Digital Commons Network^™

Predictive Policing, Amna Ali Al Boom, Shaikha Khalid Bin Thani

Theses

UAE is one of the safest countries to live in, but that does not indicate that the country does not witness crimes, During the COVID-19 pandemic, the country saw an increase in cyber and digital crimes. Apart from cybercrime, there are other types of crimes, such as street crimes and violent crimes. Data analytics aids Dubai Police to predict crimes. Criminal investigation is one of the fields that is very interesting and is taught in colleges and academies. Data analytics opens the door for studying the details of each crime. Data mining tools consist of a variety of techniques that …

Opinion Mining Of Phone Sitting Feature, Atiq Yousuf Ahmad

Theses

This report aims to evaluate opinion mining of customers about phone sitting features in cell phones in different brands across the world by using data mining techniques. Therefore, Data for the report has been collected from data scrapping in Qoura which collects opinion of customers. The collected information from the data base has evaluated by using sentiment analysis. The collected information from Qoura transforms the content and extracts data from API’s. In relation to this, information obtains from the research contributed for providing useful information for these features. The collected information from application scrapping has been analysed through sentiment analysis. …

Supply Chain Disruption: A Conceptual Framework On Decision Making Using Neuroscience, Sadiya Siddique

Theses

The simplest definition of supply chain is the delivering of goods and/or services to the consumers required by the organization. In the late 1950s it was identified that the supply chain system was becoming more uncertain due to the changes in demands and inventory. Due to globalization and other business factors, supply chain has become more complex now due to which the likelihood and impact of disruption has increased. These disruptions can vary between known-unknowns and controllable to unknown-unknowns and uncontrollable ones. In recent years, the major disruptions happening in the supply chain and its effects on bottom line of …

The Effect Of Different Feeding Regimes On Recent Nutritional And Growth Measurements In Juvenile California Killifish (Fundulus Parvipinnis), Emily Parks

Theses

Gaining a deeper understanding of in-situ growth approximations for juvenile fishes is one way to understand how food consumption may affect fish growth. If variations in growth rate are strongly mirrored by past food status, then the condition (degree of well-being) of fish can be potentially used as a reference for relative prey availability. Furthermore, confirming that there is a positive relationship between food availability and fish growth rate is a critical first step to deepen our understanding of growth rate variation as well as examining if growth can be a proxy for habitat quality.

The California killifish (Fundulus …

Sustainable Antibacterial And Antiviral Polyesters Based On Succinic Acid, Mercaptosuccinic Acid, And Eugenol, Rebekah Finster

Theses

Synthetic polymers have become indispensable in modern life. However, the prevalent use of synthetic polymers has created major sustainability issues including petroleum resource depletion and overfilling of landfills. At the same time, antibiotic resistance and the spread of new viruses have driven a need for antimicrobial and antiviral materials. A sustainable way to make materials antibacterial or antiviral is to use essential oils. Eugenol is a commonly used essential oil for these purposes, but it has been found to cause tissue irritation on contact. When eugenol is covalently connected to the material, these effects of oil leaching can be avoided. …

Sirplus - A Task Management System For Individuals With Executive Dysfunction, Thomas Roberti

Theses

A significant portion of the population struggles with executive functioning and task management. This project explores the pain points for organizing, initiating, and finishing tasks and proposes a design to address these problems. The objective of this project is to relieve the stress and anxiety people with executive dysfunction often experience with tasks. The design process for this project considered different product and interface strategies to help users with their tasks through positive motivation and rewards. Initial user testing showed that information overload and forgetfulness were barriers to setting and managing tasks. Furthermore, the act of crossing an item off …

Steam Toys: Empowering The Next Generation Of Women In Stem, Grace Newman-Lapinski

Theses

Even in 2022, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields continue to be dominated by men. Starting from an early age, women are systematically pushed out of STEM fields. Three main reasons contribute to this – gender bias, lack of role models, and a lack of opportunity for skill building at an early age. This paper proposes that STEAM (STEM + Art) toys are critical to empowering the next generation of women in STEM. By mixing art with STEM, STEAM toys provide kids with the opportunity to explore these complex fields of study in creative ways. By making use of …

Identification Of Essential Gene Relations For Lung Adenocarcinoma Therapy Targets By Cross-Referencing Literature-Mined And Rnaseq Data, Mariel V. Pridmore

Theses

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most frequently diagnosed subtype of lung cancer, and while the disease itself can be strenuous, the typical treatments such as chemotherapy are also known to cause whole body harm to the patient due to its systemic nature. Target therapies are increasingly gaining popularity for their ability to selectively apply the therapy to a specific cell. In terms of cancer, this method would lessen some, if not all the painful side-effects of chemotherapy and enhance a patient’s quality of life. Narrowing down what genes are deemed to be essential to the operation of the cell can help …

Community Cat Shelter - A System That Brings The Community Together To Raise Community Cats, Zhishuo Sun

Theses

Due to the frequent abandonment of domestic cats and their proliferation in the wild, more and more stray cats, or feral cats, have been born in the city. These cats have a high mortality rate, kill birds, make noise, and have an impact on the human habitat. This study explores the pain points of harmonious coexistence between humans and stray cats and proposes a design intervention for some of these problems. The goal is for each community to address the problem of stray cats in that community from within, including issues such as securing the survival of stray cats and …

Desalination Waste Revitalization Using Carbon Capture: Process Optimization Using Machine Learning, Ahmed Mohamed Elsayed

Theses

Over the next five to ten years, desalination will play an ever-important role in our society. Developing nations will look at desalination from the point of water scarcity, while developed nations will consider the perspective of the Water-Energy-Food nexus. With current technology, for every liter of freshwater produced, one and a half liters is thrown away as waste. This body of research proposes to employ chemical precipitation in ammoniated brine solutions, that have reasonably high ionic concentrations. CO2 absorption in Bubble Column Reactors can reduce sodium ions by precipitating NaHCO3. Also, the absorbed CO2 can reduce chloride ions and induce …

Identifying Psychological Mental Disorders Through Machine Learning, Mohammad Al Abdooli

Theses

Psychology is the Study of Human Behavior and the various ways of thinking in it’s both consciousness and unconsciousness mind as this field is still growing to various fields such as Sports, Criminal and even Administrative Psychology through, Furthermore, This Study aims to shape and accommodate both fields of Sciences together, There are very few Scholars and Researches done on Medical Mental Health from a Data Analytics perspective, examining the datasets of the patients ICD-11 or DSM-5 scores and correlating it with the patients well-being, family medical history or any accident the patient have been through, so the current study …

Modeling Intra-Patient Planned Dose Change To Better Understand Dose Response In Cancer, Lauren Burke, Lin Hui Jiang, Tyler Frediani, Drew Haiber, James Winger

Theses

In this paper, we attempt to find the most efficient trial design to determine the optimal dose of cancer treatment. The two trial designs being evaluated are a standard trial design and intra-patient dose-switching trial. The optimal dose is the lowest dose that still causes a decrease in the tumor size. The most efficient trial is defined as the trial in which the distribution of parameters from the data set mostly closely matches the distribution from a simulated trial. We developed an ordinary differential equation to model the change in the sum of the length of tumor diameters over time. …

The Effects Of Therapeutic Arts On Black Mental Health, Alicia Newsome

Theses

This project focuses on black mental health that encompasses mental wellness education through social media and builds community connection by sharing stories. It reduces social exclusion and creates positive change in black communities. The final deliverable will be a short video poem compilation via YouTube that gives insight into what it is like living with depression and anxiety. It will include motion graphics, photo manipulation, and graphic art covers titled Misconceptions, Beautiful Temptations, Relentless, and Old Abuse. It is about implementing healthy coping mechanisms and bringing together a community that is often overlooked and/or stigmatized regarding mental health. It enhances …

Cross-Cultural Currents And Syncretism In Early Modern Opossum Iconography, Deniz Martinez

Theses

Opossums (Order Didelphimorphia) are marsupial mammals endemic to the Americas. They are also the first marsupials Europeans ever encountered, over a century before any Australasian species. Because of their unique marsupial characteristics, opossums have historically been viewed as an “anomalous” animal form across both Indigenous American and European cultures, and thus developed a rich and complex transatlantic cultural history. By tracing the development of opossum imagery through the millennia, one can uncover clear patterns of how their distinct features became embedded in iconographies relative to biogeocultural sphere, and how certain iconographic conventions were transmitted through various media both within and …

Creating Better Musicians Through Musicality: A Guide To Building An Instructional Unit, Shelby Leo

Theses

This project provides an in depth focus on how to strengthen an ensemble's approach to musicality through lesson plans, assessments, and activities. The primary focus group of this project is high school aged performance based classes including band and choir. The aim of the project is to provide a music educator with a detailed curriculum to teach musicality that is adjustable to any size ensemble and any score. Furthermore, this project is not a study but instead an explanation to the approach of developing the curriculum unit. The project consists of a four unit curriculum with two to three lessons …

The Taxonomy Of Extinction: Brian Jungen’S Tombstone, Jasen Evoy

Theses

This thesis focuses on the recent work (Tombstone, 2019) by Brian Jungen, a Canadian artist of mixed European and Dane-zaa heritage. The work is explored in detail, leveraging concepts present in Jungen’s existing body of work to extract intent and meaning through Jungen’s complex use of space, materiality, and iconography. Tombstone is a large scale, multimedia sculpture consisting of white plastic Rubbermaid stepstools cut and assembled into the form of a turtle or tortoise shell resting on a bank of thirty-seven black filing cabinets. While Tombstone initially presents itself as aesthetically sparse, it is a deeply-layered commentary on inequity, power …

Mythology In Art History: Course Curriculum, Marianna Martino

Theses

The course entitled Mythology in Art History contains a scaffolded curriculum that introduces students to mythology throughout art history by learning how to analyze fine artwork. With each unit, students will demonstrate an increased control of art criticism, analysis, and knowledge as they develop stronger understanding of content. Students will be able to distinguish the elements of art and principles of design through various 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional art pieces from various time periods and cultures. Upon completion of this year-long program, students will demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of art analysis, allegory, and storytelling throughout art history, showing knowledge of the …

Detection Of Hateful Comments On Social Media, Essa Alzarouni

Theses

Social media usage has grown tremendously in the contemporary communication landscape. Along with its numerous benefits, some users abuse the channels by spreading hatred, far from the intended purpose of building connections on a personal level. To date, an empirical method for detecting, quantifying, and categorizing hateful comments on social networks comprehensively and proactively is still lacking. Besides, majority of the cases remain unreported due to social confounders such as fear of victimization and the psychological implications of hateful comments, leading to a situation whereby, the detrimental effect of the situation is underestimated. The ill-defined situation in the growing online …

Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy And Governments Challenges, Laila Abdin

Theses

Governments face the challenge of increasing the number of people who have been infected. Millions of daily examinations are being conducted around the world to detect the disease. The pandemic is growing increasingly challenging as the number of confirmed cases increases. Governments encounter a variety of obstacles in approving the benefits of Covid-19 vaccinations. Indeed, the idea of getting vaccinated is still fuzzy, and does vaccination protect against infectious disease? There are a lot of questions floating around. The lack of clear information about the Covid-19 vaccine will stymie the growing number of people who have been immunized. Therefore, governments …

Multi-Modal Human Fatigue Classification Using Wearable Sensors For Human-Robot Teams, Likhitha Nagahanumaiah

Theses

Our main objective of this study is to create a fatigue detection model using real-time data by using wearable sensors. The purpose of this research is to learn more about the way humans experience fatigue in a supervisory human-machine environment. The goal of this study is to evaluate machine learning algorithms that assess fatigue detection and to use robots for adapting its interactions. The environment itself consists of two different tasks to analyze Physical fatigue and Mental fatigue in two different task environments that are (i) Jigsaw puzzle-solving task, and (ii) Pick and Place task. Physical fatigue and mental fatigue …

Sustainable Applications Of Biochar Derived From Food Waste And Paper Feedstocks, Steven T. Barber

Theses

There is general agreement in the scientific literature that carbon sequestration is an important tool to mitigate human-induced climate change, but current methods are lacking scalability and economic viability. Though charcoal has been a common fuel for millennia, it has only very recently been purposefully created to sequester carbon. This carbon dense material, called biochar, has been extensively studied as a soil amendment though less studied for industrial applications. Chapter 1 provides an in-depth overview and background discussion of the history and definitions of biochar, distinguishing it from closely related though often misconstrued terms like charcoal, activated carbon, and carbon …

Effects Of Fire On Vegetation Of The Black Oak Sand Savannas Of Kankakee Sands From 2002-2020, Megan Alkazoff

Theses

Many plant and animal species rely on tallgrass prairie and sand savanna ecosystems that once covered much of northern to central Illinois but are now fragmented landscapes across the Midwest. In northeastern Illinois, The Nature Conservancy manages five sites containing fragments of remaining tallgrass prairie and sand savanna within the Kankakee Sands section of Illinois using techniques such as prescribed burning and invasive species removal. The objective of this study was to conduct an eighteen-year resampling of the ground flora to assess management impacts on species composition and conservation status. Permanent transect lines were resampled using a 1m² quadrat to …

Density Functional Theory Studies Of Fermi Resonance In Small Aryl Azide Vibrational Probes, Gammanage Sathya Madhuwanthi Perera

Theses

Site-specific study of the protein using time-resolved IR spectroscopy with the assistance of vibrational probes (VPs) has been the most promising research discipline. However, azide VPs that are absorbed within the protein transparent window generate a complex absorption profile due to Fermi resonance (FR). In the current study, the azide absorption profiles of three aryl-azide compounds: 4-azidotoluene, 4-azido-N-phenylmaleimide, and 4-azidoacetanilide have been explored with basis set effect, solvent effect, intramolecular effect, and the effect of rotational isomerism. Basis set effect was studied using seven basis sets namely: 6-31G(d,p), 6-31+G(d,p), 6-31++G(d,p), 6-311G(d,p), 6-311+G(d,p), 6-311++G(d,p) and 6-311++G(df,pd) with DFT/B3LYP. Geometry optimization and …

Gcms, Lcms And Hs-Spme/Gcms Methods To Detect Adulteration Of Argan Oil., Afeez Ayodeji Olisa

Theses

Methods for identifying argan oil adulteration have become important due to the exponential increase in the use of argan oil in food and cosmetics products over the years. Argan is the most expensive vegetable oil, has a tedious extraction process and is endemic to Morocco. This paper focuses on identifying markers that can be used to identify adulteration of argan oil with cheaper vegetable oils. Authentic argan oil from Morocco, commercially available argan oil, adulterant oil (sunflower and olive oil) and admixtures of argan oil with each adulterant oil at 98:2, 95:5, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40, 50:50, and 40:60 v/v …

Phylogenetic, Morphometric, And Biogeographic Investigations Of Trema Micrantha (Cannabaceae), Breanna Whitley

Theses

Trema micrantha L. Blume (Cannabaceae) is a pioneer tree species that is broadly distributed across the Neotropics. Taxonomic circumscriptions of this group have long been debated and problematic due to its morphological variation and broad geographic range. Delimitation of lineages within T. micrantha has remained unclear as molecular phylogenies with limited character and taxon sampling have not resolved the polyphyly of this group. To evaluate relationships within T. micrantha, I utilized phylogenetic, morphometric, and biogeographic methods. Using various DNA datasets, including ETS only, 5 DNA loci, plastome and whole nuclear ribosomal datasets, the recognition of 9 clades within T. micrantha …

Mechanistic Insights On The Role Of Ambrisentan, An Endothelin Type-A Receptor Antagonist, In Breast Cancer, Ruba Saleem Lutfi Amer

Theses

The activation of the endothelin receptor type A (ETAR) by its ligand endothelin-1 (ET-1) is well known for its role in vasoconstriction. Interestingly, ET-1 and ETAR are over-expressed in various human tumours, including breast cancer. Several studies described the important role of ETAR in cancer progression and metastasis. The extensive network of interactions that exist between the ET-1 axis and other signalling pathways can trigger autocrine and paracrine signalling that modulates different tumorigenesis processes, such as cellular proliferation and survival, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and chemoresistance. The main objective of this study was to investigate the antitumor effects of Ambrisentan, a …

Evaluating The Potential Impact Of Ototoxicant Exposure On Worker Health, Cody Beaver

Theses

Occupational exposure to ototoxicants, substances that can cause hearing loss or exacerbate the impact of noise exposure, is a workplace hazard that is not well understood. Existing research generally agrees that some solvents and heavy metals may be ototoxic, but few studies have attempted to establish the impact of exposure to ototoxicants in the workplace. This study examined trends in workplace exposure to ototoxicants among workers in the United States by comparing exposure data collected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration against worker hearing loss data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2012 through 2019. The study …

Combating Global Warming: Modeling Enhanced Rock Weathering Of Wollastonite Using Density Functional Theory, Brian Luan

Theses

Negative emissions technologies target the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as a way of combating global warming. Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) is a vital negative emissions technology that applied globally could remove gigatons of carbon dioxide per year from the atmosphere. In ERW, silicate minerals exposed to the atmosphere trap CO2 via mineral carbonation as thermodynamically stable carbonates. To obtain an atomic scale understanding of the weathering process and to design more reactive silicates for enhanced rock weathering, carbon dioxide adsorption on low Miller index wollastonite (CaSiO3) surfaces was modeled using density functional theory. Atomic scale structure of …

Evolution, Yajing Yan

Theses

My work is about how, as microplastic invades the earth, humans begin evolving, following the laws of natural selection. Plastic is attached in visual relationships to represent future mutations after decades of absorbing microplastic into the body. Many contemporary films and books discuss cyberpunk and steampunk from an evolutionary perspective. Technologies such as artificial intelligence and mechanical organ transplantation allow humans to evolve. However, I do not want to discuss the impacts of external technology. Instead, I am concerned with how the intrusion of microplastics influences humanity’s slow self-evolution. I divide my work into different stages to explore how humans …

Preservation Of Autonomy In Pediatric Decision-Making, Crystal Brown

Theses

Pediatric patients must rely on proxy decision-makers, usually a parent or guardian, to make their health care choices for them. There are 3 main frameworks in place for such decision-making. The default is usually that the decision-maker will make the decision that they feel is in the best interest of the child. Limitations on the decision-maker are an aspect often discussed with abuse and neglect at the forefront as thresholds for when limitations and intervention are deemed necessary. Concern for the child’s future autonomy is not made a consideration. Instead, the values and beliefs of the decision-maker are used to …