Digital Commons Network^™

Nonprofit Organizational Performance Measurement And Accountability: Funders Vs. Clients/Missions, Mavis Mansah Agbakpe

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Nonprofit organizations have funders and clients as their stakeholders whose needs, expectations, or demands might vary. A means through which nonprofit organizations portray their accountability to these stakeholders is through performance measurement. The purpose of this research is to examine what performance metrics human services nonprofit organizations use by way of demonstrating accountability and explore the extent to which funders’ demands or clients needs and organizational missions are considered in measuring performance. In this study I sought to understand how human services nonprofits balance the stakeholders’ needs and expectations through their performance measurement. The overarching research question is: To what …

Finding Core Members Of A Hedonic Game, Daniele M. Vernon-Bido

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Agent-based modeling (ABM) is a frequently used paradigm for social simulation; however, there is little evidence of its use in strategic coalition formations. There are few models that explore coalition formation and even fewer that validate their results against an expected outcome. Cooperative game theory is often used to study strategic coalition formation but solving games involving a significant number of agents is computationally intractable. However, there is a natural linkage between ABM and the study of strategic coalition formation. A foundational feature of ABM is the interaction of agents and their environment. Coalition formation is primarily the result of …

Implications Of Metal Coordination In Damage And Recognition Of Nucleic Acids And Lipid Bilayers, Ana Dreab

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Metal ions have a myriad of biological functions from structural stability to enzymatic (de)activation and metabolic electron transfer. Redox-active metals also mediate the formation of reactive oxygen species which may either cause oxidative damage or protect cellular components. Computational modeling is used here to investigate the role of (1) metal-ion binding to antimicrobial peptides, (2) metal-ion removal and disulfide formation on zinc finger (ZF) proteins, and (3) coordination of thiones/selones for the prevention of metal-mediated redox damage.

Piscidins, natural-occurring antimicrobial peptides, efficiently kill bacteria by targeting their membranes. Their efficacy is enhanced in vitro by metal-binding and the presence of …

Using Stock And Flow Modeling To Address Knowledge Gaps In Marine Plastic Pollution Data, Daniel P. Martin

OES Theses and Dissertations

As plastic becomes a ubiquitous part of society, its growth outpaces waste disposal infrastructure and enters the environment as physical and chemical pollution. Plastic can also erode during the use cycle and reach the environment without any chance of being arrested by collection efforts. Plastic is a hazard to many parts of the earth’s life support system but there are many knowledge gaps regarding the processes by which plastic moves through the use cycle and environment. In particular, the ocean is generally regarded as a sink for plastic out of which it is difficult to escape, but plastic can sink …

Machine Learning Classification Of Digitally Modulated Signals, James A. Latshaw

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Automatic classification of digitally modulated signals is a challenging problem that has traditionally been approached using signal processing tools such as log-likelihood algorithms for signal classification or cyclostationary signal analysis. These approaches are computationally intensive and cumbersome in general, and in recent years alternative approaches that use machine learning have been presented in the literature for automatic classification of digitally modulated signals. This thesis studies deep learning approaches for classifying digitally modulated signals that use deep artificial neural networks in conjunction with the canonical representation of digitally modulated signals in terms of in-phase and quadrature components. Specifically, capsule networks are …

Instructional Staff Perceptions Of Culturally Responsive Leadership, Sherrell J. Hendrix

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The rise of accountability standards has resulted in an increase of attention regarding the academic achievement of minority student populations. Instructional leadership styles that operate within frameworks that specifically address race and ethnicity have been shown to be positively correlated with academic outcomes of both majority and minority student populations. Culturally responsive leadership is one of these frameworks. While the literature offers a robust vision of the behaviors and subsequent results of culturally responsive leadership, we do not yet know the perceptions held by instructional staff regarding the culturally responsive leadership of their school leader. This lack of knowledge can …

Blood Lead Levels In Minority Children: A Case Of Environmental Racism, Erick Rivera

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Racial minorities in the United States have suffered from being disadvantaged. Among these disadvantages is environmental racism. This includes minority communities being ‘sacrifice zones’ for toxic waste and being exposed to lead poisoning. The purpose of this study is to examine differences in blood levels between white children and children of color. This research will follow a bivariate model for the first research question, “Do youth of color (under the age of 18) have higher BLLs than white children?” The bivariate model will look at the relationship between ethno-racial group and BLLs. Specifically, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be …

A Phenomenological Investigation Of School Counselor Antiracist Social Justice Practices, Stephanie Deonca Smith-Durkin

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Decades after the landmark United States Supreme Court decision of Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka in 1954, the push continues to make schools a safe and welcoming environment for Black and Brown students. Black students in particular are continuing to be oppressed and marginalized in PK-12 educational settings. Accounting for approximately 15% of public PK-12 students, Black students comprise 13.7% of all students who receive out-of-school suspensions in 2017, are 16% of the special education student population, and are more likely to attend a school with less resources (National Center for Educational Statistics [NCES], 2021; Ramsey, n.d.). …

Chen-Fliess Series For Linear Distributed Systems, Natalie T. Pham

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Distributed systems like fluid flow and heat transfer are modeled by partial differential equations (PDEs). In control theory, distributed systems are generally reformulated in terms of a linear state space realization, where the state space is an infinite dimensional Banach space or Hilbert space. In the finite dimension case, the input-output map can always be written in terms of a Chen-Fliess functional series, that is, a weighted sum of iterated integrals of the components of the input function. The Chen-Fliess functional series has been used to describe interconnected nonlinear systems, to solve system inversion and tracking problems, and to design …

Tiktok As A Digital Activism Space: Social Justice Under Algorithmic Control, Brittany Haslem

Institute for the Humanities Theses

TikTok, a video sharing application, has become the center of viral internet culture. The app has risen in popularity so quickly that scholarly literature investigating its vast societal impact is still nascent. TikTok is not only used to discuss popular culture topics and create trends, but also being utilized as a tool for social justice activism in the United States in the wake of a tumultuous year with major events such as the coronavirus pandemic, a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the 2020 presidential election. TikTok activism is not without critiques, ranging from concerns of foreign government …

Ion Production And Mitigation In Dc High-Voltage Photo-Guns, Joshua T. Yoskowitz

Physics Theses & Dissertations

One of the biggest obstacles to operating a GaAs polarized electron source with a long charge lifetime is the mitigation of ion back-bombardment. Several techniques exist to either clear ions from the accelerator or to mitigate ion damage of the photocathode. Predicting the effectiveness of these techniques requires sophisticated simulation models of electron impact ionization within the photo-gun. In this work, the effectiveness of applying a positive anode bias voltage to mitigate ion damage and increase the charge lifetime of the GaAs photocathode was studied over three run periods at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Jefferson Lab …

Data-Driven Framework For Understanding & Modeling Ride-Sourcing Transportation Systems, Bishoy Kelleny

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Ride-sourcing transportation services offered by transportation network companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft are disrupting the transportation landscape. The growing demand on these services, along with their potential short and long-term impacts on the environment, society, and infrastructure emphasize the need to further understand the ride-sourcing system. There were no sufficient data to fully understand the system and integrate it within regional multimodal transportation frameworks. This can be attributed to commercial and competition reasons, given the technology-enabled and innovative nature of the system. Recently, in 2019, the City of Chicago the released an extensive and complete ride-sourcing trip-level data for …

Experimental Investigation Of All-Optical Production Of Metastable Krypton, Joshua Carl Frechem

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Metastable production of noble gases requires significant energy due to their filled valence shells. These transitions from the ground state are in the vacuum ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet, which are relatively inaccessible to lasers. This necessitates the use of either electron/ion bombardment via inefficient glow discharges or the use of high-power lasers and nonlinear processes. The all-optical production efficiency using these high-power lasers promises to be orders of magnitude higher than glow discharges, but far more costly. This work looks to improve all-optical production of metastable krypton (Kr*) through the use of a commercially available vacuum ultraviolet lamp with a …

Addressing Public Perceptions About Cell-Based Meat And Cellular Agriculture Through Metaphors, Yvette Emma Hubbard

English Theses & Dissertations

Today’s food movement places organic, holistic, and natural foods as priority. The idea aims for better human health, a farm-to-table community, and environmental sustainability. Soon a new meat alternative will become part of the ongoing food movement. What is it? Cell-based protein. It is a protein alternative to livestock protein. It is real protein from a real breathing animal. Cell-based beef for example is grown in a lab with cells from a living cow that does not have to die or be slaughtered. It is destined to become the new protein architecture on the horizon. Parts of this paper are …

Design And Analysis Of Electrical Power And Communication Systems For 3u Sealion Cubesat Mission, Joseph D. Siciliano

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Old Dominion University (ODU) Space Systems students in conjunction with the United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) are designing and developing a 3U Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) CubeSat mission aptly named SeaLion. This work specifically details the design of the Electrical Power System (EPS) and Communication System of the satellite. Electrical power in orbit is a precious commodity and must be carefully regulated and distributed to ensure the satellite’s operational health. Commonly, CubeSat electrical power is retained in orbit via outward facing solar cells and stored in onboard rechargeable batteries. This thesis proposes using non-rechargeable primary battery cells and …

Electromagnetic Modeling Of A Wind Tunnel Magnetic Suspension And Balance System, Desiree Driver

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Wind tunnels are used to study forces and moments acting on an aerodynamic body. While most results involve some interference from the mechanical supports used to hold the model, a Magnetic Suspension and Balance System (MSBS) is void of these interferences and presents an ideal test scenario. To further investigate the feasibility of dynamic stability testing at supersonic speeds using a MSBS, a preliminary design idea is currently being developed using an existing MSBS in a subsonic wind tunnel. This review focuses on the development of a mathematical model to more accurately portray the capabilities of the 6 inch Massachusetts …

A Preventive Medicine Framework For Wearable Abiotic Glucose Detection System, Saikat Banerjee

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In this work, we present a novel abiotic glucose fuel cell with battery-less remote access. In the presence of a glucose analyte, we characterized the power generation and biosensing capabilities. This system is developed on a flexible substrate in bacterial nanocellulose with gold nanoparticles used as a conductive ink for piezoelectric deposition based printing. The abiotic glucose fuel cell is constructed using colloidal platinum on gold (Au-co-Pt) and a composite of silver oxide nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes as the anodic and cathodic materials. At a concentration of 20 mM glucose, the glucose fuel cell produced a maximum open circuit voltage …

Failure Mode, Effects And Criticality Analysis Of A Very Low Earth Orbit Cubesat Mission, Robb Christopher Borowicz

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

When space programs launch vehicles into orbit, multiple failures could arise throughout the mission and corrective actions are often not an option. Applying reliability engineering approaches during the design phase focuses on analyzing risk by anticipating potential failures and mitigating uncertainties in the design. Old Dominion University, in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology designed and developed a 3U CubeSat mission to validate on-orbit, three space technology payloads. Mission SeaLion will fly as a secondary payload on stage two of Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket and will be deployed in a very …

Mechanics Of Preimpregnated Fiber Tow Deposition And Compaction, Virginia Meredith Rauch

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In additive manufacturing, such as Automated Fiber Placement (AFP), defects often develop during the deposition and compaction of preimpregnated composite material, which reduce the strength of the resultant material. It is necessary to reduce defects and have good adhesion between plies to optimize the laminate performance and reduce delamination between composite layers. The aim of this work is to study the adhesion and deformation of preimpregnated (prepreg) composite material during the deposition and compaction stage in the composite forming process and how material parameters can be used to increase laminate strength. Two types of experimentation were performed on thermoset IM7/8552 …

An Analysis Of In-Service Choral Music Educators’ Methods Of Classroom Management, Brooke Ann Ward

Music Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to discuss topics of classroom management as it relates to the experience and training of pre-service music educators. Topics reviewed in the discussion include issues of mentorship, pre-service teacher training, experiential learning, student teaching experiences, conducting knowledge, and confidence in pre-service music educators. This research project was granted an IRB exemption by the Old Dominion University College of Arts and Letters.

The participants in the research survey were choral music educators who had accumulated one through 40 years of teaching experience. The participants were graduates of a music education degree program, or a music …

“Finding A Balance”: User, Reader, And Learner Functions In First-Year Composition Textbook Engagement, Travis Vincent Holt

English Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative, multiple participant case study investigates the phenomenon of student textbook engagement in a First-Year Composition course at a private, evangelical four-year university. Shifting away from a dominant history where textbooks served as the primary object of study (Besser et al., 1999; Carr, Carr, & Schultz, 2005; Colby, 2013; Connors, 1987; Edwards, 1984; Faigley, 1992; Gale & Gale, 1999; Hawhee, 1999; Issitt, 2004; Miles, 2000; Ohmann, 1979; Rendleman, 2009, 2011; Welch, 1987), I answered calls (Colby, 2013; Harris, 2012; Rendleman, 2009, 2011) to examine engagement with textbooks in context. Additionally, scholars have dominated discussions of textbooks; thus, the student …

Quantum Solutions For Training A Single Layer Binary Neural Network, Sabrina Ly

Theses

Quantum computing is a relatively new field starting in the early 1980s when a physicist named Paul Benioff proposed a quantum mechanical model of the Turing machine, introducing quantum computers. Previously, the focus of most quantum computers was in the study of quantum applications instead of broad applications due to the fact that quantum technology is a newer field with many technology constraints, such as limited qubits and noisy environments. However, quantum computers are still capable of using quantum mechanics to solve specific algorithms with an exponential speed-up in comparison to their classical counterparts. One key algorithm is the HHL …

Sku Time Series Forecasting Methods For Fmcgs, Mohammad Al Orbani

Theses

This research aims at using forecasting algorithm that predicts the demand that is to be needed on a monthly basis while factoring in occasional inconsistent patterns, seasonality, and non-stationary and cyclical patterns of the data. The prediction is to predict around 3000 SKUs in 19 end markets and since the data is necessary for marketing enhancement and strategies, the Forecasting accuracy must be high. Since market strategies will be based on those predictions and revenue will be lost in the case of an error. Hence, we need to keep in mind that the model is not overfitted and that it …

Identifying Psychological Mental Disorders Through Machine Learning, Mohammad Al Abdooli

Theses

Psychology is the Study of Human Behavior and the various ways of thinking in it’s both consciousness and unconsciousness mind as this field is still growing to various fields such as Sports, Criminal and even Administrative Psychology through, Furthermore, This Study aims to shape and accommodate both fields of Sciences together, There are very few Scholars and Researches done on Medical Mental Health from a Data Analytics perspective, examining the datasets of the patients ICD-11 or DSM-5 scores and correlating it with the patients well-being, family medical history or any accident the patient have been through, so the current study …

Sku Time Series Forecasting Methods For Fmcgs, Mohammad Al Orbani

Theses

This research aims at using forecasting algorithm that predicts the demand that is to be needed on a monthly basis while factoring in occasional inconsistent patterns, seasonality, and non-stationary and cyclical patterns of the data. The prediction is to predict around 3000 SKUs in 19 end markets and since the data is necessary for marketing enhancement and strategies, the Forecasting accuracy must be high. Since market strategies will be based on those predictions and revenue will be lost in the case of an error. Hence, we need to keep in mind that the model is not overfitted and that it …

Using Regression Analysis For Predicting Energy Consumption In Dubai Police, Amal Rashid Alqasim

Theses

The aim of this project is to build a machine learning algorithm to forecast electricity and water consumption for the 27 sites in Dubai Police facilities. This aim is to establish a central database with all the data to monitor the energy consumption in a systematic manner and feed the data in a visualized dashboard. The data was collected from the energy conservation department at Dubai Police for five years from 2017 to 2021 comprising of electricity and water consumption details data. Due to the numerous buildings and facilities any irregular behavior in consumption takes time to be identified using …

Using Data Analytics Techniques To Analyze And Predict Uae Trade, Ruba Alnajada

Theses

This research applies data analytics techniques and algorithms to analyze and forecast UAE’s trade. Regression model was applied to study the relationship between exports, imports, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP is “the total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period. As a broad measure of overall domestic production, it functions as a comprehensive scorecard of a given country’s economic health” (Gross Domestic Product(GDP), 2022) . In this project we applied several data analytics techniques to analyze UAE trade data. We also concluded that, based on …

Deeprm: Deep Recurrent Matching For 6d Pose Refinement, Alexander Avery

Theses

Precise 6D pose estimation of rigid objects from RGB images is a critical but challenging task in robotics and augmented reality. To address this problem, we propose DeepRM, a novel recurrent network architecture for 6D pose refinement. DeepRM leverages initial coarse pose estimates to render synthetic images of target objects. The rendered images are then matched with the observed images to predict a rigid transform for updating the previous pose estimate. This process is repeated to incrementally refine the estimate at each iteration. LSTM units are used to propagate information through each refinement step, significantly improving overall performance. In contrast …

Illinois State University, One Hundred And Sixty-Third Annual Commencement, May 2022, Illinois State University

Commencement Programs

Illinois State University
One Hundred and Sixty-Third Annual Commencement
May 2022

Modeling Intra-Patient Planned Dose Change To Better Understand Dose Response In Cancer, Lauren Burke, Lin Hui Jiang, Tyler Frediani, Drew Haiber, James Winger

Theses

In this paper, we attempt to find the most efficient trial design to determine the optimal dose of cancer treatment. The two trial designs being evaluated are a standard trial design and intra-patient dose-switching trial. The optimal dose is the lowest dose that still causes a decrease in the tumor size. The most efficient trial is defined as the trial in which the distribution of parameters from the data set mostly closely matches the distribution from a simulated trial. We developed an ordinary differential equation to model the change in the sum of the length of tumor diameters over time. …