Digital Commons Network^™

Generation Of An Accurate, Metric Spatial Database Of A Large Multi Storied Building, Ahmad Jarjis Hasan

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the development of a novel method to generate an accurate, metric spatial database of a large multi storied building during construction. The algorithm uses the 3D CAD model of the building and the video of the structure captured by an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The spatial database is then used to perform several inspection procedures such as, metric data analysis, spatial query for images, visualization through 3D textured model. The video is processed using a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system. SLAM generates a sparse 3D map of the environment. Our algorithm registers the 3D map with …

Contextual Factors Related To Stereotype Threat And Student Success In Science Technology Engineering Mathematics Education: A Mixed Methods Study, Lindsey Leker

Theses and Dissertations

Stereotype threat is a widely researched phenomenon shown to impact performance in testing and evaluation situations (Katz, Roberts, & Robinson, 1965; Steele & Aronson, 1995). When related to gender, stereotype threat can lead women to score lower than men on standardized math exams (Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999). Stereotype threat may be one reason women have lower enrollment in most science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, hold a smaller number of STEM careers than men, and have a higher attrition rate in STEM professions (Hill, Corbet, & Rose, 2010; Picho & Brown 2011; Sorby & Baartmans, 2000). Most research …

Young Children's Articulations Of Their Metacognitive Processing During Play, Dawnita S. Nilles

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative research study was to hear young children’s descriptions of their metacognitive processes. Research has shown that play is the foundation of a child’s learning and numerous studies show that play affects all areas of a child’s development. Despite this, at the time of this study, there appeared to be a scarcity of published literature in which young children were interviewed about the metacognitive processes they use while playing. Children have been found to describe their thinking through non-verbal cues. They also have been able to articulate their knowledge and understanding, analyze, and evaluate the …

Modification Methods For Soil And Water Assessment Tool (Swat) Performance In Simulating Runoff And Sediment Of Watersheds In Cold Regions, Bahareh Shoghli

Theses and Dissertations

Streamflow predication is an important task in water management studies. It is needed in the operation and optimization of water resources and flood control projects. The accuracy of these predictions has a great influence on the water resources management and decision making processes. Various models and tool packages have been developed for simulation and prediction of streamflow. Among them, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is one of the most widely used models, which was originally developed to predict the impacts of land management on water, sediment and agricultural chemical yield in large watershed simulations. Results of the SWAT …

Evaluating Wetland Expansion In A Tallgrass Prairie-Wetland Restoration, Katie Mae Engelmann

Theses and Dissertations

Remote sensing is an effective tool to inventory and monitor wetlands at large spatial scales. This study examined the effect of wetland restoration practices at Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge (GRNWR) in northwest Minnesota on the distribution, location, size and temporal changes of wetlands. A Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) land cover classification method was applied that integrated spectral data, LiDAR elevation, and LiDAR derived ancillary data of slope, aspect, and TWI. Accuracy of remote wetland mapping was compared with onsite wetland delineation.

The GEOBIA method produced land cover classifications with high overall accuracy (88 – 91 percent). Wetland area …

Response Of Wind Turbines Subjected To Different Earthquakes, Pradin Suinyal Magar

Theses and Dissertations

With the rapidly increasing energy crisis in the present world, the demand for the renewable sources of energy is increasing day by day. One of the most efficient source of renewable energy we can depend on is wind energy. Wind turbines are feasible, cost effective and durable source of wind energy which has attracted intensive scientific and societal interest. Research on wind turbine structures has mostly focused on the design and assessment of wind turbines but with the expansion of the wind turbines installation in seismically active areas (e.g, China, USA, India, Southern Europe and East Asia), recent research works …

Global Command And Control For The Future Operating Concept: Implications For Structural Design And Information, Ian M. Slazinik, Benjamin T. Hazen

Faculty Publications

Due to increasing demands on air mobility aircraft, US Transportation Command(USTRANSCOM) has more recently advocated retaining operational control (OPCON)of aircraft it might have transferred to a requesting combatant command in the past. This recent approach mirrors that of similar-type civilian logistics operations that are centrally managed to maximize efficiencies by flowing resources to the point of need without having to navigate through time-consuming sourcing processes. Furthermore, the acceleration of information availability has condensed decision timelines and changed how similar civilian organizations organize and perform, allowing them to react seemingly on a dime to changing market conditions anywhere.4While retaining OPCON might …

Sex Quotas And Burkini Bans, Darren Rosenblum

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Essay recounts how feminist theorists and activists managed to write their ideals into the fabric of French law and culture, and how nonfeminists began to appropriate those ideals. Parité, the 2000 law that requires half of all candidates for public office be women, saw French feminists first engineer a change in French universalism to respect sex difference; although not wholly successful, Parité advanced women's political inclusion. Then, like a drop of water in a pond, these feminist ideas disappeared in plain sight: they became intrinsic to French state norms and public values. As they became woven into such norms, …

When Does Sex Diversity On Boards Benefit Firms?, Darren Rosenblum

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Firms embrace diversity, especially with regard to sex. Overtly optimistic predictions of a diversity dividend, some built on sex stereotypes, lead these firms to count on profits that may never materialize. This Article attempts to reset the agenda on how to study corporate board diversity. We can only assess if and how sex diversity yields benefits by understanding the who, what, and where of diversity. Whether sex diversity produces a "diversity dividend" depends on three key factors: ( 1) the nature of the benefit of including women (whether for their experience or other qualities); (2) the kind of firm and …

American Thought, Culture, And Neo-Noir In The Era Of Postmodernity, Thomas Quist

History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies

The rise of postmodernism, following the fall of modernism after WWII, brought about new modes of thinking, understanding, and living in America. Postmodernity is often neglected or glanced over by historians. Those who mention it do it either in passing or use it as a pejorative, yet it has had huge effects and ramifications on American culture during the second half of the 20th century. By exploring the thought, culture, and film of a postmodern America a deeper connection between history and postmodernism is formed. The transitions from noir to neo-noir films (which mirrors the transition from modernity to postmodernity) …

In Praise Of Legal Scholarship, Tamara R. Piety

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Open Access And The Graduate Author: A Dissertation Anxiety Manual, Jill Cirasella, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

The process of completing a dissertation is stressful—deadlines are scary, editing is hard, formatting is tricky, and defending is terrifying. (And, of course, postgraduate employment is often uncertain.) Now that dissertations are deposited and distributed electronically, students must perform yet another anxiety-inducing task: deciding whether they want to make their dissertations immediately open access (OA) or, at universities that require OA, coming to terms with openness. For some students, mostly in the humanities and some of the social sciences, who hope to transform their dissertations into books, OA has become a bogeyman, a supposed saboteur of book contracts and destroyer …

Introduction To Library Information And Resource Sharing, Beth Posner

Publications and Research

This is the introduction to a book that I edited: Library Information and Resource Sharing: Transforming Services and Collections. It presents the thesis that with enough staff and budgetary support, interlibrary loan specialists can work with others in their libraries to provide many innovative services to their library users. Chapters covered include, "Interlibrary Loan Services Today", "From Discovery to Delivery: Providing Access to Library Collections", "Thinking Locally and Sharing Globally: The Impact of Library Policies on Collection Sharing", "Library Collection Building: The Interlocking Functions of ILL, Acquisitions and Collection Development", "Facilitating Information Sharing Through Library Collection Maintenance and Preservation", …

Library Information Sharing. Best Practices And Trends. Challenges And Prospects, Beth Posner

Publications and Research

Libraries share information with each other, through interlibrary loan services, so that their library users can access more of the world of information than is available in any one library. When supported with enough budget, staff and authority to do so, library resource sharing specialists can facilitate information access in a variety of traditional and innovative ways, including and beyond lending and borrowing print and digital information. Best practices, trends and new solutions for library resource sharing are reviewed. International cooperation is also highlighted.

Hackathons As Co-Optation Ritual: Socializing Workers And Institutionalizing Innovation In The “New” Economy, Sharon Zukin, Max Papadantonakis

Publications and Research

Hackathons, time-bounded competitive events where participants write computer code and build apps, have become a popular means of socializing tech students and workers to produce “innovation” despite little promise of material reward. Although they offer participants opportunities for learning new skills and face-to-face networking, and set up interaction rituals that create an emotional “high,” potential advantage is even greater for the events’ corporate sponsors, who use them to outsource work, crowdsource innovation, and enhance their reputation. Ethnographic observations and informal interviews carried out at seven public hackathons held in New York City during the course of a single school year …

Design And Manufacturing Of Variable Stiffness Cellular Architecture, Ruinan Xie

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Cellular structures are highly evaluated due to their high material efficiency. Both theoretical and experimental studies have done on periodic cellular structures. However, the mechanical performance can be stochastically distributed in the cellular architecture. This thesis presents the design and manufacturing of variable stiffness cellular architecture to achieve optimized topology by changing the unit cell parameters. The author applies image analysis technique to extract and digitize the information from the performance distribution map. Two types of cellular cells are studied for their relationship of stiffness and relative density. The methods of voxelization for both cells are also given in this …

Vulnerability Assessment Of Interdependent Power And Communications Networks Under Varying Level Of Interdependency, Rahul Banothu

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Maintaining a continuous and robust supply of power could be challenging task, because power networks depend on proper communication to coordinate and schedule supply, as well as recognize and mitigate failures; communication networks depend on power to function. This interdependency is a cause for greater failure risks due to the rapid cascading of failures from one network to the other. The objective of this work is to investigate the vulnerability of interdependent networks under various scenarios and coupling assumptions. To do so, we employ heuristic techniques to detect critical nodes in either network which lead to the maximum number of …

Health-Care Workers’ Occupational Exposures To Body Fluids In 21 Countries In Africa: Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Asa Auta, Emmanuel O. Adewuyi, Amom Tor-Anyiin, David Aziz, Esther Ogbole, Brian O. Ogbonna, Davies Adeloye

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Objective

To estimate the lifetime and 12-month prevalence of occupational exposure to body fluids among health-care workers in Africa.

Methods

Embase®, PubMed® and CINAHL databases were systematically searched for studies published between January 2000 and August 2017 that reported the prevalence of occupational exposure to blood or other body fluids among health-care workers in Africa. The continent-wide prevalence of exposure was estimated using random-effects meta-analysis.

Findings

Of the 904 articles identified, 65 studies from 21 African countries were included. The estimated pooled lifetime and 12-month prevalence of occupational exposure to body fluids were 65.7% (95% confidence interval, CI: 59.7–71.6) and …

Chinese Nursing Students At Australian Universities: A Narrative Inquiry Into Their Motivation, Learning Experience, And Future Career Planning, Carol Chungfeng Wang

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study presents a narrative inquiry of Chinese nursing students at Australian universities in order to examine these students’ motivations, learning experiences and future career planning. Australia seeks to attract international nursing students from China to maintain its economic advantage and alleviate its projected nursing shortage. In contrast, China desperately needs its best and brightest citizens who have trained abroad as nurses to return to China in order to cope with its current challenges in the healthcare system and nursing education. Little is known about the underlying factors that motivate Chinese nursing students to study in Australia, these students’ learning …

Lost In Translation? – The “Integration Of Theory And Practice” As A Central Focus For Senior Schooling Physical Education Studies, Andrew Jones

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In February 2007 a new senior secondary Physical Education Studies (PES) was introduced in Western Australia (WA). The course was one of some 50 new courses that were developed in conjunction with the introduction of a new Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE). Notably, the rationale for PES claimed that the “integration of theory and practice is central to studies in this course” (Curriculum Council of WA [CCWA], 2009, p. 2). Focusing on the initial years of implementation this study explored curriculum change and reform within the Health and Physical Education (HPE) Learning Area and specifically, in the context of …

Imperceptible Realities: An Exhibition – And – Digitalisation: Re-Imaging The Real Beyond Notions Of The Original And The Copy In Contemporary Printmaking: An Exegesis, Sarah Robinson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This PhD practice-led research project provides a broad overview of how newer print technologies can bring about enhanced understandings of the world whilst simultaneously questioning the value of such processes in contrast to traditional means of image making. My curiosity pivots on the worry that something essential about representation of the real might be lost if humanity were to embrace digital methods only. Through my creative project I address my concerns to re-image representations of the real beyond notions of the original and the copy through contemporary printmaking. The research culminated in the exhibition Imperceptible Realities and an exegesis.

In …

Smart Home Energy Management: An Analysis Of A Novel Dynamic Pricing And Demand Response Aware Control Algorithm For Households With Distributed Renewable Energy Generation And Storage, Jamal Abushnaf

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Home energy management systems (HEMS) technology can provide a smart and efficient way of optimising energy usage in residential buildings. One of the main goals of the Smart Grid is to achieve Demand Response (DR) by increasing end users’ participation in decision making and increasing the level of awareness that will lead them to manage their energy consumption in an efficient way. This research presents an intelligent HEMS algorithm that manages and controls a range of household appliances with different demand response (DR) limits in an automated way without requiring consumer intervention. In addition, a novel Multiple Users and Load …

Biodiversity Monitoring Using Environmental Dna: Can It Detect All Fish Species In A Waterbody And Is It Cost Effective For Routine Monitoring?, Lia Smith

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The challenges associated with environmental monitoring such as the impact on the environment and the financial costs are problems we face when trying to conserve freshwater systems around the world. The need for precise and accurate results that are cost effective is important so that we can achieve our conservation goals.

The overall aim of this study was to explore Next-Generation - metabarcoding for the detection of feral and native freshwater fish species based on the DNA shed by individual organisms into the water column. Cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) primers were developed for this study using DNA from six …

A Sound Idea: An Investigation Into Accessible Video Game Design For The Deaf And Hard Of Hearing, Luke James Brook

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

A widely accepted, and incorrect, assumption towards hearing accessibility in video games is that deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) users are those who encounter the least barriers and are generally well catered for. Rapid advancement in video game technology has seen video game sound evolve from simple blips generated by internal circuitry to fully realised digital audio used to convey critical information. To accommodate the DHH, this information needs to be conveyed in an alternative manner. However, evidence suggests existing accessible design solutions for the DHH lack specificity and are insufficient. Thus, the inability to hear, or hear well, …

Residence Time In Coastal Canopies, Maryam Abdolahpour

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Aquatic canopies provide important ecosystem services such as improved water quality, oxygen flux, sediment stabilisation and trapping and recycling of nutrients. The ecological health of coastal canopies and the significant ecosystem services they provide depends largely on the continuous exchange of dissolved and particulate materials across the canopy boundaries. In coastal environments, where flow is typically wavedominated, vertical mixing is believed to be the dominant process controlling residence time and, therefore, exchange. However, experiments have shown that wave-driven flows over rough boundaries, such as canopies, generate strong onshore mean currents (75% of the orbital velocity far above the canopy) near …

Bridging The Great Divide: An Exploration Of Postmodernism In The Guitar Music Of Nigel Westlake, Melissa Claire Fitzgerald

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research explores the tension between ‘elite’ and ‘popular’ musical styles in eight significant works of guitar music by Australian composer Nigel Westlake; namely Antarctica, Songs from the Forest, The Hinchinbrook Riffs, Six Fish, Shadow Dances, Shards of Jaisalmer, Jovian Moons, and Mosstrooper Peak. Through detailed analysis and recorded musical performances, consideration is given to the extent that these works bridge the aesthetic divide identified by Adorno, Jameson, Huyssen, and others; exploring their potential conformity to notions of postmodernity in music. The argument is advanced that Westlake has created a musical language …

A Non-Device Specific Framework For The Development Of Forensic Locational Data Analysis Procedure For Consumer Grade Small And Embedded Devices, Peter Hannay

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Portable and wearable computing devices such as smart watches, navigation units, mobile phones, and tablet computers commonly ship with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) supported locational awareness. Locational functionality is no longer limited to navigation specific devices such as satellite navigation devices and location tracking systems. Instead the use of these technologies has extended to become secondary functionality on many devices, including mobile phones, cameras, portable computers, and video game consoles. The increase in use of location aware technology is of use to forensic investigators as it has the potential to provide historic locational information. The evidentiary value of these …

Processing, Microstructure And Mechanical Properties Of Beta-Type Titanium Porous Structures Made By Additive Manufacturing, Yujing Liu

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Tissue engineering through the application of a low modulus, high strength format as a potential approach for increasing the durability of bone implants has been attracting significant attention. Titanium alloys are widely used for biomedical applications because of their low modulus, high biocompatibility, specific strength and corrosion resistance. These reasons affirm why titanium alloy is selected as the specific material to research. The development of low modulus biomaterials is considered to be an effective method to remove the mismatch between biomaterial implants and surrounding bone tissue, thereby reducing the risk of bone resorption. So far, Ti–24Nb–4Zr–8Sn alloy (abbreviated hereafter as …

The Human Factors Associated With Responding To Emergency Vehicles, Pauline Grant

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Emergency vehicles undertake emergency driving, using lights and sirens, to move rapidly through traffic in response to situations where life and property are at risk. For the emergency driving to be effective, other motorists need to drive in a manner that facilitates their passage. Despite laws to support this, problematic encounters can result in emergency vehicles being unable to get through. The current research expanded on earlier exploratory research into motorists’ encounters with emergency vehicles (Grant, 2010) to examine psychological factors involved with motorists’ responses to emergency vehicles. A construct validity approach was used to develop a scale …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 44, No. 1 (March 2017)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EDITORIAL: A CALL FOR RESEARCH -Bob Leighninger

CONGREGATIONS IN THE COMMUNITY: A CASE STUDY OF SOCIAL WELFARE PROVISION - Sarah B. Garlington

CAREER DEVELOPMENT, WELL-BEING AND COPING STRATEGIES OF ZIMBABWEAN IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES: A RESEARCH NOTE- Josphine Chaumba

THE SOCIAL EXCLUSION OF DUALLY-INVOLVED YOUTH: TOWARD A SENSE OF BELONGING - JoAnn S. Lee and Jessie Patton

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE PREVENTION OF THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR AMONG MIGRANT CHILDREN IN SAMUT SAKHON, THAILAND: A POLICY NOTE - Tsz Ki K. Tang, David Engstrom, and Sompong Srakaew

SOCIAL WORK IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY: …