discuss how his …

Formulations, Stefan Petranek

Theses

How do we define nature on an intimate level? How do we ascribe value to the myriad processes which surround us on a daily basis? Through conceptual explorations in the mediums of photography, video, and sculptural installation, my artwork touches on the remarkable presence these natural phenomena can have in our lives and questions whether our cultural, scientific, or otherwise logical rationalizations of nature have the potential to fully recognize our relationship to it. Through the discussion of human logic schemes such as the objective observer, our scientific capacity to model nature and our cultural codification of natural law, this …

Incorporating Triple Bottom Line Strategies Into Corporations, Bill C. Lin

Theses

In this new era of globalization, the competition among multi-national corporations in various industries is tighter than ever. Due to this intense struggle for corporations to grow their bottom line, the corporations have recognized that a new approach to business is necessary. Corporations have realized that they can no longer just think about their economical profitability to survive in this environment, but they also have to be good stewards to the people they employ and be conscious of the impact the corporation's daily operations have on the environment. Because of this new found recognition, corporations have started using phrases such …

Parametric & Non-Parametric Background Subtraction Model With Object Tracking For Venus, Karthik Chandrasekaran

Theses

Not Included

Development Of A Community Sharps Collection Pilot Program For The Town Of Northampton, Massachusetts: A Review Of The Barriers, Carmela (Deb) Laino

Theses

Not provided.

Identification Of Trans-Splicing Sites In Leishmania Major Using Probabilistic Methods, Lukas Habegger

Theses

Leishmania major, a member of the Kinetoplastida family, is a primitive protozoan that causes a human disease, called leishmaniases, affecting numerous people worldwide. The identification of new drug targets to combat leishmaniases necessitates a thorough understanding of how genomic instructions are transformed into functional proteins. It requires not only the prediction and categorization of all the genes, but also a profound understanding of their regulation. Much of gene regulation may occur through a process known as frarcs-splicing. Trans-splicing, which is mechanistically similar to cissplicing, is the process of cleaving a large polycistronic transcript into smaller monocistronic components.

The goal of …

Biologically-Inspired Translation, Scale, And Rotation Invariant Object Recognition Models, Myung Woo

Theses

The ventral stream of the human visual system is credited for processing object recognition tasks. There have been a plethora of models that are capable of doing some form of object recognition tasks. However, none are perfect. The complexity of our visual system is so great that models currently available are only able to recognize a small set of objects. This thesis revolves analyzing models that are inspired by biological processing. The biologically inspired models are usually hierarchical, formed after the division of the human visual system. In such a model, each level in the hierarchy performs certain tasks related …

An Analysis Of Connectivity, Tayeb Al Karim

Theses

Recent evidence in biology indicates crossmodal, which is to say information sharing between the different senses, influences in the brain. This helps to explain such phenomenon as the McGurk effect, where even though a person knows that he is seeing the lip movement “GA” and is hearing the sound “BA”, the person usually can’t help but think that they are hearing the sound “DA”. The McGurk effect is an example of where the visual sense influences the perception of the audio sense. These discoveries transition old feedforward models of the brain to ones that rely on feedback connections and, more …

Proteome Analysis Of Pseudomonas Putida Kt2440 Using 2d Gel Electrophoresis And Lc/Esi-Q-Tof Mass Spectrometry, Archana Pandey

Theses

The proteome can be defined as the complete set of global protein expression by an organism at any given time. It is this gene expression rather than genome itself that is responsible for most of the reactions taking place within a cell. Tools such as two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) and mass spectroscopy (MS) are often utilized for the analysis and identification of the proteins that constitute the proteome. This thesis provides a general overview of proteomics and describes the underlying processes, mechanisms and technologies associated with modern proteomic analysis with specific emphasis on the use of electrospray ionization time …

Strange Way Home, Seema Raju Mukhi

Theses

Set in India, this novel follows the narrator, sixteen-year-old Asha Mehtani, in her two-year struggle to decide between following tradition and following her own desires. Asha encounters an American teacher at her school who encourages her to read, to learn, and to follow her own path in life. But Asha¿s parents want her to get married right after she finishes high school, in an arranged marriage. By refusing to get married, Asha will damage her family¿s reputation and ruin her younger sister¿s chances of finding a good husband. Will Asha choose to follow her heart, to go to college and …

Tele-Cardiology Sensor Networks For Remote Ecg Monitoring, Meng Jiang

Theses

One of today’s most pressing matters in medical care is the response time to patients in need. The scope of this thesis is to suggest a solution that would help reduce response time in emergency situations utilizing wireless sensor networks technology. Wireless sensor network researches have recently gained unprecedented momentum in both industries and academia, especially its potential applications in Emergency Medical Services and Intensive Care Units. The enhanced power efficiency, minimized production cost, condensed physical layout, as well as reduced wired connections, presents a much more proficient and simplified approach to the continuous monitoring of patients’ physiological status. This …

Proving Ground, Alison Secrest

Theses

This thesis seeks to explain and explore the work in Proving Ground, the thesis exhibition that accompanies this written thesis. The exhibition consists of an installation titled Proving Ground, a series of photographs titled All New Materials, and a series of small sculpture titled New Evolutions.

The installation Proving Ground is a set of life size animals; a cow, deer, and two smaller creatures that reference Romulus and Remus. The cow and the deer are made out of paper mache and discarded stuffed animals. Romulus and Remus are made out of paper mache and horse hair. …

Avian Seed Dispersers Of The Invasive Rubus Niveus (Rosaceae) In The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Monica C. Soria

Theses

The foraging behavior of bird assemblages at Rubus niveus was determined over two seasons in the agricultural zone of Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos in order to identify effective seed dispersers of the species and understand the factors that aid invasion of fleshy fruited weeds. A total of seven bird species were observed feeding on R. niveus fruits. In both seasons, the small ground finch (Geospiza fuliginosa), the introduced smooth-billed ani (Crotophaga ani ) and the small tree finch (Camarhynchus parvulus) were the most common visitors. Mean number of seeds removed per visit was higher for …

Assessing Ecological Correlates Of Avian Disease Prevalence In The Galapagos Islands Using Gis And Remote Sensing, Shane Robert Siers

Theses

In recognition of the potential consequences of pathogen introduction to the Galapagos Islands, the Saint Louis Zoo and the University of Missouri¿Saint Louis, in cooperation with the Galapagos National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station, implemented an avian disease surveillance program in 2001, with the objective of identifying and monitoring for pathogens that pose risk for native bird populations. The purpose of this thesis is identify environmental factors that might influence the geographic distribution of avian pathogen infection, based on two data sets obtained as a result of these surveillance efforts: 1) seroprevalence data on 10 common poultry …

Preliminary Finite Element Modeling Of A Piezoelectric Actuated Marine Propulsion Fin, Andrew Streett

Theses

New technologies surrounding composite materials and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) design have led to numerous studies involving the marine propulsion for these AUVs. AUVs traditionally are classified as highly efficient, payload capable, and can be utilized as reconnaissance or surveillance vehicles. Undullatory and oscillatory propulsion devices have been conceived to replace the present propulsion technologies, of propellers, with highly maneuverable, efficient, and quiet propulsion systems. Undullatory and oscillatory propulsion has been around for centuries employed by aquatic life, but only recently have the mini-technologies been available to present such propulsion devices economically and with enough materials research as to mimic …

An Auditory Classifier Employing A Wavelet Neural Network Implemented In A Digital Design, Jonathan Hughes

Theses

This thesis addresses the problem of classifying audio as either voice or music. The goal was to solve this problem by means of digital logic circuit, capable of performing the classification in real time. Since digital audio is essentially a discrete non-periodic timeseries, it was necessary to extract features from the audio which are suitable for classification. The discrete wavelet transform combined with a feature extraction method was found to produce such features. The task of classifying these features was found to be best performed by an artificial neural network. Collectively known as a wavelet neural network, the digital logic …

A Theoretical Eye Model For Uncalibrated Real-Time Eye Gaze Estimation, Justin Hnatow

Theses

Computer vision systems that monitor human activity can be utilized for many diverse applications. Some general applications stemming from such activity monitoring are surveillance, human-computer interfaces, aids for the handicapped, and virtual reality environments. For most of these applications, a non-intrusive system is desirable, either for reasons of covertness or comfort. Also desirable is generality across users, especially for humancomputer interfaces and surveillance. This thesis presents a method of gaze estimation that, without calibration, determines a relatively unconstrained user’s overall horizontal eye gaze. Utilizing anthropometric data and physiological models, a simple, yet general eye model is presented. The equations that …