Digital Commons Network^™

Multi-Dimensional Emotion Recognition From Geometry And Color Information, Geovany A. Ramirez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Emotions play a fundamental role in everyday interactions among humans. Humans are adept at expressing themselves and interpreting others through a multi-modal, subtle and complex process using non-verbal cues including speech prosody, facial expression, eye gaze, body gestures, head motion, posture, and skin color changes. However, recognizing the affective state of humans is a difficult task for computers.

Automatic emotion recognition has focused on analysis of the six discrete basic emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger and disgust. However, humans express more complex and subtle affective states such as confusion, shame, pleasure, anxiety or depression. Therefore, a different representation based …

Exploring The Hydrogeologic Controls On Brackish Water And Its Suitability For Use In Hydraulic Fracturing: The Dockum Aquifer, Midland Basin Texas, Francisco Ruben Reyes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Water scarcity in arid regions can limit or impede certain hydrocarbon production activities, such as hydraulic fracturing and well drilling. The Midland Basin, a major oil-producing area in semi-arid far west Texas and the eastern sub-basin of the Permian Basin, is already impacted by limited freshwater availability. A typical tight oil well in the Midland Basin requires ~3.8-11.4 x 103 m3 of water per fracture treatment (Nicot et al., 2012). Despite draught conditions and limited resources, data for 2011 indicate freshwater comprises ~70% of the water used in hydraulic fracturing in the Midland basin. Thus, the Midland Basin represents an …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Fluorophores For The Detection Of Lanthanides And Actinides, Robinson I. Roacho

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A series of fluorophores based in the boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) family were synthesized and characterized. These fluorophores have the capacity of being introduced to a carbamoyl methyl phosphine oxide (CMPO) lanthanide/actinide extractant. These blue, green and red emission fluorophores show high thermal/moisture stability and high fluorescence efficiencies. The fluorescence intensity seems to be dependent on the restricted rotation about the C(8)-C bond in 8-Ph-BODIPY. By taking advantage of this feature, a hydroxyl- containing BODIPY with high fluorescence intensity was synthesized to be incorporated to a CMPO carboxylic acid via esterification. Unfortunately, we did not observe an optical response upon the …

Platform-Independent Data Locality Analysis To Predict Cache Performance On Abstract Hardware Platforms, Sonish Shrestha

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research is part of a co-design project that has the goal of designing hardware systems to match application requirements and efficiently mapping applications to hardware. This thesis is focused on optimizing the platform cache memory hierarchy configuration. To determine application requirements, we characterize the application using platform- independent locality metrics. Next we use locality data and an analytical model to predict cache an application performance of sequential versions of application codes for various cache configurations. After using an analytical model to select a candidate set of cache memory hierarchy configurations, we used architectural simulation to test the selection for …

Evaluation Of Ozone Trends In Southern Doña Ana County, New Mexico Thru Wind Rose Analysis And Use Of Noaa Hysplit Model, Maria Aurelia Sisneros

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this study was to determine whether increasing ozone concentrations in 2012 and 2013 at the Santa Teresa air quality monitor in Doña Ana County, New Mexico were due to a local point source impacting this monitor only or part of a regional phenomenon that affects all the monitors within the Paso del Norte Region. In addition, the study focused on identifying local and regional/long-range source areas contributing transport ozone to the study area (southern Doña Ana County).

The study showed that increasing ozone levels were not unique to the Santa Teresa monitor due to the fact that …

Transatlantic Maritime Transportation Between The Czech Republic And The United States, Petr Toman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Maritime transportation is the backbone of today´s world trade and therefore there special attention should be paid to all subjects concerning this mode of transportation. It is also necessary to complement maritime transportation by other modes, such as rail and/or truck (road). This thesis deals with the problems of maritime transportation and provides the summary of recent developments, trends and statistics mainly on Transatlantic maritime routes (Europe to U.S.). Besides maritime transportation, this thesis also reviews the trends and statistics of rail and truck (road) transportation in U.S. and Europe.

The second part of thesis seeks to create a mathematical …

The Nature And Influence Of Relationship On Success In A Virtual Work Environment, Carol Locher Ransone

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The evolution of technology in the 21st century has led to a greater understanding of the benefits and the challenges of expanding work relationships across geographical boundaries. This expansion has contributed to the development of a global society with over three million employee teleworkers (Global Workplace Analytics and the Telework Research Network, 2013). In spite of the advances in connecting across the globe technologically, the importance of successfully working together in a virtual work environment is grounded in relationships that foster individual growth and group cohesion. The human elements of connectivity are primary to the success of organizations as well …

Integrating Two-Photon Microscopy And Cryo-Electron Microscopy For Studying The Interaction Of Caféteria Roenbergensis And Crov, Seyedmohammadali Aghvami

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Cafeteria roenbergensis (Cro) is a marine zooplankton; its voracious appetite plays a significant role in regulating bacteria populations. The giant virus that lives within Cro, known as Cafeteria roenbergensis virus (CroV), has an important effect on the mortality of Cro populations. Although viral infections are extremely abundant in oceans, the complete procedure of the infection is still unknown. We study the infection process of Cro by CroV to find out whether the initial contact is through phagocytosis or CroV penetrating the host cell membrane directly. Cro is a moving at speed in the range of 10-100 um/s, therefore, there are …

Growth And Analysis Of Micro And Nano Cdte Arrays For Solar Cell Applications, Brandon Adrian Aguirre

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

CdTe is an excellent material for infrared detectors and photovoltaic applications. The efficiency of CdTe/CdS solar cells has increased very rapidly in the last 3 years to ~20% but is still below the maximum theoretical value of 30%. Although the short-circuit current density is close to its maximum of 30 mA/cm2, the open circuit voltage has potential to be increased further to over 1 Volt. The main limitation that prevents further increase in the open-circuit voltage and therefore efficiency is the high defect density in the CdTe absorber layer. Reducing the defect density will increase the open-circuit voltage above 1 …

A New Bivariate Distribution With Applications, Sathya Amarasekara

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

We construct a bivariate distribution of (X, Y ) by assuming that the conditional distribution of Y given X is a two-parameter Gamma (s, ν(x)), where the scale parameter depends on X. If X is assumed to be any distribution, then clearly the joint distribution is well defined in all cases. We will study this new distribution by developing all possible properties, moments, shapes and estimation of parameters with a view towards applications of the distribution to data from many random number generation methods.

Electronic Structure And Charge Transfer Excited States Of Endohedral Fullerene Containing Electron Donor-Acceptor Complexes Utilized In Organic Photovoltaics, Fatemeh Amerikheirabadi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Organic Donor &ndash Acceptor complexes form the main component of the organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs). The open circuit voltage of OPVs is directly related to the charge transfer excited state energies of these complexes. Currently a large number of different molecular complexes are being tested for their efficiency in photovoltaic devices. In this work, density functional theory as implemented in the NRLMOL code is used to investigate the electronic structure and related properties of these donor &ndash acceptor complexes. The charge transfer excitation energies are calculated using the perturbative delta self &ndash consistent field method recently developed in our group …

Long-Term Deformation In The Southern Rí­O Grande Rift As Inferred From Topographic And Uplifted Terraces, Linda K. Armour

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examines Basin and Range topography relating tectonic processes to topographic features. The observation that the terraces along either side of the Franklin Mountains were deformed and uplifted is a reflection of tectonic uplift. The uplift represents long-term deformation of the range. This led to the question of what shapes the deformation and does it represent differential subsidence into the Río Grande Rift or true uplift. A more regional study of the Sacramento, San Andres, and Guadalupe Mountains follows. Two papers form this Dissertation.

The Rí­o Grande Rift and the Franklin Mountains, in particular, are the subject of the …

From Alarm To Action: Closing The Gap Between Belief And Behavior In Response To Climate Change, Kathryn Laing Doherty

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The degree to which the climate continues to change will largely be determined by choices made by individuals and nations regarding greenhouse gas emissions. Many Americans engage in energy conservation actions. But, the political will in the United States to adopt emissions reduction policies is unlikely to exist without public demand. Therefore, public mitigation actions of individuals (e.g., contacting elected officials in support of emissions reduction) are critical to induce legislative response. The majority of individuals who are most concerned about climate change (the “Alarmed” segment) do not engage in public mitigation actions, but some do. The purpose of this …

Analyzing Stress Drops Of Earthquakes Near Wellington, New Zealand, Kyle Eugene Barnes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Stress drop studies analyze the change of stress across faults before and after an earthquake. The goal of this study was to determine how stress drop varies throughout the Wellington region of the North Island of New Zealand. To the east of the North Island, the Hikurangi Trough obliquely subducts the Pacific Plate beneath the younger Australian Plate. Toward the southern end of the North Island and into Cook Strait the Pacific plate becomes more buoyant and the plate interface displays strong coupling as subduction diminishes into the strike-slip Marlborough fault system. Subduction of the Pacific plate ceases beneath the …

Numerical Prediction Of Collection Efficiency Of A Personal Sampler Based On Cyclone Principle, Antara Badhan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A personal bioaerosol sampler is a self-contained, operation flexible, high-efficient device for indoor air quality (IAQ) and health risk exposure monitoring and measurement. Bio-aerosols such germ-laden viruses, microbial species, airborne microorganisms and volatile organic compounds (VOC) are sucked into the sampler and are deposited on the inner wall surface based on cyclone principal. The major concern with bio-aerosol samplers is the collection efficiency. In this study, we used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools to evaluate key design parameters, specifically the inlet tube angle and collection tube inner wall roughness. 3D incompressible turbulent flow was simulated using commercial software ANSYS FLUENT. …

A Block Precondtioner For A Mixed Finite Element Method For Biot;S Equations, Maranda Lee Bean

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this Thesis, we explore the solution methods for the linear system resulting from a mixed finite element method applied to the Biot's consolidation model. This model describes the coupled interactions between a porous solid and the fluid contained within it. Specifically, we use a method developed by Yi [Numer. Methods for PDEs, 29(5), pp. 1749-1777] that expands Biot's system to include fluid pressure, solid displacement, fluid flux and total stress as primary unknowns.

As the resulting linear system is a large, sparse, saddle point system, we attempt to solve this system via a Schur complement preconditioned iterative method. Using …

Numerical Investigation Of Impact Of Relative Humidity On Droplet Accumulation And Film Cooling, Luz Irene Bugarin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

During the summer, high inlet temperatures affect the power output of gas turbine systems. Evaporative coolers have gained popularity as an inlet cooling method for these systems. Wet compression has been one of the common evaporative cooling methods implemented to increase power output of gas turbine systems due to its simple installation and low cost. This process involves injection of water droplets into the continuous phase of compressor to reduce the temperature of the flow entering the compressor and in turn increase the power output of the whole gas turbine system. This study focused on a single stage rotor-stator compressor …

Impacting Earthquake Science And Geoscience Education: Educational Programming To Earthquake Relocation, Tina Louise Carrick

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation is comprised of four studies: three related to research on geoscience education and another seismological study of the South Island of New Zealand. The geoscience education research is grounded in 10 years of data collection and its implications for best practices for recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority students into higher education in the geosciences. The seismological component contains results from the relocation of earthquakes from the 2009 Dusky Sound Mw 7.8 event, South Island, New Zealand.

In recent years, many have cited a major concern that U.S. is not producing enough STEM graduates to fit the forecasted …

Modeling Tidally Driven Coulomb Failure At Strike-Slip Linea On Europa, Marissa Elizabeth Cameron

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The surface of Europa is crosscut by a dense network of fractures and there are many candidate faults for studying past tectonic activity. To better understand the role of tidal stress sources and implications for faulting on Europa, we investigate the relationship between shear and normal stresses at four fault zones: Agenor Linea, Rhadamanthys Linea, Conamara Chaos (Agave/Asterius Linea), and Astypalaea Linea, offering a unique comparison of geological activity of fractures residing in geographically diverse locations of Europa. Assuming tidal diurnal and non-synchronous rotation (NSR) stresses are the primary mechanisms for strike-slip tectonism, here we investigate the mechanics of Coulomb …

Late Completers : How And Why Non-Traditional Graduate Students Who Exceed Program Timelines Of 10 Years Ultimately Complete The Doctoral Process, Lisa Ann Margerum

Dissertations

Problem. Doctoral completion rates within the U.S. have historically been shown to be within the 50-60% range; in 2008, the completion rate was 56%. Although most who complete their doctorates do so within 10 years or less, there is a small percentage of students who continue their studies beyond the 10-year mark and ultimately graduate. As more non-traditional students enter the PhD pursuit, particularly older students with full-time jobs, family, and other commitments and who enroll in non-traditional programs, it is important to understand what enables some to continue beyond the 10-year mark and still graduate, what influences the elongation …

Relationship Between Involvement In Institutional Activities And Christian Life Commitment Among Undergraduate Students Of A Christian University In Mexico, Esteban Quiyono

Dissertations

Problem

A considerable gap in knowledge exists regarding religious commitment among young people in Mexican Christian colleges, where many institutional resources are invested to foster such commitment. This study attempted to identify the extent to which Christian commitments of undergraduate students in a Mexican Christian university are related to their involvement in institutional activities, influential agents, and selected demographic variables (gender, grade level, place of residence, and field of study).

Method

A descriptive cross-sectional and correlational design was conducted using survey research methodology with a stratified sample of 332 undergraduate students enrolled during the fall term of the 2002-2003 college …

The Relationship Between Attitudes Toward The "No Child Left Behind" Law And Perceived Levels Of Burnout Among Teachers In Berrien County, Michigan, Carmen George

Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to explore the extent to which variations in the three subscales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) are influenced by teachers' attitude toward the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. This study also examined the extent to which years of teaching experience and class size influence differences in reported levels of burnout.

Method: Teacher perception of the NCLB Act and how it contributes to teacher burnout in this study was examined by utilizing two instruments. First was the MBI-ES instrument which captures a three-dimensional profile of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal …

Caffeine And Human Perception Of Time, Trevor Fry

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of caffeine on several components of time perception in an attention-demanding task. Review of the current literature shows that the rhythm of the brain's internal clock, controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which is believed to mediate the perception of short durations, is sensitive to a variety of stimuli including stimulants. This study expands on previous research on the effect of caffeine on prospective time estimation by having participants estimate multiple short durations while completing a cognitively complex time estimation task involving math. The study included a moderate dose caffeine …

How Are Asian Americans Seen And Evaluated? Examining Ethnic Stereotypes And Their Cultural Complexity, Yueh-Ting Lee, Victor C. Ottati, Canchun Lin, Sydney Xinni Chan

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Human stereotypes are more complicated and subtle than scholars or lay people often think. Based on the EPA (i.e., evaluation, potency and accuracy) theory of stereotypes (Lee, 2011; Lee, B., W. & Luo, 2007; Lee, J., & McCauley, 2013; Lee, McCauley & Jussim, 2013; Lee, V. S., & Ma, 2007), it was hypothesized and found that stereotypes of Asian Americans are derived on the basis of both evaluative considerations (prejudice) and a realistic assessment of group characteristics. This produces a pattern of stereotypic judgments that contains both agreement and disagreement when comparing stereotypes of Asian Americans among different perceiver groups …

Size Dependent Translocation And Fetal Accumulation Of Gold Nanoparticles From Maternal Blood In The Rat, Manuela Semmler-Behnke, Jens Lipka, Alexander Wenk, Martin Schaeffer, Furong Tian, Gunter Schmid, Gunter Oberdorster, Wolfgang Kreyling

Articles

There is evidence that nanoparticles (NP) cross epithelial and endothelial body barriers. We hypothesized that gold (Au) NP, once in the blood circulation of pregnant rats, will cross the placental barrier during pregnancy size-dependently and accumulate in the fetal organism by 1. transcellular transport across the hemochorial placenta, 2. transcellular transport across amniotic membranes 3. transport through ~20 nm wide transtrophoblastic channels in a size dependent manner. The three AuNP sizes used to test this hypothesis are either well below, or of similar size or well above the diameters of the transtrophoblastic channels.

Faculty Authors & Achievers Bibliography 2014, Luke Vilelle

WRL: Faculty Authors & Achievers Bibliographies

The office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Wyndham Robertson Library congratulate all Hollins faculty who published or presented creative or scholarly works from Fall 2012 through Summer 2014. This bibliography includes a list of those activities.

Expressions, Winter 2014, San Jose State University, College Of The Humanities And The Arts

Expressions (College of Humanities and the Arts)

College of Humanities and the Arts Newsletter, Volume 1

Contribution Of Nucleus Accumbens Core To Impulsive Choice: Role Of Dopamine And Glutamate Systems, Justin R. Yates

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Impulsive choice refers to the inability to delay gratification and is associated with increased drug abuse vulnerability. Understanding the underlying neural mechanisms linking impulsive choice and drug abuse can contribute to improved treatment options for individuals with substance use disorders. Evidence suggests a major role for nucleus accumbens core (NAcc) in impulsive choice and the reinforcing effects of drugs of abuse. The neurotransmitters glutamate (Glu) and dopamine (DA) are implicated in the neural adaptations observed in drug addiction; however, the role of intra-NAcc Glu and DA in impulsive choice is unclear. Rats were trained in a delay discounting task, in …

Stalemate: Patent Eligibility, Pamela Welch

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Contributors, Marites Tiongco

DLSU Business & Economics Review

No abstract provided.