Digital Commons Network^™

Developing Performance Measures For A Health, Safety And Environmental Performance Report For General Mills, Inc., Jeffrey L. Hanratty

Theses

There is substantial interest in Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) performance as investors are becoming more aware of HSE issues and are beginning to index companies based on their environmental performance. Many other stakeholders are interested in the HSE performance of companies including that of General Mills. They want to be able to compare and contrast HSE performance both within and across industrial sectors. General Mills is responding to this interest and sees an opportunity to take HSE activities to the next level. This thesis reviews current HSE performance reporting trends in general industry and the food industry and proposes …

The Improvised Line, Edward Buscemi

Theses

Not Included

An Integrated Six-Sigma And Cmmi Framework For Software Process Improvement, Nitin Malhotra

Theses

A process improvement framework such as Capability Maturity Model (CMM) can help develop the maturity of a software development organization over time to achieve predictable and repeatable process performance. However, in the absence of a methodology for process performance measurement, ongoing data-oriented process improvement is hard to institutionalize. For organizations following CMMI, this makes navigating their way through higher-level process management and optimization activities called forth in CMMI Level 4 and Level 5 especially challenging. Altogether, this constitutes a major stumbling block for software organizations striving for higher process maturity as Level 4 and Level 5 Process Areas are essential …

A Comparative Analysis Between The Rit Contrast Resolution Test Target And The Gutenberg Test Target, Deepak Dubey

Theses

In addition to color, the other two most important properties that determine quality of reproduction of a printing/imaging system are contrast and resolution. Contrast and resolution limitations of an output device partially define output quality. These limitations can be attributed to various factors such as the screening method used by the RIP, the image transfer method of the output device, the substrates used, and capabilities of the postscript interpreter or a combination of all these factors. This study introduces a new test target for quality evaluation called the Gutenberg Test Target. A comparative analysis between the Gutenberg Test Target and …

Agrarian Way, Daniel D. Josh

Theses

My thesis is really in three fold. Since my work has its origin in the recollections of my earliest childhood memories, I will explain how the pieces in my show are a result of those early memories. Next I will explore how the pieces I design are influenced by my childhood observations and experiences with farm life and agrarian equipment. Finally, I will consider the direction of my future work, and how it can continue to grow and mature.

Profile Mapping With Aaa Server In Wireless Local Area, Travis Wu

Theses

In cellular networks user/service profiles of subscribers are maintained in the Home Location Register (HLR) at the Home Network where the subscriber is registered. When the user roams into a foreign network, his user/service profile is downloaded into a Visitor Location Register (VLR) at the foreign network to allow his access to all subscribed services with the same or similar Quality of Service (QoS) to which he had subscribed[1]. However, there is no provision for user profile storage and handling in Wireless Local Area (WLAN)s and this issue has never been addressed. The project proposed by Prof. Nirmala Shenoy and …

Vision Application Of Human Robot Interaction: Development Of A Ping Pong Playing Robotic Arm, Kalpesh Prakash Modi

Theses

Robotics is a science that is implemented parallel to human behavior. This work describes and implements techniques to mathematically model the game of ping pong played by the humans, and utilization of these methods in the design and development of a ping pong playing robotic arm as an application of robotic vision. Displaced frame difference (DFD) is used to segment the ball motion from background motion and parametric calibration of single CCD camera is utilized to track the ball in three dimensions. This visual information is temporally updated and further applied to guide a robot arm to hit the ball …

Just Business, Cara Paul

Theses

Not Included

Accurate Electronic Sphygmomanometer, Darshan Rane

Theses

Not Included

Modification Of A Longitudinal Wind Tunnel Balance For Identification Of Micro Air Vehicle Instabilities, Joshua A. Shreve

Theses

Research regarding Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) has been a priority in the defense industry for several years. Recently, the interest in this area has grown in the academic environment. For MAV research, RIT currently has a longitudinal, load cell based wind tunnel balance designed, fabricated and validated by Andrew Walter [1]. The balance allows for the measurement of lift and drag. The objective of this research is to further the capabilities of the balance system by automating the testing procedure and modifying the data acquisition system to collect dynamic frequency domain lift and drag measurements. Obtaining dynamic data will allow …

Objectively Ambivalent, Susana Reisman

Theses

This thesis paper is a version of how I perceive, in retrospect, the process in which I engaged in both making and curating the artwork included in my thesis exhibition. Within it, I examine on a personal level, the how's and why's of making visual art. I also provide a framework for viewing my artwork by revealing my sources and influences. In Editing and Finishing, I address one of the most overlooked and yet important aspects of putting together an exhibition. Finally, in Processing, I focus on the production of each individual artwork in an attempt to provide …

A Source Classification Algorithm For Astronomical X-Ray Imagery Of Stellar Clusters, Susan Hojnacki

Theses

The Chandra X-ray Observatory (Chandra) is producing images with outstanding spatial resolution using low-noise, fast-readout CCDs. Among many other things, X-ray images and spectra help astronomers study star formation and galactic evolution. Currently, X-ray astronomers classify one X-ray source at a time by visual inspection and use of model-fitting software. This approach is useful for studying the physics of bright individual sources but is time consuming for analyzing large images of rich fields of X-ray sources, such as stellar clusters. Objective and efficient techniques from the fields of multivariate statistics, pattern recognition, and hyperspectral image processing, are needed to analyze …

Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Electrodes For Sodium Borohydride Fuel Cell, Kedar D. Deshmukh

Theses

Borohydride fuel cell has been constructed for the first time using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MCNT), functionalized MWCNT, platinized MWCNT or polycarbzole (Pcz) as electrodes. The output characteristics of borohydride fuel cell with platinized MWCNT electrodes have been shown to be superior to the conventional graphite based borohydride fuel cells. The catalytic activity of platinized carbon nanotubes has also been established in this study.

The MWCNTs have been functionalized by refluxing in 60-70% nitric acid for a period of 12 hours. The functionalized MWCNTs were characterized by FTIR and TGA. Platinization of MWCNTs was carried out electrochemically from chloroplatinic acid. Platinization …

Deposition Of Inhaled Particles In A Symptomatic Asthmatic Human Respiratory Tract, John N. Diflorio

Theses

Inhalation medicinal aerosol and biological aerosol risk assessment are the current motivation for deposition models to be developed. Inhalation aerosols have been around for many years for the treatment of asthma and other respiratory ailments in which the aerosols targeted the upper airways. Current research is focused to target the alveolar sacs due to their vast surface area for drug and gene delivery. Targeting the alveolar sacs Corkery (2000) requires a slow and deep breathing pattern for maximum deposition at the alveolar units. Also the particles must be fairly small (1-3 µm) to avoid deposition by impaction. Gautam et al. …

New Approaches In Optical Lithography Technology For Subwavelength Resolution, Hoyoung Kang

Theses

Advances in the semiconductor industry are mainly driven by improvements in optical lithography technology, which have enabled the continual shrinking of integrated circuit devices. However, optical lithography technology is approaching its limit, and within ten years, it may be substituted by new non-optical approaches. These may include Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) lithography and charged particle beam projection lithography. While these technologies may have potentially better resolution, they can be very difficult to implement into manufacturing.

During the course of the research presented here, the extension of optical lithography to sub 70nm resolution has been investigated. Since optical lithography is mature …

Synthesis And Solution Characterization Of Water-Soluble Polyacrylamide And Its Applications In Oil Industries, Ghuwaya Humaid Alnuaimi

Theses

No abstract provided.

Identification Of New Mrna Targets Of Puf Protein-Mediated Decay In Yeast, Randi J. Ulbricht

Theses

Precise regulation of gene expression is accomplished at many levels. Puf proteins are a widely conserved family of RNA binding proteins that regulate gene expression by influencing the stability of their target mRNA transcripts. Puf family members have been characterized as transcript-specific repressors in Drosophila, Dictyostelium, mouse, C. elegans, and Xenopus. In S. cerevisiae, there are 5 conserved Puf family members. Two of them, Puf3p and Puf5p, are known to destabilize their mRNA targets, down-regulating gene expression. The remaining yeast Pufs, Puf1p, Puf2p and Puf4p, are homologous to Puf3p and Puf5p, suggesting that they too …

Understanding The Cognitive Aspects Of Human Error Will Increase The Usability Of User Interfaces., Sara V. Fuller

Theses

Understanding the cognitive aspects of human error will increase the usability of user interfaces. It is important to study the cognitive aspects of human error because many disasters have been attributed to operator errors. Creating usable interfaces that reduce the likelihood of error will save industries a great deal of money and may even save human lives. A greater understanding of human errors can be obtained by examining the psychological basis of errors, the methods used to study errors, some of the problems associated with studying errors and different types of errors. Next, the current research findings can then be …

Adolescent Girls, Chae Kihn

Theses

This thesis describes the author's two-year documentary photography project showing adolescent girls in two schools in New York City. It details the development of her photographic style and her approach to her subject. It also discusses work by other photographers that influenced her.

Will Mobile Internet Use Become Commonplace In The U.S.?, Kenichiro Araki

Theses

It is a fact that mobile phone use is different between Americans and Japanese although many people own mobile phones in both countries. The most significant difference is mobile phone Internet use. This involves people using the Internet via their own mobile phones. This paper will focus attention on some differences of mobile phone Internet use between the U.S. and Japan. Also, this paper will look into the reasons why mobile phone use in the U.S. is different from Japan and discuss whether mobile phone Internet use will be well received in the U.S. By analyzing data closely, this paper …

Fears, Vincent Carl Gothard

Theses

Not Included

Nanotechnology: An Assessment Of Current Occupational Health And Safety Issues, Brian Mcshane

Theses

Nanotechnology is a rapidly expanding field and is expected to revolutionize many existing industries and create entirely new ones. Presently, and to a greater extent in the future, there is potential for occupational exposure to free forms of these materials in research and development labs and industrial processes. Free nanomaterials may pose a significant health risk to those exposed as described by recent preliminary data on nanomaterials but also through the work addressing exposures to ultrafine particles both in the workplace and in ambient air. There are presently no published health and safety guidelines for working with nanomaterials. This paper …

A Simulation Study Of Automated Material Handling Systems In Semiconductor Fabs, Julie Christopher

Theses

A critical aspect of semiconductor manufacturing is the design and analysis of material handling and production control polices to optimize fab performance. As wafer sizes have increased, semiconductor fabs have moved toward the use of automated material handling systems (AMHS). However, the behavior of AMHS and the effects of AMHS on fab productivity are not well understood. The first aspect of the research involves the development of a design and analysis methodology for evaluating the throughput capacity of AMHS. A set of simulation experiments is used to evaluate the throughput capacity of an AMHS and the effects on fab performance …

Offshore Outsourcing: Is This Change In Corporate American Business As Smooth As What You Have Read?, Mary F. Tochelli

Theses

The software industry is one of the fastest growing industries in today's business world. The focus seems to be on the software industry now because there are so many other industries such as online retailers that are reliant on software and the information technology world. The purpose of this thesis is to extend the knowledge on current practices, methods and processes when application development is outsourced to offshore vendors. This thesis will also examine key steps to avoid when looking to outsource an application development project. Numerous risks will be discussed as well as the processes to be implemented and …

Art And Authenticity, Akihiko Miyoshi

Theses

My MFA thesis show, After the Last Picture Show, depicted my inquiry into what pictures and images are today. In this thesis, starting from the formalist tradition of fine art photography, I deconstruct photography into elements based on the classical dichotomy of form and content and discuss how the photographic image has dislodged itself from its material base. Subsequently, I question the objective of art in an age in which images are information, and in which information is instantly exchanged. I use authenticity as the guiding light in my art and attempt to confront the doubts that linger in …

A Testing Procedure To Characterize Color And Spatial Quality Of Digital Cameras Used To Image Cultural Heritage, Erin Murphy

Theses

A testing procedure for characterizing both the color and spatial image quality of trichromatic digital cameras, which are used to photograph paintings in cultural heritage institutions, is described. This testing procedure is target-based, thus providing objective measures of quality. The majority of the testing procedure followed current standards from national and international organizations such as ANSI, ISO, and IEC. The procedure was developed in an academic research laboratory and used to benchmark four representative American museum’s digital-camera systems and workflows. The quality parameters tested included system spatial uniformity, tone reproduction, color reproduction accuracy, noise, dynamic range, spatial cross-talk, spatial frequency …

Evaluation Of Remanufacturing As A Production Alternative To Reduce The Magnitude Of Environmental Impacts Using Traci, Marielk Del Mariano Martinez

Theses

As a result of many environmental problems associated with industrial activities and manufacturing applications, several production strategies have been evaluated to reduce the magnitude of ecological impacts. Through remanufacturing, the physical form of the product is retained along with its economic value, offering a viable option to address actual ecological problems that result from production practices. One of the instruments used to evaluate process performance and product generation is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). However, to date, all software packages used to conduct LCA have failed to incorporate remanufacturing as a production alternative. The EPA's TRACI software package utilized in this …

Reconfigurable Elliptic Curve Cryptography, Aarti Malik

Theses

Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems (ECC) have been proposed as an alternative to other established public key cryptosystems such as RSA (Rivest Shamir Adleman). ECC provide more security per bit than other known public key schemes based on the discrete logarithm problem. Smaller key sizes result in faster computations, lower power consumption and memory and bandwidth savings, thus making ECC a fast, flexible and cost-effective solution for providing security in constrained environments. Implementing ECC on reconfigurable platform combines the speed, security and concurrency of hardware along with the flexibility of the software approach.

This work proposes a generic architecture for elliptic curve …

An Autonomous Router-Based Solution To Detect And Defend Low Rate Ddos Attacks, Karunakar Anantharam

Theses

Internet security was not a concern when the Internet was invented, but we cannot deny this fact anymore. Since all forms of businesses and communications are aligned to the Internet in one form or the other, the security of these assets (both infrastructure and content) is of prime importance. Some of the well known consequences of an attack include gaining access to a network, intellectual property thefts, and denial of service.

This thesis focuses on countering flood-type attacks that result in denial of service to end users. A new classification of this denial of service attacks, known as the low …

A Co-Processor Design To Support Mpi Primitives In Configurable Multiprocessor Designs, Rohan Bafna

Theses

The Message-Passing Interface (MIPI) is a widely used standard for inter-processor communication in parallel computers. This standard is normally implemented in software, thus resulting in large communication latencies. A hardware implementation can reduce communication latencies significantly, thereby increasing the bandwidth. However, this approach cannot be applied in practice to the very large set of functions in MPI.

Reconfigurable computing has reached levels where entire parallel systems can be built inside one or more FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays). In this scheme, specialized components must be built for inter-processor communication and the resulting code is difficult to port to other reconfigurable platforms. …