Digital Commons Network^™

Electronic Mathematics, Aidan O'Donoghue

Theses

Recent times have seen an explosion in the use of interactive technologies in the delivery of learning content to students in all educational sectors in Ireland. This expansion has led to the creation of modem day phenomenons such as global and ‘teacherless’ classrooms.

The research study I have undertaken is to determine if students perform to the same standard when learning through an interactive educational software application as opposed to a more traditional setting of learning ’through’ a teacher in a classroom. The application being developed for this study enables students to learn the ordinary level leaving certificate mathematics course …

Parent Leadership Initiative, Evanna M. Disalvo

Theses

Parental involvement in urban public schools is a vital part of any strategic plan to improve student achievement and close the achievement gap, but many parents lack the leadership skills that would enable them to spearhead activities that positively affect school or neighborhood climate and support teamwork with teachers and school administration. My project was to familiarize parents with Kouzes and Posner's five practices of exemplary leadership from The Leadership Challenge using family films to demonstrate leadership, give the parents practice in writing SMART objectives to develop a plan of action, and coach them in implementing a project directed at …

Jini Distributed Key Exchange And File Transfer Service With Digital Signatures, Kevin Ligozio

Theses

This thesis compares security algorithms for the Jini Networking Technology. The first method is to add security at the infrastructure level, and is the method chosen by the Jini Community in Jini version 2.0. The second method is the original research portion of this thesis, and explores adding security in the application layer. In order to explore the application layer security, the thesis includes four components. First, we investigate and implement some cryptographic algorithms. Specifically, we use a Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Provider containing the Diffie-Hellman Key Agreement algorithm and the RSA Digital Signature Algorithm. Second, we perform a novel …

A Comparison Of Web Development Technologies: Webobjects Vs. Asp.Net, Adnan Al-Ghourabi

Theses

There are at least two competing technologies for Web applications development: ASP.NET by Microsoft and WebObjects by Apple. The IBuySpy application, a web portal that has been developed by the ASP.NET team at Microsoft using the .NET framework, illustrates the best practices for developing ASP.NET applications, in terms of modular design, caching, user authentication and authorization, and state management. In this project, a similar application was developed in WebObjects so that both technologies can be compared in terms of system architecture, frameworks, reusability, development environment and tools, security, and implementation.

Mfs: M2mi File System, Ravi Bhatia

Theses

The M2MI File System is a Virtual File System designed for ad hoc networks. It uses M2MI/M2MP to perform ad hoc communication. The file system comprises of several file system instances spread across the network. Each file system instance furnishes a partial state, contributing to the complete structure of the file system. Hence MFS is a union of several file system instances collaborating with each other. The file system facilitates four file operations: ADD, REMOVE, LIST, and READ. The operation ADD allows a user to import a file from the local file system into MFS. It also permits the creation …

Genetic Music, Ryan Becker

Theses

Algorithmic music composition has long been an active area of research in computer science, but the need for a human element only recently began to be more widely acknowledged. Interactive Evolutionary Computing (IEC), made popular by Karl Sims, effectively solves many high dimension problems, like music composition, involving creative and subjective elements. This work applies several Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Genetic Programming (GP) approaches, inspired by Karl Sims, to algorithmic music composition. The implementation of these IEC algorithms is described and their effectiveness compared.

Jacil: A Cli To Jvm Compiler, Almann Goo

Theses

Both the .NET Framework via the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) provide a managed, virtual execution environment for running high-level virtual machine code. As these two platforms become ubiquitous, it is of pragmatic and academic interest to have the capability of running CLI code on the JVM and vice versa. This project developed JaCIL (pronounced "jackal"), a CLI assembly to JVM class file bytecode compiler framework. JaCIL also provides a user program for running CLI-to-JVM translations and a runtime library to support the translated code.

Web-Based 3-D Theatre Seating Charts And Ticket Reservation Application, Patrick Henstebeck

Theses

Seating charts for theatres and stadia have always been an important part of buying tickets to a staged event, despite offering little information about the view from any particular seat. While the internet has increased the potential to provide this information, most official arena websites and online ticket brokers still only provide the standard two-dimensional diagram whose detail is limited to the approximate location of each section and which offers no guidance as to the height or slope of the section, nor any warning of any obstructing objects that would depreciate a seat s true value. The few three-dimensional models …

Efficient Encryption On Limited Devices, Roderic Campbell

Theses

Encryption algorithms have been used since the dawn of time to ensure secure communication over insecure communication channels. Once a secret encryption key is established and as long as the key remains secret, two parties can communicate freely over open channels. The question of how to obtain such a secret key is a large dilemma. Many methods of obtaining such keys have been tried from the most basic form of a one-on-one encounter to more advanced techniques like Diffie-Hellman. This paper compares three versions of the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol -- using arithmetic in the field of integers modulo a …

N-Body Visualizations, William Mclaughlin

Theses

In the age of technology and information, data calculations and visualizations are key to the communication and understanding of the world in which we live. It is sometimes difficult to display data in a way to make it clear and understanding, or is difficult to calculate the data to be displayed. The N-body problem has elements of both. The N-body problem is a set of N particles representing stars that move in response to the gravitational force generated by the N-1 other particles. There have been many attacks to this problem. The GRAPEcluster Project of RIT has developed software and …

Visualizing The Inner Structure Of N-Body Data, Edward Dale

Theses

N-body simulations produce a large amount of data that must be visualized in order to extract interesting features. This data consists of thousands of particles, each with a number of properties such as velocity, mass, and acceleration, that are persisted across hundreds of time steps. Rendering these points using traditional means quickly leads to a image that is satu- rated because the number of particles is greater than the number of pixels available. Volume rendering, and particularly splatting, seeks to remedy this and allows one to see inside the volume and discern the inner structure. The definition of inner structure …

Study Of Visualizations For N-Body Stellar Models, Christian Gray

Theses

The visualization of large datasets is invaluable to the advancement of scientific knowledge. N-Body problems produced large dataset that present several challenges to visualization. These challenges include over-plotting and self-obscuring data. Using the general visualization framework, Spiegel, five different visualization techniques are explored to solve these problems: slicing, projection, 3D projection, 3D density shells, and direct volume rendering. Each visualization looks to solve the problem in a slightly different manner while all have kernel density estimation as their starting point. While none of the visualization is ground breaking or perfectly solves the problems they do provide new insight allowing for …

Web Based Monitoring System In Wireless Sensor Networks, Kanishk Panwar

Theses

Goal of the project is to develop a scalable web application to monitor a wireless sensor network. Wireless sensor network, an upcoming technology, is comprised of multiple data sensors that send back packets of information back to the base station. The sensor network runs on a real time operating system called TinyOS and the application is implemented using Moteiv Telos Revision B wireless sensors. The web application collects the reading from the base station and generates graphical representation of the readings for the front end and creates PDF reports when readings are not within defined thresholds. This application incorporates various …

Adjusting The Margins: Building Bridges Between Deaf And Hearing Cultures Through Performance Arts, Luane Davis Haggerty

Theses

This study addresses a gap in scholarship on leadership styles in the Deaf community. There is an invisible style of leadership differing from the mainstream culture that has not been previously addressed in the literature at any depth. My study was composed of three interlocking parts in a sequence that constitutes the practice of anthropology: fieldwork, analysis, and presentation. The foundation for my fieldwork was an “archeology of the structure of the perceived world” (Merleau-Ponty), using the holding environment of the rehearsal process and the structural process of an acting technique called Del-Sign. Del- Sign is a fusion acting style …

New Terms For An Old Debate: Embryos, Dying, And The "Culture Wars", Janet L. Dolgin

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

This article considers the story of Terri Schiavo in the context of a broader set of ideological debates in the U.S. Primary among them is the debate about abortion. In the decades since Roe, pro-life advocates have refashioned the rhetoric of the abortion debate. During that period, an underlying concern with the meaning and scope of family relationships was largely displaced in public debate with concern about the ontological status of fetuses and embryos. Pro-life advocates thus talked less often about abortion as a desecration of traditional family life and woman's purpose and more about abortion as the murder of …

Interactive, Tree-Based Graph Visualization, Andrew Pavlo

Theses

We introduce an interactive graph visualization scheme that allows users to explore graphs by viewing them as a sequence of spanning trees, rather than the entire graph all at once. The user determines which spanning trees are displayed by selecting a vertex from the graph to be the root. Our main contributions are a graph drawing algorithm that generates meaningful representations of graphs using extracted spanning trees, and a graph animation algorithm for creating smooth, continuous transitions between graph drawings. We conduct experiments to measure how well our algorithms visualize graphs and compare them to another visualization scheme.

Security Aspects In Voice Over Ip Systems, Gokul Bhupathiraju

Theses

Security has become a major concern with the rapid growth of interest in the internet. This project deals with the security aspects of VoIP systems. Various supporting protocols and technologies are considered to provide solutions to the security problems. This project stresses on the underlying VoIP protocols like Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Secure Real-time Transport Procotol (SRTP), H.323 and Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP). The project further discusses the Network Address Translation (NAT) devices and firewalls that perform NAT. A firewall provides a point of defense between two networks. This project considers issues regarding the firewalls and the problems faced …

Mentoring In The Department Of Access Services At The National Technical Institute For The Deaf, Gayle Macias

Theses

Not provided.

Symposium: Secret Evidence And The Courts In The Age Of National Security, Ellen Yaroshefsky

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Recommendations For A Comprehensive Identity Theft Victimization Survey Framework And Information Technology Prevention Strategies, Sara Berg

Theses

While steps have been undertaken in the last five years to better understand the problem of identity theft, there has been little research done in the areas of high tech crime victim profiling and prevention. Most studies focus on victim demographics without examining ways in which the victimization may have been facilitated technologically. Attempts to look at precipitating behaviors in the context of victimization are limited. As such, a weak empirical base exists on which to generate additional research and potential solutions to identity theft victimization. This thesis bridges previous identity theft research with other empirical studies in order to …

Surrounding Embryos: Biology, Ideology And Politics, Janet L. Dolgin

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

This article considers several parameters of the late twentieth and early twenty-first-century debate in the U.S. about ethics, politics, science, and ideology (popularly referred to as the "culture wars"). The article focuses, in particular, on shifting understandings of the embryo. The article reviews developments in science (especially the advent of stem-cell research and cloning) that have affected understandings of embryo, the history of debate about abortion in the U.S., and the place of discourse about abortion in a more far-reaching social debate about family, personal relationships, and the scope of personhood in the U.S.

Event Driven Dynamic Web Pages, Kan Yi

Theses

Web technologies are among the most rapid developing areas. They continue to evolve from HTML, DHTML, JavaScript to CGI, ASP, JSP, Servlet. However the life of web developers is still not so easy as traditional GUI programmer. The web developers should very clear about communications between browsers and web servers, which puts a great burden on the web developers. In the project, an Event Driven Model is extended to web servers based on Servlet technology. With this Event Driven Model, the web developers are totally transparent to the communication details. The development of web pages becomes similar as GUI programming, …

Cooperative Learning Incorporating Computer-Mediated Communication: Participation, Perceptions, And Learning Outcomes In A Deaf Education Classroom, Michelle Pandian

Theses

Many researchers have documented deaf students' struggles with reading, writing, and communication in the classroom over the last twenty years Fang & Beil, 2005; Antia, et al., 2005; Mallory & Long, 2002; Mallory et al., 2006, Johnson & Johnson, 1986; Karchmer & Mitchell, 2003). With the advent of email and text pagers, students today need to be exposed to the communication technologies of the future (Marschark et al., 2002; Bruce & Levin, 2003); especially deaf students, who will more typically rely on technology in the workplace for communication than hearing people (Wood, 2002). This exploratory research study with deaf undergraduate …

Silver Lining, Mary Boyer

Theses

Not Included

The Mainstream Press: Then And Now Has The Prominence Of Sensational News Changed In 100 Years?, Kathleen Marchaesi

Theses

The present research explores the levels of sensational news reporting in three distinct periods of journalism history by examining the largest mainstream newspaper in America, The New York Times, during the yellow journalism, jazz journalism and modern eras. The front pages of a representative sample of the newspaper were analyzed to determine the extent to which prominence of sensational news topics in the modern press differs from that of the yellow and jazz eras. The style of sensational reporting was examined to determine if the treatment of news has changed. The results of a content analysis indicate that readers are …

Ligevolver: A Tool For Ligand Formulation Using Genetic Algorithm, Priyadarsini Soundararajan

Theses

Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV - 1) has been found to be the cause of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). This virus caused uproar during the 1980's and started a major drug discovery race among the pharmaceutical companies. It also proved to be a milestone in the establishment of the use of computers in rational drug design.

Evolutionary computation is a commonly used computational approach that has been successfully applied to a variety of fields ranging from engineering to life science. The main reason for its effectiveness is that it is driven by the principles of evolution. A genetic …

Sweetness And Light, Stephanie Leach

Theses

Not included

Recovery From Crisis: Jordan Tourism Facing Political Instability, Rasha Hani Saoudi

Theses

This study outlines tourism crises facing international tourism to Jordan. The study also examines major efforts taken by the public and private sectors to recover from the loss of international tourism arrivals to the country caused mainly by the ongoing political crisis in the Middle East. A number of internal and external tourism challenges are identified based on the opinions of key stakeholders in the Jordanian tourism industry. Different approaches to crisis management, drawn from an overview of recovery marketing literature and studies, are also presented. The study concludes that the continuous cooperation and coordination of tourism stakeholders before, during, …

Preparation For Radiological Disasters: A Radiation Effects Epidemiological Database, Martha S. Raj

Theses

Not Included

An Improved Approach To Watercolor Reproduction By Profile Editing, Rochelle Kyong Kim

Theses

Fine art is usually produced on paper or canvas as a one-of-a-kind artwork. Fine art may be reproduced in limited editions and put up for sale as art. Different printing technologies have been used in fine art reproduction such as lithography, screenprinting, and most recently inkjet.

The research aspect of watercolor reproduction has been the question of "how good is good enough." In this case, the artists demand the exact match between the original watercolor and its reproduction. While there are difficulties in quantifying the degree of color image match, the initial testing of watercolor reproduction using a colormanaged approach …