Digital Commons Network^™

Augmented Reality In Fashion Retail: A Walmart Unlimited Study, Chloe A. Mcpherson

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

As technology continues to evolve, augmented reality (AR) has become increasingly common within the retail and fashion industries. This study explored Gen Z consumers’ perceptions of immersive AR shopping experiences through Walmart Unlimited, an interactive digital shopping platform. The purpose of this research was to better understand how younger consumers respond to AR-enhanced shopping environments and whether these technologies influence attitudes toward convenience, engagement, and sustainability in retail.

A quantitative research design was used for this study. Participants completed the Walmart Unlimited shopping experience and then responded to a Qualtrics survey measuring areas such as immersion, satisfaction, ease of use, …

Decision Making For Large-Scale Problems Under Uncertainty And Conflict, Benjamin J. Hamlin

All Dissertations

Large-scale decision-making problems appear in many areas including long-range forecasting such as energy generation forecasting. Many such problems are subject to conflicting objectives and uncertain data, and can be modeled as linear optimization problems. We study novel theoretical results and algorithms for large-scale linear decision problems under conflict and uncertainty. First, we propose a parametric Benders decomposition algorithm for solving large-scale linear optimization problems with multiple objectives or deterministically uncertain objectives. Second, we extend the parametric Benders decomposition to a multi-stage setting, developing a parametric stochastic dual dynamic programming algorithm, which enables decision-making when conflicts and uncertainty have planning impacts …

Optimizing Military Fighter Jet Selection: A Decision Analysis Approach For Nuclear-Capable Aircraft, Eni Kelechi Ofong

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the strategic decision-making process involved in selecting a nuclear-capable fighter aircraft for NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) nations in Europe. In adaptation to the continuously changing technology landscape and the necessity for enhanced deterrence capabilities, this study evaluates three potential aircraft: the legacy Panavia Tornado (PA-200), the widely deployed F-16 Fighting Falcon (F-16), and the advanced F-35 Lightning II (F-35). Each platform presents distinct advantages and limitations regarding operational performance, mission adaptability, cost-effectiveness, and long-term sustainability. To systematically assess these alternatives, the study employs various decision analysis frameworks, including Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), single dimensional value function …

Enduring Efffects Of Juvenile Fluoxetine Exposure On Serotonin Transporter Expression Within The Hippocampus And Prefrontal Cortex Of Male C57bl/6 Mice, Daniel Eduardo Calvo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prescription rates of fluoxetine, the most dispensed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, have been rising among the juvenile population. Since adolescence is a critical developmental period in which the brain undergoes pruning, chronic increases in serotonin levels may lead to long-term neurobiological changes in brain regions responsible for emotional regulation. Thus, using mice as a model system, this thesis evaluated how adolescent fluoxetine exposure (AFE) influences the expression of serotonin transporters (SERT) in the adult hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. To do this, postnatal day (PD)-35 male C57BL/6 mice were administered with fluoxetine (250 mg/l in their drinking water) for 15 consecutive …

An Agent-Based Approach For Designing A Sustainable Supplier Selection In Stochastic Environment: A Simulation Study, Sheida Etemadidavan

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In the 21st century, businesses are constantly striving for competitive advancement and increasing their economic performance in the rapidly changing market. Collaboration with other businesses and partnerships with them are becoming more common. As such, businesses are starting to invest in finding the right partners to stay competitive in an ever-changing business landscape. Suppliers play a crucial role in businesses' decision-making as they provide the materials, goods, and services necessary for a company to operate and succeed. Therefore, their selection, management, and relationship must be carefully considered to ensure optimal performance and profitability. A sustainable framework in a business's relationship …

Developing And Implementing Effective Faculty Review Processes For Enhanced Performance In Higher Education, Plourde Vallon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Regular and effective faculty performance reviews are essential for maintaining high educational standards. When higher education institutions lack effective strategies to develop and implement effective faculty evaluation processes, teaching quality and institutional success are negatively impacted. Grounded in Freeman’s stakeholder theory and the Baldrige Excellence Performance Framework, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies that some leaders of higher education institutions used to develop and implement faculty evaluation processes. The participants in the study were two organizational leaders and two faculty members from a higher education institution in the Atlantic region of Canada, all of …

Development Of Hybrid Multi Criteria Decision Making Techniques For Efficient Cloud Service Selection, Obulaporam Gireesha

Theses and Dissertations

During the past few decades, cloud computing became a primary driver for the next generation of digital technology due to the increase in organizational performance and profitability based on a ‘pay-as-you-use’ fashion at anytime and anywhere across the globe. Cloud computing enables various enterprises to access pooled resources (like storage, network bandwidth, software applications, processing power, etc.) over the Internet with minimal Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and capital expenditure.

Indeed, the enormous popularity of cloud computing in both academia & industry over the decade has resulted in a wide range of similar cloud services offered by numerous service providers. Even …

Deep Learning With Attention Mechanisms In Breast Ultrasound Image Segmentation And Classification, Meng Xu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Breast cancer is a great threat to women’s health. Breast ultrasound (BUS) imaging is commonly used in the early detection of breast cancer as a portable, valuable, and widely available diagnosis tool. Automated BUS image analysis can assist radiologists in making accurate and fast decisions. Generally, automated BUS image analysis includes BUS image segmentation and classification. BUS image segmentation automatically extracts tumor regions from a BUS image. BUS image classification automatically classifies breast tumors into benign or malignant categories. Multi-task learning accomplishes segmentation and classification simultaneously, which makes it more appealing and practical than an either individual task. Deep neural …

A Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (Mcdm) Approach For Data-Driven Distance Learning Recommendations, Aysha Meshaal Alshamsi

Theses

Distance learning has been adopted as an alternative learning strategy to the dominant face-to-face teaching methodology. It has been largely implemented by many governments worldwide due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implication in enforcing lockdown and social distancing. In emergency situations distance learning is referred to as Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT). Due to this dynamic, sudden shift, and scaling demand in distance learning, many challenges have been accentuated. These include technological adoption, student commitments, parent involvement, and teacher extra burden management, changes in the organization methodology, in addition to government development of new guidelines and regulations …

Text Analysis Of Airline Tweets, Essa Altamimi

Theses

By acting as a succinct summary, keywords and key phrases can be a useful tool for swiftly assessing enormous amounts of textual material. A "keyword" is defined as a "word that briefly and accurately characterises the subject, or an aspect of the subject, presented in a text," according to the International Encyclopaedia of Information and Library Science (Bolger et al., 1989) (Feather et al., 1996). People are more likely to complain when they are anxious, according to research (Bolger et al., 1989)(Meier et al., 2013), and moods are affected by time (Ryan et al., 2010). Due to this study, airlines …

Quantitative Methods For Total Lifecycle Risk Likelihood And Impact Assessment In Sustainable Product Design Decision Making, Christian Enyoghasi

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Sustainable products promise significant economic, environmental, and societal benefits. Numerous methods are available for use during the new product development process to identify alternate product designs that optimize sustainability performance. Once any such design is selected and the product is launched, many uncertainties are likely to affect its performance over the total lifecycle. Such uncertainties give rise to risks that can influence the overall product sustainability performance. However, comprehensive quantitative methods to evaluate the likelihood or the impact of different risks to enable sustainable product design decision making are lacking.

This research aims to address this gap by developing a …

Breast Ultrasound Image Segmentation Based On Uncertainty Reduction And Context Information, Kuan Huang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Breast cancer frequently occurs in women over the world. It was one of the most serious diseases and the second common cancer among women in 2019. The survival rate of stages 0 and 1 of breast cancer is closed to 100%. It is urgent to develop an approach that can detect breast cancer in the early stages. Breast ultrasound (BUS) imaging is low-cost, portable, and effective; therefore, it becomes the most crucial approach for breast cancer diagnosis. However, BUS images are of poor quality, low contrast, and uncertain. The computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system is developed for breast cancer to prevent …

Computational Techniques In Medical Image Analysis Application For White Blood Cells Classification., Omar Dekhil

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

White blood cells play important rule in the human body immunity and any change in their count may cause serious diseases. In this study, a system is introduced for white blood cells localization and classification. The dataset used in this study is formed by two components, the first is the annotation dataset that will be used in the localization (364 images), and the second is labeled classes that will be used in the classification (12,444 images). For the localization, two approaches will be discussed, a classical approach and a deep learning based approach. For the classification, 5 different deep learning …

Attaining And Sustaining Competitive Advantage In Dubai's Real Estate Industry, Qais Alfaraj

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Real estate business leaders who fail to attain and sustain competitive advantage to increase profitability during periods of unstable or declining markets, experience either lost profits or bankruptcy. In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the brokerage market is saturated with over 5,000 active brokers and more than 2,000 registered real estate offices. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that successful leaders of Dubai medium-sized real estate businesses implemented to attain and sustain competitive advantage to increase profitability during periods of unstable or declining markets. The population for the study included business leaders of 4 medium-sized …

Novel Application Of Neutrosophic Logic In Classifiers Evaluated Under Region-Based Image Categorization System, Wen Ju

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Neutrosophic logic is a relatively new logic that is a generalization of fuzzy logic. In this dissertation, for the first time, neutrosophic logic is applied to the field of classifiers where a support vector machine (SVM) is adopted as the example to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of neutrosophic logic. The proposed neutrosophic set is integrated into a reformulated SVM, and the performance of the achieved classifier N-SVM is evaluated under an image categorization system. Image categorization is an important yet challenging research topic in computer vision. In this dissertation, images are first segmented by a hierarchical two-stage self organizing …

A Fully Automatic Segmentation Method For Breast Ultrasound Images, Juan Shan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death of women worldwide. Accurate lesion boundary detection is important for breast cancer diagnosis. Since many crucial features for discriminating benign and malignant lesions are based on the contour, shape, and texture of the lesion, an accurate segmentation method is essential for a successful diagnosis. Ultrasound is an effective screening tool and primarily useful for differentiating benign and malignant lesions. However, due to inherent speckle noise and low contrast of breast ultrasound imaging, automatic lesion segmentation is still a challenging task.

This research focuses on developing a novel, effective, and fully automatic …

Novel Approaches To Image Segmentation Based On Neutrosophic Logic, Ming Zhang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Neutrosophy studies the origin, nature, scope of neutralities, and their interactions with different ideational spectra. It is a new philosophy that extends fuzzy logic and is the basis of neutrosophic logic, neutrosophic probability, neutrosophic set theory, and neutrosophic statistics.

Because the world is full of indeterminacy, the imperfection of knowledge that a human receives/observes from the external world also causes imprecision. Neutrosophy introduces a new concept , which is the representation of indeterminacy. However, this theory is mostly discussed in physiology and mathematics. Thus, applications to prove this theory can solve real problems are needed.

Image segmentation is the first …

Changing Games And Evolving Contexts: Political Bargaining In European Energy Disputes, Fabio Franch

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Energy has recently become a very important item on the political agenda of most Western countries; it is bound to be even more so in the future, due to the increasing scarcity of natural gas and oil. With Russia using the energy weapons to advance its economic and political goals, energy security has become a central topic in European politics. Important political bargaining models like game theory can offer valuable insights and contribute to the explanation of the outcome of important political confrontations like the ones between Russia and its former satellites. Game theory, however, fails to adequately account for …