Digital Commons Network^™

Catpanion: A Ui/Ux Ios-Based App Design To Support Cat Adoptions, Chenchen Ji

Theses

Homeless and abandoned cats are becoming an issue in urban areas around the world: a majority of them may carry illnesses that may lead to infectious diseases. Once back in the wild, cats may also harm the ecological equilibrium of urban areas as they are known to be hunters of birds and smaller mammals.

The popularity of online cat-related material has ballooned over the past decade. Within the confines of social media, cat-related matters have gained an enormous amount of attention. Due to the increase in cat enthusiasts, celebrities occasionally help post information about cats and have even helped ask …

Stage, Ying Xu

Theses

Stage is three minutes 2D/3D experimental animation. The whole story is about the growth of a person who is pursuing her dream. The story starts with a dancer practicing and learning the skills. As her skill and ability increases, her desires and needs expand. She begins to recognize, perceive and introspect everything around her deeply. After lost, confusion, self-doubt, finally, she accepts how the world is and decide not to live against her truth.

I want to use experimental animation as a way of describing how people feel when they experience their lives. This concept is based initially on my …

How To Train Your Dog, Zihao Bai

Theses

How to Train Your Dog is a 2D short animated film with a total timescale of four minutes and five seconds including credits. It is a story about what would happen if someone treats a cat as though it was a dog. The main character of the story is an alien who does not live on the earth and has never seen a dog or a cat before. He gets obsessed with this cute little animal at his first time seeing it on a TV commercial selling this kind of pet newly imported from the earth. He orders the dog …

Advances And Challenges In Software Refactoring: A Tertiary Systematic Literature Review, Mazen Alotaibi

Theses

Software refactoring is one of the most critical aspects of software maintenance. It improves the quality of the software, reduces potential occurrence of bugs and keeps the code easier to maintain, extend and read. The process of refactoring supports and enables the developers to improve the design of software without changing the behavior. However, the automation of this process is complex for developers and software engineers since it is subjective, time and resource consuming. In this context, many literature reviews have analyzed the existing effort made by researchers to facilitate refactoring, as a core software engineering practice. This paper, aims …

Microfluidic Study Of Hydrogen Peroxide (H2o2) Transport Modeled On The Msn-Da Neuron Pathway, Carrie A. Phillips

Theses

Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are produced throughout the body and can cause damage, lead to neurodegenerative disorders, and deactivate neurons involved in the release of essential neurotransmitters. However, the underlying mechanisms affecting neuronal dysfunction are controversial and are not yet well understood. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), a common ROS, has been shown to inhibit evoked dopamine (DA) in the Nigrostriatal region of the brain. Although unconfirmed, one theory claims that the DA-modulating H2O2 is produced in medium spiny neurons (MSN), based on close proximity. However, most literature cites H2O2 as a very small molecule which can travel far, diffuse readily, and …

Effect Of Lead Contaminated Soils On Lycopene And Mineral Contents Of Tomatoes (Solanum Lycopersicum), Andrea T. Amati

Theses

Eating fruits and vegetables is beneficial to human health, not just because they provide essential nutrients and vitamins, but also because phytochemicals scavenge free radicals and can reduce the risk of developing cancer and other diseases. However, not all people have access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables. People who live in “food deserts” often are limited to smaller stores where prices are higher and the quality and variety of fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce. Urban gardens have been proposed as a potential solution to the issue of food deserts and as a way to promote nutrition in low …

Cyclist Safety In Urban Areas, Limin He

Theses

Cycling as an alternative means of transport is encouraged in urban areas because of the societal and environmental benefits it brings to most cities. However, the conflicts between cyclists and motorists become more obvious in complex urban areas, which places cyclists in a dangerous situation- a higher chance to get involved in serious injuries. To analyze how the problem happens, this paper talks about the user research, environment and collisions analysis. Then, this paper presents survey procedure and results related to user demands for cycling safety. The visibility limitation was found to be the main reason for the conflicts. In …

A New Graphene Quantum Dot Sensor For Estimating An Antibiotic Concentration, Nuzhet Nihaar Nasir Ahamed

Theses

The antibiotics have impacted the human ailments by curtailing the growth of microbes and by providing relief from microbial diseases. While there are a large number of analytical methods available for the determination of antibiotics concentration, they are time consuming and impractical for usage in the fields. This thesis is aimed at overcoming the deficiencies of those methods in developing a new sensor. It reports a study of graphene quantum dots (GQD) bound ferric ion for sensing an antibiotic, ciprofloxacin (CP). The interaction of ferric ion with CP was used as a probe for the analytical estimation of CP using …

Sing For Your Costumes: A Costume Design Thesis On The Boys From Syracuse, Terry Baker

Theses

This thesis document is a presentation and exploration of the process involving the costume design for The Boys from Syracuse (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, book by George Abbott) in the McLeod Theatre at Southern Illinois University Carbondale during February 2018. This light-hearted, farcical musical reminds us that life doesn’t have to be so serious. It explores our ability to be consumed by our own responsibilities, which causes us to escape to the theater and just enjoy a show. Chapter 1 contains the research, background information, and script analysis that was conducted to further enhance and inform …

Young Cash Karen, Jade Thiraswas

Theses

Young Cash Karen is an ongoing body of work about a community of young men refugees from Burma (or Myanmar) who have recently resettled in Western New York State. They are members of the Karen, a Burmese ethnic minority that has fought a decades-long civil war against the Burmese government over the native lands of their people and for their very right to exist. The Karen people have been the victims of ethnic-cleansing policies by the oppressive Burmese military regime. For most or all of their lives, the young men of Young Cash Karen lived in refugee camps across the …

Consumer Preferences In Food Interactive Packaging, Nuchjarin Pareeratanasomporn

Theses

Interactive packaging is an innovation that has been adopted by the packaging design industry. It enables consumers to interact with packaging through their smart devices. Although the technology is already available, it is uncertain how many consumers use it or will ever find it useful.

This research measured the young Millennial (18-24 years old) consumers’ perspectives and their preferences for interactive feature on food packaging. College students between 18 to 24 years old were chosen by using a purposive sampling method. First, a questionnaire asked for information about the participants’ behavior surrounding two topics. The first topic asked about their …

Nutrition Knowledge Among Adolescent Athletes, Caregivers, And Coaches, Ann-Kathrin Puschkasch

Theses

The thesis, Nutrition Knowledge Among Adolescent Athletes, Caregivers, and Coaches, explores the nutritional knowledge of these three groups and highlights gaps that may impact young athletes' performance and health. Conducted in Missouri, the study used customized online surveys to evaluate participants' understanding of general and sports nutrition, including macronutrients, hydration, and supplementation. A total of 306 participants, comprising 47 athletes, 117 caregivers, and 142 coaches, completed the surveys.

Findings revealed significant gaps in knowledge across all groups, though coaches scored the highest, followed by caregivers and then athletes. For example, many athletes lacked awareness of basic nutritional concepts like …

Effects Of Triphasic Training On Strength And Power On Men's Volleyball Players, Grant Kastelan

Theses

Triphasic training is a method popularized by Cal Dietz (Dietz & Peterson, 2012) which includes three different phases: accumulation, transmutation, and realization. Different goals are set for each phase with power development being the overarching theme. During the accumulation phase, the training block is split into the three muscle actions eccentric, isometric, and concentric. During each phase, one action is the emphasis of the program. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the accumulation phase of the triphasic training program on collegiate men's volleyball players I-Repetition Max strength, vertical jump, and isometric force. Additionally, the researcher …

The Visit: A Full Length Play, Rosalia A. Portillo

Theses

The Visit served as my thesis production to fulfill the requirements for a Masters of Fine Arts from Lindenwood University. This paper details my role as director in the production from its conception, to production, to evaluation. I will explore the details of my process for the project as well as what I have learned.

Additive Manufactured Microstructures And Designs For High Heat Flux Dissipation During Pool Boiling, Austin Hayes

Theses

Heat dissipation is vital in industries requiring predictable operating temperatures while also producing large heat fluxes. These industries include electronics and power generation. For electronics, as more devices fit on a smaller area, the heat flux increases dramatically. Pool boiling offers a solution to electronic cooling due to extremely high heat transfer with a low temperature change. Previous research has focused on coatings and precision manufacturing to create microchannels and features for boiling augmentation. However, this is limited to designs for subtractive processes. The use of additive manufacturing (AM) offers a novel way of thinking of design for boiling enhancement. …

Face 2 Face, Joseph Hurley

Theses

For my final year at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), I worked on my thesis film, “Face 2 Face,” which runs for 6 minutes and 22 seconds. My thesis film tells the story of a young man attending a Comic-Con convention who spends more time taking photos of what he sees in front of him for his social media page rather than living in the moment within his environment. This film was inspired by my experiences at conventions and on vacations, during which I devoted much of my energy to recording footage of unique events or taking photos of an …

Stockholms: An Artifact Of Kink As An Innocuous Method Of Bolstering Kinkster And Fetishist Populations, Kenneth Jeremy Chen

Theses

This thesis is an attempt to affect and activate the population of consumers that are open to sexual experimentation, which in turn will provoke further discussion into sexual identity and sex positivity.

Though there is a high percentage of people who engage in some form of kinky sex, there is still a lack of seriousness in accepting sexual fetishes as valid expressions of sexual behavior.

And so designing by approximating a sort of midpoint between the hardcore and the novel, it would eliminate much of the critical nature one would take with an “other” group if people may find that …

The Use Of Predicates In Fda Regulation Of Medical Devices: A Case Study Of Robotic Surgical Devices, Charlotte Lefkovich

Theses

In the last decade, a number of high profile medical device recalls have drawn attention to the regulatory approval process, particularly the streamlined process for devices considered “lower risk” known as the 510(k). Approval of medical devices through the 510(k) Process is not based on clinical data, but rather on “substantial equivalence” to predicate devices approved pre-1976 or legally marketed thereafter. A predicate device is one that shares the same intended use as the new device and technological characteristics which are either the same or different without introducing new safety hazards. Many scholars believe that the premise of approving medical …

Terra: The Earthen Refrigerator, Priyanka Bambarkar

Theses

This thesis consists of the study of reducing the overuse of technology in a modern household for a healthier lifestyle.

“The kitchen is the most important and expensive room in any household.” - Dan Harel.

It has many appliances and even though not always really appreciated, it does have technologically advanced gadgets. These gadgets were designed for convenient cooking and effective kitchen time usage.

One such appliance which has gained tremendous appreciation is the refrigerator. The refrigerator in general has undergone change over time and has evolved. Initially, satisfying the basic need of food storage and preservation to now satiating …

An Evaluation Of The Good Behavior Game Using An Interdependent Group Contingency With Middle-School Children With Ebd, Shanice D. Harvey

Theses

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of an interdependent group contingency commonly referred to as the “good behavior game” (GBG) on reducing disruptive behaviors in a dedicated classroom for students with emotional behavioral disorder (EBD). The participants were four eighth-grade middle school students, with a primary diagnosis of EBD. The intervention targeted inappropriate and disruptive behaviors during two class periods (math and science), as well appropriate alternative behaviors. The class was divided into two teams, with the four participants divided evenly amongst both teams. If a team met the criterion for both inappropriate and appropriate behavior during experimental sessions, each …

Economized Sensor Data Processing With Vehicle Platooning, Kailash Kumar Yadav Yelasani

Theses

We present platooning as a special case of crowd-sensing framework. After offering a policy that governs platooning, we review common scenarios and components surrounding platooning. We present a prototype that illustrates efficiency of road usage and vehicle travel time derived from platooning. We have argued that beyond the commonly reported benefits of platooning, there are substantial savings in acquisition and processing of sensory data sharing the road. Our results show that data transmission can be reduced to low of 3% compared to normal data transmission using a platoon formation with sensor sharing.

Interpreting The Lemuria As Pietas, Jessica Lynn Leonard

Theses

The Roman idea of pietas was an important value during the Augustan revival of Rome in the first century. Ovid wrote about a unique ritual in the poem Fasti that focused on piety towards ancestors called Lemuria. The original meaning of the Lemuria ritual has changed through the centuries by the power of the Christian Church and modern Christian bias. The anachronistic language used in the translations of Ovid’s Fasti and the choice of words that historians have used to interpret it portrays the Lemuria in an occult-like expulsive way. The Lemuria is not comparable to Christian ritual as some …

Machine-Insect Interface: Spatial Navigation Of A Mobile Robot By A Drosophila, Suddarsun Shivakumar

Theses

Machine-insect interfaces have been studied in detail in the past few decades. Animal-machine interfaces have been developed in various ways. In our study, we develop a machine-insect interface wherein an untethered fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is tracked to remotely control a mobile robot. We develop the Active Omni-directional Treadmill (AOT) model, and integrate into the mobile robot to create the interface between the robot and the fruit fly. In this system, a fruit fly is allowed to walk on top of a transparent ball. As the fly tries to walk on the ball, we track the position of the fly …

Investigating The Etiology Of Preschoolers' Somatic Symptoms And Internalizing Problems: A Twin Study, Matthew Jamnik

Theses

This study investigated the etiology of preschoolers’ somatic symptoms and internalizing problems, using a twin sample. A specific focus was placed on the genetic (i.e., DRD4 and 5-HTTLPR) and environmental (i.e., SES, household chaos, family conflict, and maternal emotional stability) factors that were hypothesized to be associated with these problems. This project also explored the possible gene-environmental interactions (GxE) that may exist among these contributors. It was hypothesized that children who are at greatest risk due to their genotype, environment, or a combination of the two would display elevated somatic symptoms and internalizing problems, compared to children who were less …

Illuminating Dietary And Physiological Change In An Insectivorous Bat Community Exposed To Artificial Light At Night, Zachary Cravens

Theses

Global light pollution is increasing worldwide, nearly doubling over the past 25 years, and the encroachment of artificial light into remaining dark areas threatens to disturb natural rhythms of wildlife species, such as bats. Artificial light impacts the behaviour of insectivorous bats in numerous ways, including changing foraging behaviour and altering prey selection. I conducted two manipulative field experiments to investigate effects of light pollution on prey selection in an insectivorous bat community. In the first experiment, I collected fecal samples from 6 species of insectivorous bats in naturally dark and artificially lit conditions and identified prey items using molecular …

Predicting The Stock Market Using News Sentiment Analysis, Majid Memari

Theses

ABSTRACT MAJID MEMARI, for the Masters of Science degree in Computer Science, presented on November 3rd, 2017 at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL. Title: PREDICTING THE STOCK MARKET USING NEWS SENTIMENT ANALYSIS Major Professor: Dr. Norman Carver Big data is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing application software is inadequate to deal with them. GDELT is the largest, most comprehensive, and highest resolution open database ever created. It is a platform that monitors the world's news media from nearly every corner of every country in print, broadcast, and web formats, in …

Claiming Space, Gwendolyn Anne Davies

Theses

The self-portraits in Claiming Space are presented as large, glossy full-color posters, pinned directly to the gallery wall. The photographs are photographs of me, a plus-sized woman, as I want to be seen confronting and challenging the ideals of beauty, desire, and representation in contemporary culture and media. Using an active and direct gaze, I present a plus-sized woman with power and strength even in vulnerability. I am challenging the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women, especially fat women, and asserting the right to be seen.

Protein Vaccines Against Acute Otitis Media Caused By Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae In A Murine Model, Mark Zavorin

Theses

Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is one of the major organisms in the upper respiratory nasopharyngeal microbiota. In addition to its role as a commensal in the nasopharynx, NTHi is also the cause of sinusitis, pneumonia, and meningitis. Most relevant to this work, NTHi is one of the major causes of otitis media (OM), an inflammatory disease of the middle ear that affects 65-300 million children globally each year. In the US, acute OM (AOM or ear infection) is the most common reason for prescribed antibiotics. Due to the dramatic increase in antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, there is currently an …

The Story Of A Blind Wolf, Jimeng Jasmine Li

Theses

The Story of a Blind Wolf; is a 3D animated graduate thesis film, whose length is five minutes forty seconds. It was screened in the School of Animation at Rochester Institute of Technology. The film is in a realistic style and made by CG (computer graphics).

The story takes place in a small puppet theater. While a piper is playing a flute for his audience, a wolf interrupted his performance. The wolf asks the piper to help him escape the hunt. The piper has sympathy for the wolf, so he helps him, lies to the hunter, and saved the wolf. …

Somewhere Else, Xiaoxi Liu

Theses

Somewhere Else is a site-dependent, video, sound installation. Captivated by memory, landscape and time and how they affect both the physical and psychological, I construct my artwork to reflect the liminal in-between. This artwork consists of fragments of recollections of the different places, landscape, moments and locations from my past. The intermittent, jarring, and distant quality of the sounds and video fill the installation space as well as the viewers’ mental space.