Digital Commons Network^™

Translating Counting Problems Into Computable Language Expressions, Zach Prescott

Theses

The realm of automated problem solving is a relatively new field, even in the context of natural language processing. One area where this is often demonstrated is that of creating a program that can solve word problems. The program must understand the problem, perform some processing, and then convey this information to a user in a way that is accessible and understandable. There has been quite a lot of progress in this area with simpler problems. However, when it comes to understanding problems that involve a level of NLP, the results are not conclusive. In this paper, we would like …

Millennial Attitudes And Preferences Of Purchasing Prescription Eyewear, Monika Karlovic

Theses

This study focused on how influential the pros and cons of buying prescription glasses in store and online were as described by millennials living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). A qualitative research design was utilized, which included open-ended questions in a structured interview protocol. The seven participants that were interviewed were all millennials living in the GTA and have purchased eyewear online and in store. The main discoveries included participants appreciating the low prices when purchasing online, in store assistance, and the similar quality of eyewear offered online and in store. All participants stated that the fit and style …

Ritthe Contributions Of Traffic Management Centers In Life Enhancement, Mohammed Hamdan Khalifeh

Theses

This study focuses on investigating the contributions of traffic management centers to enhancing people’s driving experiences and impacting their level of satisfaction and happiness. Data was collected in the United Arab Emirates through two distinct surveys; the first aimed at drivers (number of respondents: 155), and the second aimed at traffic management center operators (number of respondents: 15). The drivers survey aimed to collect data about drivers’ pain points experienced while driving in the United Arab Emirates and showed that slow drivers on fast lanes and sudden lane changing are the biggest challenges reported. On the operators’ side, the data …

Color The Corner, Linxin Jiang

Theses

Loneliness is a major issue in this era, and youth, as a group, is becoming the main force of the lonely group. Young people are in the stage of being immature. Facing the era of knowledge and information explosion, they are learning how to be adults for the first time. They are eager to love and be loved, they are eager for material satisfaction, they are eager to communicate, and they are eager for the world to understand them. At the same time, they are rebellious and loudly proclaiming their independence and freedom. But they become more lonely because of …

Employing Optical Flow On Convolutional Recurrent Structures For Deepfake Detection, Akash Chintha

Theses

Deepfakes, or artificially generated audiovisual renderings, can be used to defame a public figure or influence public opinion. With the recent discovery of generative adversarial networks, an attacker using a normal desktop computer fitted with an off-the-shelf graphics processing unit can make renditions realistic enough to easily fool a human observer. Detecting deepfakes is thus becoming vital for reporters, social networks, and the general public. Preliminary research introduced simple, yet surprisingly efficient digital forensic methods for visual deepfake detection. These methods combined convolutional latent representations with bidirectional recurrent structures and entropy-based cost functions. The latent representations for the video are …

Global Health Education In Chinese Universities: Potential For Collaboration With Schools Of Nursing, Quanlei Li

Theses

The Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) and the Chinese Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CCUGH) were established within public health schools in North America in 2009 and in China in 2013. These consortiums are mandated to engage a variety of complementary disciplines including those in the health sphere such as public health, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and nursing as well as those outside of the health arena, including law, environmental studies, business, anthropology, etc. Specifically, expanding the exposure of nursing students to global health curricula is critical as nurses are essential actors in the health care system: making …

Immigration, Crime, And Policy, Tiara Grayson

Theses

When viewing the criminal justice system, it is always investigated through a criminological approach. Meaning, there are numerous studies that attempt to get an understanding of why crime occurs, rather than the “why” in regards to the criminal justice system. The actors of the criminal justice system and their methods of crime control are rarely examined. In this paper, I will examine the behaviors of those who are attached to the criminal justice system; this includes the police, the media, politicians, and the public, who all play a role in how the criminal justice system functions, regarding immigration. Studying the …

Self-Supervision Initialization For Semantic Segmentation Networks, Kenneth Alexopoulos

Theses

Convolutional neural networks excel at extracting features from signals. These features are able to be utilized for many downstream tasks. These tasks include object recognition, object detection, depth estimation, pixel level semantic segmentation, and more. These tasks can be used for applications such as autonomous driving where images captured by a camera can be used to give a detailed understanding of the scene. While these models are impressive, they can fail to generalize to new environments. This forces the cumbersome process of collecting images from multifarious environments and annotating them by hand. Annotating thousands or millions of images is both …

A Simulation Study Of Centralized Versus Decentralized Healthcare Admission Processes, Jacob Smyth

Theses

With an expanding number of healthcare clinics and a growing trend of consolidation, the possibility of a centralized location performing admission for multiple clinics has been presented as a possible method to save on operational costs. This centralized approach would cause significant changes in the admission process for decentralized clinics that have their own admission processes, and the effect on quality of care cannot be ignored when deciding which method to use. To determine the characteristics under which a centralized or decentralized admission system would be better, a discrete event simulation methodology is designed and utilized to compare the alternative …

Low Frequency Cyclical Potentials For Fine Tuning Nonlinear Electrokinetic Separations, Cody Justice Lentz

Theses

This work has shown a novel method for the separation of particles inside a nonlinear EK device using low frequency cyclical signals. The utility of this method was demonstrated by successfully separating micron sized polystyrene particles based on differences in particle size (2 µm vs. 5.1 µm) and by differences in particle charge (19 vs. 60 mv). In order to discover a usable signal for separation, a custom Matlab program was developed to simulate particle migration inside the device. The custom program utilized data from finite element analysis of the electric field in the device using the COMSOL Multiphysics program. …

Ecological Impacts Of Food Waste Digestate Management In An Agricultural Watershed, Shradha Shrestha

Theses

Globally, more than two billion tons of food are wasted each year, creating significant economic and environmental issues. Anaerobic digestion (AD), a process to convert organic waste to biogas, is a potential waste-to-energy alternative to landfilling wasted food (FW). Liquid digestate, a by-product of AD, is typically stored on-site in ponds prior to field application as a fertilizer, presenting risks of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and nutrient release to sensitive waterways. To assess this risk, we used a co-digestion (FW plus manure) facility and associated row-crop disposal system in an agricultural watershed in western New York, USA as a case …

Human-In-The-Loop Learning From Crowdsourcing And Social Media, Tong Liu

Theses

Computational social studies using public social media data have become more and more popular because of the large amount of user-generated data available. The richness of social media data, coupled with noise and subjectivity, raise significant challenges for computationally studying social issues in a feasible and scalable manner. Machine learning problems are, as a result, often subjective or ambiguous when humans are involved. That is, humans solving the same problems might come to legitimate but completely different conclusions, based on their personal experiences and beliefs. When building supervised learning models, particularly when using crowdsourced training data, multiple annotations per data …

Rit-Eyes: Realistic Eye Image And Video Generation For Eye Tracking Applications, Nitinraj Nair

Theses

Deep neural networks for video-based eye tracking have demonstrated resilience to noisy environments, stray reflections, and low resolution. However, to train these networks, a large number of manually annotated images are required. To alleviate the cumbersome process of manual labeling, computer graphics rendering is employed to automatically generate a large corpus of annotated eye images under various conditions. In this work, we introduce a synthetic eye image and video generation platform called RIT-Eyes that improves upon previous work by adding features such as an active deformable iris, an aspherical cornea, retinal retro-reflection, and gaze-coordinated eye-lid deformations. To demonstrate the utility …

Building A Handmade Business, Jordan Khusnulgatin

Theses

The purpose of this project is to build a small scale handmade product and business from scratch with innovative ways to incorporate sustainable practices. There are many factors that make up a business. For this project in particular, the main concern will be centered around all aspects of the product and customer experience, including finding a niche, the aesthetic, branding, packaging, pricing, sustainable practices, conducting sales, marketing, and creating a business plan. This project will follow the steps described above to discover a niche and the basis upon which this handmade business will be 3 derived from, providing a physical …

Deepfakes Generation Using Lstm Based Generative Adversarial Networks, Akhil Santha

Theses

Deep learning has been achieving promising results across a wide range of complex task domains. However, recent advancements in deep learning have also been employed to create software which causes threats to the privacy of people and national security. One among them is deepfakes, which creates fake images as well as videos that cannot be detected as forgeries by humans. Fake speeches of world leaders can even cause threat to world stability and peace. Apart from the malicious usage, deepfakes can also be used for positive purposes such as in films for post dubbing or performing language translation. This latter …

Self-Supervised Video Representation Learning By Recurrent Networks And Frame Order Prediction, Sai Shashidhar Nagabandi

Theses

The success of deep learning models in challenging tasks of computer vision and natural language processing depend on good vector representations of data. For example, learning efficient and salient video representations is one of the fundamental steps for many tasks like action recognition and next frame prediction. Most methods in deep learning rely on large datasets like ImageNet or MSCOCO for training, which is expensive and time consuming to collect. Some of the earlier works in video representation learning relied on encoder-decoder style networks in an unsupervised fashion, which would take in a few frames at a time. Research in …

Integrated Framework For Data Quality And Security Evaluation On Mobile Devices, Igor Khokhlov

Theses

Data quality (DQ) is an important concept that is used in the design and employment of information, data management, decision making, and engineering systems with multiple applications already available for solving specific problems. Unfortunately, conventional approaches to DQ evaluation commonly do not pay enough attention or even ignore the security and privacy of the evaluated data. In this research, we develop a framework for the DQ evaluation of the sensor originated data acquired from smartphones, that incorporates security and privacy aspects into the DQ evaluation pipeline. The framework provides support for selecting the DQ metrics and implementing their calculus by …

Interactive Range Queries Under Differential Privacy, Asma Mohammed Alnemari

Theses

Differential privacy approaches employ a curator to control data sharing with analysts without compromising individual privacy. The curator’s role is to guard the data and determine what is appropriate for release using the parameter epsilon to adjust the accuracy of the released data. A low epsilon value provides more privacy, while a higher epsilon value is associated with higher accuracy. Counting queries, which ”count” the number of items in a dataset that meet specific conditions, impose additional restrictions on privacy protection. In particular, if the resulting counts are low, the data released is more specific and can lead to privacy …

Push Recovery For Humanoid Robots Using Linearized Double Inverted Pendulum, Saurav Singh

Theses

Biped robots have come a long way in imitating a human being's anatomy and posture. Standing balance and push recovery are some of the biggest challenges for such robots. This work presents a novel simplified model for a humanoid robot to recover from external disturbances. The proposed Linearized Double Inverted Pendulum, models the dynamics of a complex humanoid robot that can use ankle and hip recovery strategies while taking full advantage of the advances in controls theory research. To support this, an LQR based control architecture is also presented in this work. The joint torque signals are generated along with …

Multi-Sensor Fusion For 3d Object Detection, Darshan Ramesh Bhanushali

Theses

Sensing and modelling of the surrounding environment is crucial for solving many of the problems in intelligent machines like self-driving cars, autonomous robots, and augmented reality displays. Performance, reliability and safety of the autonomous agents rely heavily on the way the environment is modelled. Two-dimensional models are inadequate to capture the three-dimensional nature of real-world scenes. Three-dimensional models are necessary to achieve the standards required by the autonomy stack for intelligent agents to work alongside humans. Data driven deep learning methodologies for three-dimensional scene modelling has evolved greatly in the past few years because of the availability of huge amounts …

Graph Networks For Multi-Label Image Recognition, Sidharth Makhija

Theses

Providing machines with a robust visualization of multiple objects in a scene has a myriad of applications in the physical world. This research solves the task of multi-label image recognition using a deep learning approach. For most multi-label image recognition datasets, there are multiple objects within a single image and a single label can be seen many times throughout the dataset. Therefore, it is not efficient to classify each object in isolation, rather it is important to infer the inter-dependencies between the labels. To extract a latent representation of the pixels from an image, this work uses a convolutional network …

The Association Between Problematic Internet Use, Depressive Symptoms, Selfesteem, And Personality Traits, Basma Mubarak Yaslam Bensumaidea

Theses

A number of international studies have investigated the association between problematic internet use (PIU), personality traits, and psychopathology, however, despite their widespread prevalence, such investigations in the Middle East region remain rare. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between PIU and depression, self-esteem, and personality traits in a sample of 350 university students, aged between 17 and 33 years (mage=20.69, SD=2.14), who were residents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Participants completed several assessments of sociodemographic variables, a validated measure of PIU, depression, self-esteem, and a measure of their personality traits. A total of 75.1% of the sample was determined …

Poly (Lactic Acid)/Nanoclay Nanocomposites For Packaging Applications, Maissa Akram Adi

Theses

With increasing stringent environmental regulations and attempts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels for polymer production, bio-based polymers are receiving appreciable global attention. In this context, bio-based poly (lactic acid) (PLA) is one of the most frequently used polymers in packaging applications. However, despite of its high versatility, this polymer is limited in packaging applications due to its low mechanical properties. The two-dimensional nanofillers such as nanoclay and graphene are well known for improving the thermo-mechanical properties of polymers at low concentrations. However, increasing higher filler concentration to improve barrier properties of polymers reduces their mechanical properties which is a …

Radio Observations Of The Neutron Star X-Ray Binary Circinus X-1: Clues On The Onset Of Radio Emission And Jet Formation, Batool Ahmad Essa Saleh Ilyasi

Theses

Circinus X-1 is a Neutron-Star X-ray Binary System which features strong and variable radio emission. This emission is triggered as a result of the interaction between neutron star and its companion as they approach periastron. Radio observations of Circinus X-1 have not been carried out over the past 7 years. Here are the results of the radio observation and monitoring campaign on Circinus X-1 with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) – Australia, at centimeter wavelengths (5.5 and 9 GHz). The radio behavior of Circinus X-1 has been monitored over two of its orbits (16.6 days each) to probe its …

Disruptive Bussiness Model For Higher Education, Aya Rizik Abushawish

Theses

A business model is a plan for the successful operation of a business, identifying the source of revenue, the intended customers, value proposition, key resources, activities, and financing. It describes how organizations create, deliver and capture value. The recent developments in information and communications technology (ICT) disrupted most business models in different industries. The higher education industry is no exception, where it witnessed enormous integration of information and communications technologies. E-learning in higher education has made a tremendous shift in students’ life and raised the expectations of higher education service quality. The main objective of this thesis to develop a …

Biological Control Of Sudden Decline Disease Of Date Palm (Phoenix Dactylifera L.) In The United Arab Emirates, Khawla Juma Saif Zeail Alwahshi

Theses

Date palm orchards suffer from serious diseases, including sudden decline syndrome (SDS). The fungal pathogen Fusarium solani was associated with SDS on date palm in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Application of Cidely® Top (difenoconazole and cyflufenamid) significantly inhibited the fungal mycelial growth In vitro and reduced SDS development on date palm seedlings pre-inoculated with F. solani under greenhouse conditions. This is the first report confirming that the chemical fungicide Cidely® Top is strongly effective against SDS on date palm. Fungal pathogens not only inhibit plant growth directly but also induce the plant to synthesize stress ethylene. Much of the …

Fabrication, Characterization And Applications Of Chemically Modified Planar Metallic Electrodes From Copper Clad Sheets, Rana T. Alsaidi

Theses

In this work, we developed a fabricating method for planar electrodes by milling and cutting copper-clad sheets. The main objectives of this thesis are to produce customized planar electrodes with different geometries with relatively higher reusability compared to the screen-printed electrodes available by commercial vendors. The fabricated electrodes from copper-clad sheets were electroplated with different metals using commercial electroplating baths to produce different metallic planar electrodes. Also, the fabrication of planar electrodes with cavities to be filled with modified carbon paste was done. The electroplated planar electrodes were characterized by the cyclic voltammetry technique. In addition to that, they were …

Biological Control Of Fusarium Wilt In Date Palm (Phoenix Dactylifera L.) In The United Arab Emirates By Endophytic Actinobacteria, Aisha Abdullah Darwish Shambeh Alblooshi

Theses

Date palm trees suffer from many various serious diseases, including sudden decline syndrome (SDS). External symptoms were characterized by whitening on one side of the rachis, progressing from the base to the apex of the leaf until the whole leaf dies; while the internal disease symptoms included reddish roots and highly coloured vascular bundles causing wilting and death of the tree. Although three Fusarium spp. (F. oxysporum, F. proliferatum and F. solani) were isolated from diseased root samples, the fungal pathogen F. solani was associated with SDS on date palm in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Fusarium spp. were identified …

Expectations Of Generation Z When Entering The Job Market In Croatia, Goran Pekica

Theses

A new generation called Generation Z is about to enter the labor market in Croatia where employers are already facing challenges with recruitment and retention processes. With a new cohort at their doorstep, more different than similar to its predecessors, employers are presented with additional challenges. The focus of this qualitative study is on exploring early career work experiences of ten Generation Z members who study in either International Business or Information Technologies programs in Zagreb, Croatia and who are about to become part of Croatian labor force. By exploring their initial work experiences, their expectations about the work environment …

An Information Theoretic Approach To Assess Perceived Audio Quality Using Eeg With Reduced Number Of Electrodes, Sansit Das

Theses

Electroencephalograph(EEG) is a process mainly used in medical and research fields to study the electrical activities in a brain. In this technique, 128 or 256 electrodes are attached to the scalp and the electrical activities of the human brain is recorded with the help of a software. In the global scenario, the EEG responses are studied and analysed to acknowledge any disorders in the brain, such as epilepsy or head injury.

Recent studies performed by researchers, have focused on analysing these electrical activities to access perceived audio quality from users by using information theoretic approaches, such as mutual information. Experiments …