Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Cultural Beliefs And Customs On Nutritional Attitudes And Food Choices Of Alaska Natives Living With Chronic Diseases In The Anchorage Metropolitan Area, Sadie Anderson

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Alaska Native and American Indian people are heavily affected by chronic diseases such obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (Redwood, Lanier, Johnston, Asay, & Slattery, 2010). The presence or severity of many chronic diseases is directly correlated with the type of diet people consume. This study explored how culture influences the understanding of nutritional status and food choices of Alaska native people living in Anchorage, Alaska. Focus groups were held with Alaska Native adults who were living with a chronic disease. Open-ended questions were asked about the participants’ culture and food choices. Themes and subthemes emerged through data analysis using the …

Decision Management Process Improvement Project, Alina Dahl

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

It has become all too common that questions are raised during the execution of a project pertaining to the decisions that were made early on. Without having maintained a concise, accessible record of project decisions, the project manager and team members would find it difficult to provide hard evidence as to how they got to this point and what impacts specific decisions had on the project’s trajectory. This paper introduces the Decision Management Process Improvement Project (DMPIP), which focuses on improving decision management process throughout the lifecycle of a project with the aim of adding value to project performance and …

Teaching The Internet Of Things: Bridging A Path From Cpe329, Steven Han, Rafael Lopez

Computer Engineering

“The ability to connect, communicate with, and remotely manage an incalculable number of networked, automated devices via the Internet is becoming pervasive, from the commercial kitchen to the residential basement room to the arm of the fitness buff.” - WSO2

In this report, we will investigate procedures and technologies used in IoT. A variety of cloud platforms will be described to demonstrate its strengths and usage on IoT applications. Furthermore, demonstrate the most popular hardware being used in several of these applications. This report is aimed to give a good understanding on what it takes to put together an IoT …

Android Drone: Remote Quadcopter Control With A Phone, Aubrey John Russell

Computer Engineering

The purpose of the “Android Drone” project was to create a quadcopter that can be controlled by user input sent over the phone’s Wi-Fi connection or 4G internet connection. Furthermore, the purpose was also to be able to receive live video feedback over the internet connection, thus making the drone an inexpensive option compared to other, equivalent drones that might cost thousands of dollars. Not only that, but the Android phone also has a host of other useful features that could be utilized by the drone: this includes GPS, pathing, picture taking, data storage, networking and TCP/IP, a Java software …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of Teachers’ Use Of Descriptive Feedback In The Teaching And Learning Of English Language: A Case Of A Selected Secondary School In Luwero District, Central Uganda, Akwang John Robert

Master of Education

This study investigated the effectiveness of teachers’ use of descriptive feedback in the teaching and learning of English language. Effective descriptive feedback is an invaluable means of helping students understand what they need to achieve their learning goals. Three research questions examined the nature of the teachers’ descriptive feedback practices, its importance and the factors that determined teachers’ use of descriptive feedback in their classrooms. A qualitative approach with a case study design for the study. The sample consisted of seven secondary school teachers of English language and six Senior Three students in from one secondary school in Luwero District, …

The Use Of Information And Communication Technologies (Icts) In Teaching And Learning Advanced Mathematics In Southern Tanzanian Secondary Schools: A Case Of One Secondary School, Noel Ponera

Master of Education

The ICTs policy in Tanzania was introduced in order to accelerate educational developments by the application of Information and Communication Technologies and so increase the quality of education in all levels of education. Some efforts were done to provide Information and Communication Technologies facilities to different schools so that they were exploited in academics. The aim of this study therefore was to explore the use of Information and Communication Technologies in advanced mathematics instructions in southern Tanzanian secondary schools specifically in Ruvuma region. The study looked at Calculating Devices, that is, the use of scientific calculators, computers and computer packages …

Investigating The Impact Of Sesemat Program On Teaching Of Biology At O-Level In Uganda: A Case Of Two Secondary Schools In Arua District, Anziku Debo Phanuel

Master of Education

SESEMAT is an in-service training program for teachers of science and mathematics in secondary schools in Uganda. It was introduced following the persistent poor performance of learners in the science and mathematics subjects in national examinations in the last two decades. Poor teaching methodologies were identified as one of the contributing factors leading to the poor performance. Therefore, the main objective of the program is to build the capacity of science (biology) and mathematics teachers so as to improve the teaching and learning of these subjects thereby resulting in an improved performance of learners in national examinations managed by Uganda …

Exploring Mathematics Teachers’ Practices In Supporting Learners With Mathematical Learning Difficulties: (A Case Of A Public Secondary School In Bungoma County-Kenya), Clotilda Nafula Nyongesa

Master of Education

Mathematical Learning Difficulty (MLD) is a common occurrence that affects a number of learners within classrooms. Learners with MLD exhibit profound difficulties in numeracy skills. These difficulties may be in some distinct mathematical domains and the effects spread to other subjects that may require numerical skills. Teachers‟ practices are pertinent in the intervention process from whole class teaching to support strategies targeting individual learners with MLD. This study explored mathematics teachers practices in supporting learners with MLD in a secondary school in Kenya. Research questions developed sought to find out the teachers perceptions about learners with MLD, considerations teachers made …

Extending The Reach Of Directional Dark Matter Experiments Through Novel Detector Technologies, Nguyen S. Phan

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

Dark matter is believed to comprise over 80% of the matter in the Universe. Its composition could be in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which are predicted by extensions of the Standard Model, namely supersymmetric theories. Even though hints of its existence were detected in astronomical observations over eighty years ago, its detection through means other than the gravitational influence on observable luminous matter still eludes us.

Currently, there are many ongoing direct detection experiments, that aim to measure the signals left by the elastic scattering of WIMPs with nuclei in the detector target material. The detection …

Educational Policies Committee Minutes, December 1, 2016, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Course Approvals
• Program Proposals
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Efficient Skimming Of Text, Aaswad Anil Satpute

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This paper is an attempt at describing the priority of skimming in enhancing the lives of the visually impaired and dyslexic. The paper distinguishes summarization from skimming. It speaks of skimming a given blob of text. And with it, arises some unique challenges. So, the paper tries to tackle these challenges by enhancing and speeding up the algorithm. The algorithm breaks down the input into smaller and compact skimmed results, which when used as the input to the algorithm completely fastens the algorithm with a tremendous decrease in run time. The ways of creating the compact skimmed version of the …

Computational Models Of Visual Features: From Proto-Objects To Object Categories, Chen-Ping Yu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The human visual perception is a complex system that excels in tasks such as object recognition and localization, face detection, object segmentation, action classification, and more. While we perform these everyday tasks with ease, little is known about the underlying process of the human visual system. In contrast, computer vision is a field of research that strives for better performance in the aforementioned tasks, which rely on carefully designed statistical machine learning based theories. As the field of computer vision and machine learning has matured over the past decade, there is an abundance of methods and theories that can be …

Impact Of Spatial Averaging On Radar Reflectivity At Internal Snowpack Layer Boundaries, N. Rutter, H.P. Marshall, K. Tape, R. Essery, J. King

CGISS Publications and Presentations

Microwave radar amplitude within a snowpack can be strongly influenced by spatial variability of internal layer boundaries. We quantify the impact of spatial averaging of snow stratigraphy and physical snowpack properties on surface scattering from near-nadir frequency-modulated continuous- wave radar at 12–18 GHz. Relative permittivity, density, grain size and stratigraphic boundaries were measured in-situ at high resolution along the length of a 9 m snow trench. An optimal range of horizontal averaging (4–6 m) was identified to attribute variations in surface scattering at layer boundaries to dielectric contrasts estimated from centimetre-scale measurements of snowpack stratigraphy and bulk layer properties. Single …

Transaction Complexity And The Movement To Fair Value Accounting, Pinky Rusli, Xinlei Zhao, David A. Ziebart

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

Our global economy has pushed the complexity of business transactions to a new level, as companies now employ sophisticated contracts and financial instruments. However, it is unclear whether accounting standards are able to effectively capture transaction complexity, which has been growing at a rapid pace. In this study, we examine three questions related to transaction complexity: (1) Do accounting standards reflect differences in the complexity of the transactions being recorded? (2) Does the use of mark-to-market (i.e., fair value) accounting reduce the complexity of standards by relying on market valuations to capture transaction complexity? (3) Does the reliance on fair …

A New Sentencing Blueprint: The Third Circuit Allows Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Fraud Convictions To Be Offset By Construction Contract Performance In United States V. Nagle, Christopher C. Reese

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Challenges When Using Scrum In Globally Distributed Teams, Sweta Shah

Dissertations and Theses

The interest of companies towards using agile approaches in GSD projects is growing at a rapid pace. On that note, it is extremely vital to consider the challenging factors involved in agile practices such as scrum in GSD projects. However, the remarkable and effective attempts towards precisely identify, synthesize and report the literature on agile practices for GSD projects have always been inadequate (Hossain, AliBabar & Young Paik, 2009).

With the purpose of encouraging research committee to explore and analyze the projects that implements scrum process in globally distributed environment, the thesis paper places great emphasis on challenges involved with …

Blocked By Diplomatic Barriers: Syrian Refugees And The Eu-Turkey Migration Cooperation, Bassant Hassib, Doaa Nounou

Political Science

The recent EU-Turkey deal on irregular migration and refugees raised voices of humanitarian concerns with regards to the protection of the rights of Syrian refugees. Despite the positive efforts of Turkey to accommodate Syrian refugees, it still lacks a proper asylum system and measures that can guarantee their socio-economic integration and protect their rights. So instead of having a proper EU refugee resettlement system, they just offer money and mobility incentives to Turkey to keep the Syrian refugees on its land, while sidelining the deteriorating status of those refugees in Turkey. This paper argues that EU-Turkey cooperation on migration is …

Optical Sub-Diffraction Limited Focusing For Confined Heating And Lithography, Luis M. Traverso

Open Access Dissertations

Electronics and nanotechnology is constantly demanding a decrease in size of fabricated nanoscale features. This decrease in size has become much more difficult recently due to the limited resolution of optical systems that are fundamental to many nanofabrication methods. A lot of effort has been made to fabricate devices smaller than the diffraction limit of light. Creating devices that are capable of confining fields by means of interference patterns of propagating wave modes and surface plasmon, has proven successful to confine light into smaller spot sizes.

Zone plate diffraction lenses generate spots with dimensions very close to the diffraction limit. …

Effective Supplier Quality Practices In The Construction Industry, Ashleigh Hegwood

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The dynamic and irregular nature of projects in the construction industry causes the complexity of supplier quality management (SQM). The Construction Industry Institute (CII) Research Team (RT) 308 is focused on achieving zero rework through effective supplier quality practices.

This honors thesis is an extension of RT 308’s project work. Its purpose is to look at current supplier evaluation practices within the construction industry, confirm arecommended supplier cutoff rating through data analysis, and determine if outliers in the data set could be normalized. A survey was developed in Qualtrics (an online survey software tool) and sent to CII members for …

“You Will Be Like God Knowing Good And Evil”: Discernment Of Truth And Lies, Jiří Moskala

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

Implementation And Performance Evaluation Of Acoustic Denoising Algorithms For Uav, Ahmed Sony Kamal Chowdhury

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become popular alternative for wildlife monitoring and border surveillance applications. Elimination of the UAV’s background noise and classifying the target audio signal effectively are still a major challenge. The main goal of this thesis is to remove UAV’s background noise by means of acoustic denoising techniques. Existing denoising algorithms, such as Adaptive Least Mean Square (LMS), Wavelet Denoising, Time-Frequency Block Thresholding, and Wiener Filter, were implemented and their performance evaluated. The denoising algorithms were evaluated for average Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), Segmental SNR (SSNR), Log Likelihood Ratio (LLR), and Log Spectral Distance (LSD) metrics. …

The Relationship Between Pediatric Asthma And Obesity In Nevada, Jennifer Anne Lucas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Asthma and obesity are two of the most common comorbid health problems in the U.S. Currently nearly 8% of Nevada youth are affected by asthma and more than 30% are overweight or obese. Obesity is a risk factor for asthma, yet asthma-related factors such as decreased physical activity and use of oral corticosteroids for asthma control can lead to obesity. This study examined the relationship between asthma and obesity in two pediatric populations in Nevada. It was hypothesized that children with asthma and elevated BMI would have more severe asthma symptoms, decreased lung function, poorer quality-of-life measures, and different atopic …

Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, And The Populist Tradition In Presidential Rhetoric, Sarah Beth Shaw

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Populism is one of the most ambiguous terms in rhetorical scholarship. It can be a political strategy, a genuine reflection of personality, a deep manipulation of core American values, and much more. Political pundits have used it as a descriptive term, and on occasion as an insult. Some have deemed the concept’s flexibility confusing and even counterproductive, which sparked an interest in studying what is meant when analysts and scholars address political speakers as populist. This thesis examines populism in detail, by analyzing the rhetoric of former presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Two questions drove the research: (1) What …

Assessment Of Asymmetric Flight On Solar Uas, Eric Belfield

Master's Theses

An investigation was conducted into the feasibility of using an unconventional flight technique, asymmetric flight, to improve overall efficiency of solar aircraft. In this study, asymmetric flight is defined as steady level flight in a non-wings-level state in- tended to improve solar incidence angle. By manipulating aircraft orientation through roll angle, solar energy collection is improved but aerodynamic efficiency is worsened due to the introduction of additional trim drag. A point performance model was devel- oped to investigate the trade-off between improvement in solar energy collection and additional drag associated with asymmetric flight. A mission model with a focus on …

Design, Analysis, And Simulation Of A Jitter Reduction Circuit (Jrc) System At 1ghz, Run Bin Yu

Master's Theses

The clock signal is considered as the “heartbeat” of a digital system yet jitter which is a variation on the arrival time of the clock edge, could undermine the overall performance or even cause failures on the system. Deterministic jitter could be reduced during the designing process however random jitter during operation is somehow less-controllable and unavoidable. Being able to remove jitter on the clock would therefore play a vital role in system performance improvement.

This thesis implements a 1GHz fully feedforward jitter reduction circuit (JRC) which can be used as an on-chip IP core at clock tree terminals to …

Development Of Cal Poly's Shock Table, Christopher D. Risner

Master's Theses

Shock is one of the environmental tests that a spacecraft must pass before being cleared for launch. Shock testing poses a challenging data acquisition issue and careful selection of equipment is crucial to creating a successful shock test facility. Cal Poly’s CubeSat programs can currently perform all environmental testing other than shock themselves, so a quality shock table would be useful. Previous groups of students had developed a shock table, and this paper details the improvement and characterization of that shock table’s behavior. Several adjustable parameters were tested and documented to discover trends in the shock table’s response to an …

Quantifying Parkinson's Disease Symptoms Using Mobile Devices, Charles R. Aylward

Master's Theses

Current assessments for evaluating the progression of Parkinson’s Disease are largely qualitative and based on small sets of data obtained from occasional doctor-patient interactions. There is a clinical need to improve the techniques used for mitigating common Parkinson’s Disease symptoms. Available data sets for researching the disease are minimal, hindering advancement toward understanding the underlying causes and effectiveness of treatment and therapies. Mobile devices present an opportunity to continuously monitor Parkinson’s Disease patients and collect important information regarding the severity of symptoms. The evolution of digital technology has opened doors for clinical research to extend beyond the clinic by incorporating …

Nanoindentation Techniques For The Evaluation Of Silicon Nitride Thin Films, Weston T. Mangin

Master's Theses

Silicon nitride thin films are of interest in the biomedical engineering field due to their biocompatibility and favorable tribological properties. Evaluation and understanding of the properties of these films under diverse loading and failure conditions is a necessary prerequisite to their use in biomedical devices. Three wafers of silicon nitride-coated silicon were obtained from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and used to create 96 samples. Samples were subjected to nanoindentation testing to evaluate the mechanical properties of the film. Samples were subjected to nanoimpact testing to compare the damage resistance of the film to separate nanoimpact types. Samples were subjected to …

Evaluation Of Efficiency Of Various Materials To Shield From Radiation In Space Using The Monte Carlo Transport Code Called Fluka, Roman Savinov

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to improve spacecraft shielding from radiation in space. It focuses on the evaluation of shielding efficiency of different materials. The efficiency of a shield is evaluated by the dose profile within the shield and the amount of dose absorbed by a target using the Monte Carlo transport code called FLUKA. The output of this code is validated by recreating the experiments from published papers and comparing the results. Once the FLUKA’s output is validated, the efficiency of sixteen materials, subject to SPE and GCR sources, are evaluated. The efficiency comparison is made by fixing …

Metabolic Regulation And Cryotolerance Of In Vitro-Produced Holstein Embryos, Melissa Ann Roberts

Master's Theses

In vitro production and transfer of embryos has become a common practice within the dairy industry to efficiently breed superior animals and meet the consumption demand of the growing population. Cyropreservation is necessary for the application of commercialized embryo transfer, however, in vitro-produced embryos show morphological and physiological defects which negatively impact their ability to withstand cryopreservation in comparison to their in vivo counterparts. These artifacts result from culture conditions that cause stress to the embryo during development, leading to an accumulation of intracellular lipids, mitochondrial dysfunction, and ultimately poor ability to withstand freezing and thawing. The objective of …