Digital Commons Network^™

Hcd-Sim: Healthcare Clinic Design Simulator With Application To A Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic, Jason D. Ceresoli

Theses

The treatment of patients in outpatient healthcare clinics is continually growing as technology improves and recovery benefits are recognized. In this thesis, a simulation framework is developed to model the operational aspects of clinics with the goal of providing a method to understand the impact of clinic design decisions relative to productivity, efficiency, and quality of patient care. The healthcare clinic design simulator (HCD-Sim) is designed to study the dynamic system behavior of clinics and to analyze alternative outpatient healthcare clinic designs. Additionally, the simulation framework is created using a data-driven structure that can represent a large class of outpatient …

A Novel Processing-In-Memory Architecture For Dense And Sparse Matrix Multiplications, Andrew Robert Bear

Theses

Modern processing speeds in conventional Von Neumann architectures are severely limited by memory access speeds. Read and write speeds of main memory have not scaled at the same rate as logic circuits. In addition, the large physical distance spanned by the interconnect between the processor and the memory incurs a large RC delay and power penalty, often a hundred times more than on chip interconnects. As a result, accessing data from memory becomes a bottleneck in the overall performance of the processor. Operations such as matrix multiplication, which are used extensively in many modern applications such as solving systems of …

An Authentication Mechanism For Stateless Communication, Ana Valentina Rodriguez Sosa

Theses

Most of the applications we use on a daily basis are distributed systems that are composed of at least one client and server and are exposed to the Internet. This communication is based on an HTTP protocol, which is a stateless protocol. Because of its communication characteristics, developers are forced to implement a series of mechanisms to pursue user privacy, security as well as business features.

Modern social media applications such as Facebook have been using secure tokens as an authentication mechanism. These applications are relying on only one part of the approach, such as token mechanism generation. If the …

The Ecological Impacts Of Climate Change In Hot Regions – Are Hawksbill Turtles Living Above Their Optimum Temperature In The Uae?, Obaid Ali Alshamsi

Theses

It is getting warmer throughout the world but it is not getting warmer by the same amount in all regions, leading to speculations that the biggest impact will be the impact on species living in the hot regions is widely assumed to be slight in comparison to the temperate and higher latitude regions. Temperature changes in hot regions are smaller, but it may be that the species in those regions have reached their optimum temperatures. In which case the effects of even a small temperature increase could be steeply negative. To test this thoroughly in terms of demographic parameters I …

Investigating Green Inhibitors For Acidic Corrosion Of Carbon Steel, Osama Abu-Alyosr Kamal Ibrahim

Theses

This study is intended to investigate Khalas palm date pits extract as a green corrosion inhibitor alternative to commercial inhibitors. Inhibition efficiency of the obtained extract was investigated on carbon steel grade S355JR immersed in different corrosive mediums of 2 molarity hydrochloric acid (������) solution and seawater solution. Along with other ingredients in palm date pits, Polyphenolic compounds have a significant anti-oxidation property and were found effective in reducing corrosion rate.

Due to its common industrial applications, Carbon steel was used in this investigation as the corroding medium, while 2M ������ and seawater solutions were used separately as the corrosive …

Synthesis And Biological Applications Of Some Novel Urea And Thiourea-Quinoline Derivatives, Aysha Mohammed Alkaabi

Theses

Extensive literature survey reveals that 8-Hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ), urea, thiourea and piperazine exhibit wide biological activity profile such as anticancer, anti-Alzheimer, anti-viral, antibacterial and antifungal activity. Novel urea and thiourea-quinoline derivatives connected by piperazine moiety have been synthesized and purified using appropriate techniques (extraction, crystallization and column chromatography) followed by characterization using IR spectroscopy and NMR spectroscopy (both ¹H and ¹³C).

Biological activity, metal chelation properties and the photo-physical properties were studied for these novel compounds. Anti-bacterial study shows moderate activity for most of the compounds against P.aereginosa, S.aureus and Enterococcus at concentration 250 μM. Antifungal study showed …

أثر استخدام استراتيجية التعلم المقلوب في التحصيل الدراسي والاتجاهات نحو مادة الدراسات الاجتماعية لدى طالبات الصف الخامس الابتدائي في مدرسة حكومية بمدينة العين في دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة, شيخة عوض محمد الأحبابي

Theses

هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى تعرف أثر استراتيجية التعلم المقلوب في التحصيل الدراسي والاتجاه نحو مادة الدراسات الاجتماعية في مدينة العين بدولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة، و ذلك من خلال الإجابة عن الأسئلة الآتية: 1( ما هو أثر استخدام استراتيجية التعلم المقلوب في التحصيل الدراسي لطالبات الصف الخامس في مادة الدراسات الاجتماعية؟ و 2( ما هو أثر استخدام استراتيجية التعلم المقلوب في تنمية اتجاهات طالبات الصف الخامس نحو مادة الدراسات الاجتماعية؟

ولتحقيق أهداف البحث، اتّبعت الباحثة المنهج شبه التجريبي مستخدمة أداتين هما الاختبار التحصيلي، واستبانة محكّمة لمقياس الاتجاه نحو مادة الدراسات الاجتماعية، وقد اشتملت العينة على ) 42 ) طالبة من الصف …

Synthesis And Biological Applications Of Some Novel Urea And Thiourea-Benzimidazole Derivatives, Lamia Ali Siddig

Theses

The objective of this research is the synthesis and characterization of novel urea and thiourea-benzimidazole derivatives and to test their biological activities. The 17 novel compounds (57a-j), (58a-d), 62, 63, and 65 have been synthesized, purified by different techniques such as extraction and column chromatography, and then characterized by using suitable spectroscopic techniques including ^¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, fluorescence, and IR spectroscopy techniques.

The biological activity of these compounds has been studied. The antibacterial activity was evaluated at different concentrations (μg/ ml) against 6 types of bacteria (Esherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enterica, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus …

Production Of Anti-Corrosion Materials From Uae Date Palm Waste, Nour Shehadeh Abdelrahman

Theses

Palm tree serves as the main source of biomass in the Gulf countries. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) alone is blessed with more than 40 million date palm trees, which generate a huge amount of waste annually. The main objective of this thesis is to examine the ability to produce a corrosion inhibitor from a date palm tree, waste, starting by extracting lignin from different parts of the date palm tree and characterizing the extracted lignin, converting lignin to sodium lignosulfonate, while selecting the optimum condition for the conversion reaction and characterizing the prepared lignosulfonate. Finally, the corrosion efficiency for …

Bedside Shift Report And Its Effect On Patient Satisfaction With Nursing Communication, Janna L. Reeves

Theses

The problem identified was the lack of any formal policy in regards to patient handoff, causing inconsistencies in the methodology, implementation, and content given from nurse to nurse during report. This increases the risk of miscommunication between nurses, impairs patient safety, and decreases patient satisfaction with nursing communication. The plan to address this problem is development of a policy requiring bedside shift report for all patient handoffs. This evidence-based method aims to increase patient safety and satisfaction and improve communication between nursing staff and their patients. In order to implement this process change, organizational approval will be obtained, an evidence-based …

Evaluating The Performance Of Digital Micromirror Devices For Use As Programmable Slit Masks In Multi-Object Spectrometers, Anton Travinsky

Theses

Multi-object spectrometers are extremely useful astronomical instruments that allow simultaneous spectral observations of large numbers of objects. Studies performed with ground-based multi-object spectrometers (MOSs) in the last four decades helped to place unique constraints on cosmology, large scale structure, galaxy evolution, Galactic structure, and contributed to countless other scientific advances. However, terrestrial MOSs use large discrete components for object selection, which, aside from not transferable to space-based applications, are limited in both minimal slit width and minimal time required accommodate a change of the locations of objects of interest in the field of view. There is a pressing need in …

Secondary Analysis Of Caregiver Pain Management Issues During Telehospice Versus In-Person Interventions, Marjorie M. Kelley

Theses

Most hospice care in the US is provided in the home by lay family caregivers. These caregivers suffer physically, psychologically, emotionally, and socially from the burden of caring. The most often identified area of burden for caregivers is the management of end-of-life pain. Despite advances in pain management pharmacology and alternative therapies, unrelieved pain continues to plague patients and their care providers. Although pain management has been targeted as a national healthcare concern and research priority, specific issues of caregiver pain management remain vague and undefined. Understanding issues surrounding caregiver pain management may help clarify needs thus enabling the creation …

Underutilization Of Palliative Care Related To The Associated Stigmatism: Time To Change The Service Name Within The Veterans Affairs Healthcare Setting, Janice Schwartz

Theses

Advances in medicine and technology have transformed cancer into a chronic disease state: enabling earlier, treatable, diagnoses and longer lives. However, the focus in medicine remains in quantity of life: failing to address the multitude of stressors influencing quality of life. Quality of life considerations during treatment tend to focus on physical symptoms of disease or side effects of treatment, negating important quality of life interventions offered through Palliative Care. Palliative Care focuses on the psychosocial, emotional and spiritual aspect of living with cancer. Yet, it remains an untapped resource in the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System (VAHCS), often reserved until …

Family Conversation Kit, Yingyi Mo

Theses

Deep, bidirectional family conversations are where family members express, listen to and understand each other’s inner thoughts with an open mindset. Such conversations can strengthen the comprehension and connection among family members, pass down cultural and family heritage further, and improve the cohesion and well-being of families and society. However, deep, bidirectional conversations are often neglected, especially in Chinese culture.

Such a lack is indiscernible to many people because they have been so used to hiding inner thoughts from their families that they find nothing wrong with it. Some are aware of the shortage, while the embarrassment comes right after …

Resolved Stellar Population Properties In Galaxies During The Peak Epoch Of Star Formation, Meaghann Stoelting

Theses

Using local properties of galaxies can help us to further understand the process of internal galaxy evolution. I aim to investigate these local properties using data from the GOODS-Herschel Survey and the CANDELS Survey. Using the relationship between global and local galaxy properties, evolution can be studied on a small, resolved scale for individual galaxies. To achieve this, spectral energy distributions (SEDs) per resolution element are fit for a sample of 362 galaxies from the GOODS-South field. SED fitting estimates physical galaxy properties such as star formation rate (SFR), stellar mass, stellar age, and dust extinction and resolved maps of …

Child Pornography And Child Sexual Abuse In The 21st Century: A Critical Overview Of The Technological Shifts In Distribution, The Academic Literature, And The Current Re-Entry Policies For Convicts Of These Crimes, Arion A. Rivera

Theses

This capstone project focuses on four distinct but interrelated papers. The first details the role of technology in creating a resurgence of child pornography and how both the authorities and corporations have responded to this phenomenon. The second paper provides a literature review on research assessing the amount of child pornography consumers who victimize children. The third work is my own original research on the topic explored in the second paper. The fourth and final paper explains the post-incarceration consequences child pornography possessors often encounter and how they reintegrate into society, in addition to assessing the flaws and successes of …

Characterizing Bladder Cancer Cells By Comparing General Machine Learning Methods To Convolutional Neural Network, Peng Nien Yin

Theses

Recently, deep learning techniques from the computer science field have dramatically improved the ability of computers to recognize objects in images. This raised the possibility of fully automated computer-aided diagnosis in the medical field. Among all the machine learning models, convolutional neural network (CNN) is one of the most studied and validated artificial neural networks in image recognition. Not only that it has great performance, but the design of most modern CNN hidden layers also allows the model to extract meaningful features without the needs of prior knowledge. Thus, the pathology community is showing increasing interests in comparing CNN to …

Relational Neurogenesis For Lifelong Learning Agents, Tej Pandit

Theses

Reinforcement learning systems have shown tremendous potential in being able to model meritorious behavior in virtual agents and robots. The ability to learn through continuous reinforcement and interaction with an environment negates the requirement of painstakingly curated datasets and hand crafted features. However, the ability to learn multiple tasks in a sequential manner, referred to as lifelong or continual learning, remains unresolved.

The search for lifelong learning algorithms creates the foundation for this work. While there has been much research conducted in supervised learning domains under lifelong learning, the reinforced lifelong learning domain remains open for much exploration. Furthermore, current …

Light In The Midst Of Darkness: Lived Experiences Of Cancer Warriors, Mignodel M. Morales

Theses

Employing a qualitative approach about the lived experiences of cancer warriors, this paper delved into the perceptions of pediatric cancer patients towards cancer, their coping mechanisms, changes that they experienced and their motivations and aspirations that served as their strengths for continuing their treatment. Eight informants were interviewed using the interview guide that was validated and pilot tested.

A Comparative Evaluation Of The Structure Of Primary Care In The United States And The United Kingdom, Lindsay Thompson Munn

Theses

The condition of the United States (US) health care system is currently at the center of national debate; and attempts to reform a flagging system are underway (Rutenberg & Calmes, 2009; Stolberg & Herszenhorn, 2010). The American health care system is in distress. An estimated 43.8 to 46.3 million individuals in the US are uninsured (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2009; DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Smith, 2008; U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). The majority of health coverage in the US is provided through employer-based insurance (Blumenthal, 2006; Congressional Budget Office [CBO,] 2007); but with the current economic crisis and a …

Native And Radiation-Induced Defects In Iii-V Solar Cells And Photodiodes, George Thomas Nelson Iv

Theses

Photodiodes made of III-V materials are ubiquitous with applications for telecommunications, photonics, consumer electronics, and spectroscopy. The III-V solar cell, specifically, is a large-area photodiode that is used by the satellite industry for power conversion due to its unrivaled efficiency and wide range of available materials. As a device driven by its minority carrier diffusion length (MCDL), the performance of a photodiode is sensitive to crystallographic defects that create states in the forbidden energy gap. Defects commonly arise during growth of the crystal and during device fabrication, and they accumulate slowly over time when deployed into the damaging environment of …

“15 Miles On The Erie Canal”: Navigating The Erie Canal Through A Digital Exhibit, Mason Lezette

Theses

The Erie Canal is one of the engineering marvels of the world and was largely responsible for Rochester’s transformation into an economic powerhouse, yet there is little representation of it in the cultural institutions throughout Rochester. In collaboration with the Office of the City Historian, I created a digital exhibit to commemorate the Erie Canal and its economic and social effects on the City of Rochester. This paper tracks the many decisions I made throughout the process of creating the exhibit and goes into detail about how best to select items, craft a narrative, and put the exhibit together in …

Autonomous Quadrotor Control Using Convolutional Neural Networks, Amer Mahdy Hamadi

Theses

Quadrotors are considered nowadays one of the fastest growing technologies. It is entering all fields of life making them a powerful tool to serve humanity and help in developing a better life style. It is crucial to experiment all possible ways of controlling quadrotors, starting from classical methodologies to cutting edge modern technologies to serve their purpose. In most of the times quadrotors would have combination of several technologies on board. The attitude angles and altitude control used in this thesis are based mainly on PID control which is modeled and simulated on MATLAB and Simulink. To control the quadrotor …

Beware Of Uncharitable Speech: Perceptions Of Newly Graduated Nurses Regarding Their Experiences Of Academic Incivility Between And Among Nursing Students In Undergraduate Nursing Education, Tatiana K. Penconek

Theses

The perceptions of newly graduated nurses regarding their experiences of academic incivility between and among nursing students in undergraduate nursing education were explored in this qualitative descriptive study. Six newly graduated registered nurses shared their experiences of academic incivility between and among nursing students in their undergraduate nursing programs. Online public domain data with specific content pertaining to experiences of academic incivility were also gathered. Four main categories resulted from the data analysis including Not Here to Make Friends, Nobody Stood Up, Making it to the End, and The Role of Nursing Faculty. Highlights of this study include an increased …

Convection In Common Envelopes, Emily C. Wilson

Theses

The outcomes of stellar evolution can be significantly affected by the presence of close substellar or stellar companions. Common envelopes (CE) are thought to be the main channel for producing close binaries in the universe and occur when an orbiting companion is engulfed in the outer layers of the primary’s envelope. CE outcomes are dependent on the fraction of energy from the decaying orbit that can contribute to ejecting the envelope, often defined via an efficiency, α_eff . The post-CE orbital separations and periods can then be determined given knowledge of the binding energy of the primary’s envelope. In this …

E-Nable: Diy-At Production In A Multi-Stakeholder System, Jeremiah L. Parry-Hill

Theses

The e-NABLE community is a distributed collaborative volunteer effort to make upper-limb assistive technology devices available to end users. e-NABLE represents a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to traditional prosthetic care. In order to learn about the attitudes and challenges of stakeholders working in and around e-NABLE, we conducted interviews with 12 volunteers in the e-NABLE movement and 3 clinicians. We found that volunteers derive a rich set of benefits from this form of altruistic activity; that both volunteers and clinicians recognize that end users benefit from aesthetic customization and personal choice in device selection; and that volunteers and clinicians bring separate, …

Optimizing Women's Morning Experience: Design Of An Interactive Cosmetics' Organizer, Jiamei Huang

Theses

Nowadays, wearing proper makeup is proved to be a powerful tool which can help women get benefit in their workplace. However, many employee women face a problem about making everything perfect done in the rush morning time, especially wearing makeup, which can result in a lot of negative effects not only in personal health but also in the family relationship. Suffering from poor morning experience might mass their beginning of the day and consequently ruing the whole day. Due to the boring and complex cosmetics organizers, the problem came to be more severe for them and make the makeup process …

Center For Urban Ecological Dialectics At Mill Street: A Living Building In Geneva, New York, Joseph James Nicholson Iii

Theses

Protecting drinking water and emphasizing a need to understand historical watersheds benefits urban ecologies. Geneva, a City in New York State (USA) is to invest in its economic future - especially regarding water for greater public use. To this end, an educational and experiential center in Geneva shall inform the public of a creek’s valuable sub-sources and its own important municipal hydro-geological features. Focusing on the city’s Castle Creek topography, a comprehensive design is developed adjacent to the creek’s urban density combined with a goal towards preservation. Existing watershed education programs, socio-ecological connectivity, and public recreation are the stimuli informing …

Efficient Nonlinear Dimensionality Reduction For Pixel-Wise Classification Of Hyperspectral Imagery, Xuewen Zhang

Theses

Classification, target detection, and compression are all important tasks in analyzing hyperspectral imagery (HSI). Because of the high dimensionality of HSI, it is often useful to identify low-dimensional representations of HSI data that can be used to make analysis tasks tractable. Traditional linear dimensionality reduction (DR) methods are not adequate due to the nonlinear distribution of HSI data. Many nonlinear DR methods, which are successful in the general data processing domain, such as Local Linear Embedding (LLE) [1], Isometric Feature Mapping (ISOMAP) [2] and Kernel Principal Components Analysis (KPCA) [3], run very slowly and require large amounts of memory when …

Aerial Object Detection Using Learnable Bounding Boxes, Aneesh Bhat

Theses

Current methods in computer vision and object detection rely heavily on neural networks and deep learning. This active area of research is used in applications such as autonomous driving, aerial imaging, defense and surveillance. State-of-the-art object detection methods rely on rectangular shaped, horizontal/vertical bounding boxes drawn over an object to accurately localize its position. Such orthogonal bounding boxes ignore object pose, resulting in reduced object localization, and limiting downstream tasks such as object understanding and tracking. To overcome these limitations, this research presents object detection improvements that aid tighter and more precise detections. In particular, we modify the object detection …