Digital Commons Network^™

On Predicting Omnidirectional Honey Bee Traffic Using Weather And Electromagnetic Radiation, Daniel G. Hornberger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Honey bees are responsible for pollinating many important crops in the United States. However, honey bee populations have declined significantly since 1961. While some causes of this decline are known, others are not. By utilizing electronic bee hive monitoring (EBM) systems, bee keepers and researchers have an added resource in determining the causes of these declines so that the issues can be remedied. For nearly five months (May through October) during the 2020 honey bee foraging season in Logan, Utah, USA, we collected on-site weather and electromagnetic radiation (EMR) readings and videos of the hive entrances of six bee hives …

Numerical Cognition And Autism Spectrum Traits In Adults, Benjamin Covington

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Evidence suggests that individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be particularly inclined toward math proficiency, especially in adulthood. There is also evidence, however, that many of those with an ASD struggle in math as children compared to their typically-developing peers. These ostensibly inconsistent findings may indicate that individuals with an ASD struggle with number sense, a precursor to formal math, rather than with formal math per se. This account is compatible with evidence of a specific form of neural dysregulation, excitatory/inhibitory imbalance, in ASD that results in reduced signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) for processes that occur in downstream …

Sensitivity Study For Uav Gps-Denied Navigation In Uncertain Landmark Fields, Samantha D. Burton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This document provides two 2D simulation sensitivity analyses regarding a drone’s flight characteristic (state) errors within a GPS-denied region. The research focuses on a development and investigation of utilizing a camera to simultaneously determine a drone’s state while locating landmarks, where there is uncertainty in the landmarks’ exact positions prior to the mission (SLAM). This SLAM method is performed in regions with limited access to GPS. Furthermore, there is development and investigation of controlling the drone in conjunction with SLAM using potential error-reducing control parameters. Objectives are to quantitatively understand the UAV’s sensitivity of position errors to sensor grade and …

Modelling Customers Credit Card Behaviour Using Bidirectional Lstm Neural Networks, Maher Ala’Raj, Maysam F. Abbod, Munir Majdalawieh

All Works

With the rapid growth of consumer credit and the huge amount of financial data developing effective credit scoring models is very crucial. Researchers have developed complex credit scoring models using statistical and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to help banks and financial institutions to support their financial decisions. Neural networks are considered as a mostly wide used technique in finance and business applications. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to help bank management in scoring credit card clients using machine learning by modelling and predicting the consumer behaviour with respect to two aspects: the probability of single and consecutive …

Utilization Of The Uae Date Palm Leaf Biochar In Carbon Dioxide Capture And Sequestration Processes, Imen Ben Salem, Maisa El Gamal, Manish Sharma, Suhaib Hameedi, Fares M. Howari

All Works

This paper evaluates the potential use of date palm leaf biochar as a climate change solution through CO2 capture and sequestration. The pyrolysis of date palm leaf was performed at different temperatures 300°, 400°, 500°, and 600 °C. The physicochemical characteristics of the synthesized biochar were examined using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX), Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). Direct gas-solid interaction was carried out in an integrated Fluidized Bed Reactor (FBR), connected with a gas analyzer for maximum and effective mixing between the biochar and CO2. LabView …

Hybrid Feature Selection Approach To Identify Optimal Features Of Profile Metadata To Detect Social Bots In Twitter, Eiman Alothali, Kadhim Hayawi, Hany Alashwal

All Works

The last few years have revealed that social bots in social networks have become more sophisticated in design as they adapt their features to avoid detection systems. The deceptive nature of bots to mimic human users is due to the advancement of artificial intelligence and chatbots, where these bots learn and adjust very quickly. Therefore, finding the optimal features needed to detect them is an area for further investigation. In this paper, we propose a hybrid feature selection (FS) method to evaluate profile metadata features to find these optimal features, which are evaluated using random forest, naïve Bayes, support vector …

The Use Of Mobile Payment Systems In Post-Covid-19 Economic Recovery: Primary Research On An Emerging Market For Experience Goods, Maiya M. Suyunchaliyeva, Raghav Nautiyal, Aijaz A. Shaikh, Ravishankar Sharma

All Works

This study investigated whether mobile payment services could drive post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery in the ‘experience goods’ sector (e.g., tourism) utilising Bandura’s self-efficacy or social cognitive theory. It explored the factors influencing the intention to continue using mobile payment services and the intention to recommend these to others. An empirical survey was conducted to assess the study variables, and the data obtained therefrom were analysed using the industry-standard Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining method. The study results suggest that personal innovativeness and perceived trust influence consumers’ intention to continue using mobile payment services and that perceived trust, personal innovativeness and …

Estimation And Interpretation Of Machine Learning Models With Customized Surrogate Model, Mudabbir Ali, Asad Masood Khattak, Zain Ali, Bashir Hayat, Muhammad Idrees, Zeeshan Pervez, Kashif Rizwan, Tae Eung Sung, Ki Il Kim

All Works

Machine learning has the potential to predict unseen data and thus improve the productivity and processes of daily life activities. Notwithstanding its adaptiveness, several sensitive applications based on such technology cannot compromise our trust in them; thus, highly accurate machine learning models require reason. Such models are black boxes for end-users. Therefore, the concept of interpretability plays the role if assisting users in a couple of ways. Interpretable models are models that possess the quality of explaining predictions. Different strategies have been proposed for the aforementioned concept but some of these require an excessive amount of effort, lack generalization, are …

Influence Of Unbound Materials Input Level On Pavement Performance Using Mepdg., Ragaa Abd El-Hakim, Sherif El-Badawy, Alaa Gabr, Abd El Halim Azzam

Mansoura Engineering Journal

For material characterization, the new Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) has 3 input levels. Level 1 input values must be obtained through direct laboratory testing. Level 2 inputs are determined by the application of correlations with other material properties. Finally, Level 3 inputs are simply typical default values. The level chosen for each design input parameter, however, may have a significant effect on project design, costs, and reliability. In this paper, the influence of the unbound granular base material characterization input level on pavement performance as predicted by MEPDG for a typical flexible pavement section was investigated. For this …

Hardness And Wear Of As–Cast Mg–Al Based Alloy With Alumina Addition., Hesham Elzanaty, Nagwa Elhamshary

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Magnesium alloys have extensive application in industries. The range of physical properties that can be imparted to them is remarkable. Magnesium–Aluminium binary alloys generally possess good castability and good mechanical properties. The objective of the present investigation is to study the effect of varying weight percentage of alumina (Al2O3) on the hardness and wear resistance of the Mg–Al alloy. The addition of alumina resulted in a considerable increase in the Vicker's microhardness number and wear resistance of the original alloy. Wear resistance and Vicker's microhardness number increase with the increasing proportion of alumina powder addition because of the deposition of …

Raman Spectroscopy For Forensic Identification Of Body Fluid Traces: Method Validation For Potential False Negatives Caused By Blood-Affecting Diseases, Niara Nichols

Chemistry

Two critical issues in forensic science are identifying body fluid traces found at crime scenes and preserving them for DNA analysis. However, the majority of current biochemical tests for body fluid identification, which are applicable at the crime scene, are presumptive and destructive to the sample. Raman Spectroscopy provides a suitable alternative to current methods as a nondestructive, confirmatory, and potentially in field method. Our laboratory has developed a chemometric model for the identification of five main body fluids using Raman spectroscopy. This model was developed using samples obtained from healthy donors. Thus, it is of most importance for the …

Leadership Influence On Collective Teacher Efficacy In Multi-Cultural Teams: A Mixed-Methods Study, Yaru Zhou

Education Dissertations

As evidence for positive effects of collective teacher efficacy on student performance and teacher well-being grow, increasing efforts have been made worldwide to understand how teachers’ beliefs in the team’s capacity form in schools. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach; 90 teachers from seven international schools in China participated in the survey, and eight teachers from these schools joined focus group interviews. This paper seeks to understand the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of instructional school leadership and collective efficacy, and how individual leaders’ character strength of encouragement and structural factors, including school levels and cultural dimensions, affect the relationship. Quantitative …

Lxr Acts As A Differentiator In The Regulation Of Fas And G6pdh Gene Expression Under Insulin Resistant Conditions, Jaafar Hachem

Dissertations

Diabetes is a chronic disease that effects 10 percent of the world’s population and causes more than 1.5 million deaths a year and billions of dollars in associated health care cost. It can lead to very serious complications such as renal failure, liver cirrhosis, heart attack, and vision loss. The most common type of diabetes is type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes arises when blood glucose levels remain chronically high due to insulin resistance. The reason for this elevation is due to the failure of insulin to allow tissues to uptake glucose causing problems in subsequent metabolic pathways. Over the …

Flow Choice Architecture: Cognitive Augmentation Of Knowledge Workers, Troy Ricardo Weekes

Theses and Dissertations

The Flow Choice Architecture (FCA) is a biofeedback-based behavior modification tool that was designed for operation by human knowledge workers (KWs) before, during, and after the performance of work tasks. FCA utilizes human-aware artificial intelligence (AI) that senses patterns in its operator’s bio-signals to derive their cognitive and affective states. The states are contextualized using relevant information about the operator, task, and work timeline. The contextualized operator states are then used to recommend effective nudges that orient the human KW towards the flow state. This dissertation outlines the state-of-the-art on flow, neurofeedback, and AI then explains how FCA was designed, …

A Framework For Moving Beyond Awareness: Exploring How School Building And District Level Leaders Address Implicit Bias Through Professional Learning Structures, Susan E. Lohret

Education Doctoral

The descriptive phenomenological design of this study explores the phenomenon of addressing implicit bias through professional learning structures. The study examines the lived experiences of educational leaders through their reflections of the experiences and how they make sense of the experiences. Participants were included with the following criteria: a) professionals with district level leadership or school building leadership in New York State public schools and b) participation in addressing implicit bias through a formal program, curriculum, initiative, or informal structure. Focus group and semistructured interviews were conducted and the data collection tools were field tested. Data was transcribed, coded, and …

Employee Engagement: Exploring Principal Dispositions In Turnaround Schools, Leah Kedley

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to gain more knowledge about leadership dispositions of school principals who could give insight into helping failing schools succeed. High-poverty, low-performing (HPLP) environments with chronically underperforming schools are identified as schools needing a “turnaround.” By learning more about the experiences of teachers and administrative leaders working with school principals in low-performing schools, a better understanding emerged of the leadership dispositions that can engage employees in a successful school turnaround. Three themes emerged based on the experiences from six teachers and four supervisors of school principals regarding the principals’ leadership dispositions and their …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Of Water Vapor/ Zeolite 13x Adsorption, Evan Gildernew

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This work describes the development of a Finite Element Model (FEM) for use in determining adsorption system performance. The considered interactions are between Zeolite 13X and water vapor for the purposes of engineering adsorbent characteristics and harvester device characteristics. Four objectives are evaluated in the development of a predictive model. First, to understand the implementation of adsorption systems equations and the assumptions that could prevent reliable predictability. Second, to assemble, reduce, and analyze model constants and approximations that express FEM coefficient calculations. Third, to analyze factor sensitivity of model inputs by way of a 2k factorial screening to determine which …

Mental Health Support For The Spanish-Speaking Community, America Yvonne Gutierrez Solorio

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Mariposa Wellness Center in Watsonville, CA empowers its mental health community through wellness, meaningful activity, and community connection. The purpose of the report is to focus and empower individuals on the long-existing issue of the lack of mental health support for the Spanish-speaking community. This report focuses on the importance of Hispanic individuals having access to proper mental health support in their community. The contributing factors in this report range from language barriers and stigma created within mental health illnesses to the lack of education. In addition, this report focuses on numerous consequences Hispanics face as they struggle with finding …

Study Of Two-Way Coupled Particle Laden Turbulent Flow Over A Backward-Facing Step Using Large-Eddy Simulation, Timothy Johnston

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Large-eddy simulation (LES) is a computationally viable strategy to study particle-laden turbulent flows in practically relevant configurations, although modeling challenges need to be addressed for improved predictive capabilities. In this study, we perform a comprehensive assessment of subgrid-scale (SGS) models for LES by considering a two-way coupled particle-laden turbulent flow over a backward-facing step. We consider dynamic eddy viscosity, wall-adapting local eddy viscosity (WALE), and dynamic one-equation models for the closure of the SGS stress tensor, and the random walk (RW) and the differential filter (DF) based models for the subgrid dispersion. The assessment of subgrid models is carried out …

Decoupling Power Network Equations For Real-Time Computing Applications On A Personal Computer, Rua Taha

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This research develops and implements a method for decoupling real-time power networks using general-purpose personal computers. The industry of real-time simulation of power networks is mature, with few prominent players dominating the market. The implementation, however, is limited to specialized high-end hardware and software. This endeavor serves researchers and small-scale users interested in investigating real-time applications without making a significant investment. The methodology sheds additional light on the inner workings of real-time computing, particularly parallel processing via approaches like those published in scientific papers. The described method can be implemented on a PC with multiple cores using relatively few resources …

Qualitative Insights Into The Voltage Stability Problem, Mohamed Salah Ahmed Mohamed

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This work investigates some of the bus indicators for the problem of voltage stability. The purpose is to learn more about the behavior and to observe the factors that cause mis-ranking in estimating the stability margin. Three indicators are examined, the L-index, the coupled-port method, and the P-index. it found that the L-index does not have a reliable alarm level, and when flagged with an alarm used for the P-index, it shows a large variation of the estimation accuracy across systems. Also, the coupled single-port method is a reformulated L-index method with no novelty on estimation, the novelty is only …

Use Of The Music Syllabus From The National Standards Curriculum Nsc, At The Lower Secondary Level, In Kingston And St. Andrew, Jamaica, Ornisea Williams Hird

Masters Theses

The Jamaican music education landscape has had a positive shift in the demand for music teachers who are educated to become classroom music teachers. Despite the growing need for trained music teachers to be placed in many high schools in Jamaica and the implementation of two curricula, there has been minimal study that assess how music teachers use the music syllabus from the National Standards Curriculum (NSC) in teaching and learning. The study joins a set of vibrant discussions on the development of music education in Jamaica and examines the use of the NSC at the lower secondary level (grades …

An Information-Theoretic Analysis Of Adherence To Physical Exercise Routines, Lily Foster

Computational and Data Sciences (MS) Theses

One of the most common recommendations in healthcare is to simply form healthy habits, but little research has been done to understand the formation and continuation of a healthy habit that isn’t heavily influenced by an individual’s interpretation. Arizona State University’s WalkIT study aimed to analyze how goal setting and financial reinforcement can influence moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in adults, while using data from accelerometers to alleviate individual bias. In this trial, 512 insufficiently active adults were recruited to wear an accelerometer for 1 year and were then randomly assigned to one of the four study groups. Each group had …

Online Learning During Covid-19 Produced Equivalent Or Better Student Course Performance As Compared With Pre-Pandemic: Empirical Evidence From A School-Wide Comparative Study, Meixun S. Zheng, Daniel Bender, Cindy Lyon

All Dugoni School of Dentistry Faculty Articles

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic forced dental schools to close their campuses and move didactic instruction online. The abrupt transition to online learning, however, has raised several issues that have not been resolved. While several studies have investigated dental students’ attitude towards online learning during the pandemic, mixed results have been reported. Additionally, little research has been conducted to identify and understand factors, especially pedagogical factors, that impacted students’ acceptance of online learning during campus closure. Furthermore, how online learning during the pandemic impacted students’ learning performance has not been empirically investigated. In March 2020, the dental school studied here moved …

2d Vs 3d Tracking In Bacterial Motility Analysis, Jacqueline Acres, Jay Nadeau

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Digital holographic microscopy provides the ability to observe throughout a large volume without refocusing. This capability enables simultaneous observations of large numbers of microorganisms swimming in an essentially unconstrained fashion. However, computational tools for tracking large 4D datasets remain lacking. In this paper, we examine the errors introduced by tracking bacterial motion as 2D projections vs. 3D volumes under different circumstances: bacteria free in liquid media and bacteria near a glass surface. We find that while XYZ speeds are generally equal to or larger than XY speeds, they are still within empirical uncertainties. Additionally, when studying dynamic surface behavior, the …

Snook (Centropomus Undecimalis) Behavior And Accelerometer Telemetry In The Bahia Grande Of Texas, Jonathan Truett Cawlfield

Theses and Dissertations

There has been very little study of the Texas population of snook. No studies have have looked at behavior in the Texas snook population. In this study we look at behavioral patterns and activity level in Lower Laguna Madre snook utilizing accelerometer telemetry tags. Twenty-one common snook were surgically implanted with tags and monitored from summer and fall of 2019 until September 2020. The accelerometer tags which sum acceleration over the x, y, and z planes calculated (ODBA) which was used to estimate behavior. This behavior was then compared with environmental data like diel period, tidal period, water temperature, and …

Conceptual Insight Into The Application Of Innovative Educational Methods In Astronomy, Wahltyn A. Rattray

Theses and Dissertations

University students taking introductory astronomy courses were studied with a control group enrolled in a class with standard curriculum and an experimental group enrolled in a class with a curriculum using innovative instructional methods. Using multiple assessments, I analyzed the students’ astronomy knowledge and overall class experience to determine which curriculum was more instructionally effective. The innovative methods were developed with the ADDIE method and were based on the Karplus learning cycle which provided the framework for the astronomy curriculum. The end goal of the innovative curriculum is to produce graduates with better conceptual understanding of astronomy than with the …

Growth Kinetics Of Salmonella Spp. During Post-Harvest Storage Of Fresh And Fresh-Cut Papaya, Amandeep Singh

Theses and Dissertations

Fresh produce safety is major concern in United States. Fresh produce has been associated with numerous food-borne outbreaks each year. Salmonella has been a recurring issue in the papaya industry. Since 2010, imported papayas have been implicated in 8 multistate outbreaks associated with Salmonella spp. causing 480 illnesses, 113 hospitalization and 3 deaths. The main reason behind this problem is as fresh papaya is grown on fields where they are constantly exposed to preharvest microbial contamination through contaminated irrigation water, agricultural soil, raw manure and/or feces deposited by intruding domestic or wild animals. Moreover, majority fresh papaya is also consumed …

Dynamical Casimir Effect In A Superconducting Circuit Periodic Lattice, Andres Cuellar Vega

Theses and Dissertations

The dynamical Casimir effect (DCE) is the generation of real photons out of the quantum vacuum due to a rapid modulation of boundary conditions for the electromagnetic field, such as a mirror oscillating at speeds comparable to the speed of light. Previous work demonstrated experimentally that DCE radiation can be generated in electrical circuits based on superconducting microfabricated waveguides, where a rapid modulation of boundary conditions corresponding to semi-transparent mirrors is realized by tuning the applied magnetic flux through superconducting quantum-interference devices (SQUIDs) that are embedded in the waveguide circuits. We propose a novel SQUID periodic lattice architecture, in which …

Microwave Assisted Depolymerization Of Waste Pet Bottles Via Glycolysis, Kingsley Bassey

Theses and Dissertations

One of the most promising and sustainable chemical depolymerization methods for managing the complex environmental problem arising from waste poly(ethylene) terephthalate (PET) bottles is glycolysis. However key challenges such as longer reaction times, complex separation procedures for the depolymerized products, selectivity, thermally stable catalyst need to be addressed.

In this work, we investigated the glycolysis of waste PET under microwave conditions using 1,5,7-Triazabicyclo [4.4.0] dec5-ene (TBD) and 1,8-Diazabicyclo [5.4.0] undec-7-ene (DBU) as catalyst. We evaluated the effect of reaction parameters such as temperature, catalyst concentration and time on PET depolymerization rate (%PET conversion) and product yield. The reaction was conducted …