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Description
In this project, I get at the finer details of what altruism really is, and when an act really counts as altruistic. I draw upon many articles and books that discuss the topic, but some left many questions unanswered. I conducted several close readings of the manga, One Piece, to answer these questions. Through the thematic relevance of the series, I discovered more reliable forms of emotional motivation, identified and analyzed highly similar altruistic imposters, and presented a more comprehensive image of the topic by analyzing egotism.
ContributorsLord Ender Laing, James (Author) / Schmidt, Peter (Thesis director) / Wilson, Bradley (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
The generation of walking motion is one of the most vital functions of the human body because it allows us to be mobile in our environment. Unfortunately, numerous individuals suffer from gait impairment as a result of debilitating conditions like stroke, resulting in a serious loss of mobility. Our understanding of human gait is limited by the amount of research we conduct in relation to human walking mechanisms and their characteristics. In order to better understand these characteristics and the systems involved in the generation of human gait, it is necessary to increase the depth and range of research pertaining to walking motion. Specifically, there has been a lack of investigation into a particular area of human gait research that could potentially yield interesting conclusions about gait rehabilitation, which is the effect of surface stiffness on human gait. In order to investigate this idea, a number of studies have been conducted using experimental devices that focus on changing surface stiffness; however, these systems lack certain functionality that would be useful in an experimental scenario. To solve this problem and to investigate the effect of surface stiffness further, a system has been developed called the Variable Stiffness Treadmill system (VST). This treadmill system is a unique investigative tool that allows for the active control of surface stiffness. What is novel about this system is its ability to change the stiffness of the surface quickly, accurately, during the gait cycle, and throughout a large range of possible stiffness values. This type of functionality in an experimental system has never been implemented and constitutes a tremendous opportunity for valuable gait research in regard to the influence of surface stiffness. In this work, the design, development, and implementation of the Variable Stiffness Treadmill system is presented and discussed along with preliminary experimentation. The results from characterization testing demonstrate highly accurate stiffness control and excellent response characteristics for specific configurations. Initial indications from human experimental trials in relation to quantifiable effects from surface stiffness variation using the Variable Stiffness Treadmill system are encouraging.
ContributorsBarkan, Andrew Robert (Author) / Artemiadis, Panagiotis (Thesis director) / Santello, Marco (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
A primary goal in computer science is to develop autonomous systems. Usually, we provide computers with tasks and rules for completing those tasks, but what if we could extend this type of system to physical technology as well? In the field of programmable matter, researchers are tasked with developing synthetic materials that can change their physical properties \u2014 such as color, density, and even shape \u2014 based on predefined rules or continuous, autonomous collection of input. In this research, we are most interested in particles that can perform computations, bond with other particles, and move. In this paper, we provide a theoretical particle model that can be used to simulate the performance of such physical particle systems, as well as an algorithm to perform expansion, wherein these particles can be used to enclose spaces or even objects.
ContributorsLaff, Miles (Author) / Richa, Andrea (Thesis director) / Bazzi, Rida (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
A fundamental component of Transhumanism, radical life extension is the process of utilizing ever increasing technologies to further extend the average life span of humans. This iterative process has continued to increase in speed since the digital age. As society develops a larger knowledge base, and scientific fields combine their knowledge bases, the capability of medical professionals continues to increase at an exponential rate. Through an understanding of these technological trends the social, legal, logistical and economic implications can be better understood. Scenarios can be used to better categorize these implications based on the evolution of these technologies. By considering biological, non-biological and linear life extension technologies a broad analysis of the varied implications can be constructed. Based on these scenarios one can conclude radical life extension technologies will have significant impacts on the current social definitions of what it means to be human and how society organizes itself. Continued research towards radical life extension technologies comes with high social implications which must be considered in tandem.
ContributorsLightholder, Jack Anthony (Author) / Allenby, Braden (Thesis director) / Brian, Jennifer (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Defending against spoofing is an important part of security throughout the internet. With- out the ability to authenticate, within a certain confidence, that a person is in fact who they say are, can allow attackers to go unrecognized after performing an attack. It is much too easy for attackers today to hide their identity or pretend to be someone else through the means of spoof- ing. Researchers must focus their efforts on defenses that are scalable and effective in counter- ing spoofing. This thesis focuses on surveying different types of spoofing as well as attacks that lever- age spoofing with the hopes to hide the attacker's identity or leverage identity theft to perform an attack. It also looks at current defenses that hope to counter attacks that leverage spoofing and evaluates how realistic is to implement the defenses in terms of scalability and effective- ness. By surveying different attacks and defenses, researchers will be able to better focus their efforts on more effective and scalable defenses to spoofing and attacks that leverage spoofing.
ContributorsTorrence, Ryan Michael (Author) / Dasgupta, Partha (Thesis director) / Doupe, Adam (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The central goal of this thesis is to develop a practical approach to validating the correctness of SSA forms. Since achieving this goal is very involved for a general program, we restrict our attention to simple programs. In particular, the programs we consider are loop-free and are comprised of simple assignments to scalar variables, as well as input and output statements. Even for such a simple program, a full formal treatment would be very involved, extending beyond the scope of an undergraduate honors thesis.
ContributorsLusi, Dylan Patrick (Author) / Bazzi, Rida (Thesis director) / Fainekos, Georgios (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Dynamic languages like Java enjoy robust and powerful testing tools like JUnit and Cobertura. On the other hand, while there is no shortage of unit testing frameworks for C, the nature of C makes it difficult to make frameworks as powerful as those for other languages. In this paper, we describe ZTest, a testing framework that addresses some of these shortcomings in the C unit testing landscape. We also discuss results of its application to a medium-sized C project.
ContributorsIadicicco, Alexander (Author) / Bazzi, Rida (Thesis director) / Shrivastava, Aviral (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
With an excessive amount of resources in the United States healthcare system being spent on the treatment of diseases that are largely preventable through lifestyle change, the need for successful physical activity interventions is apparent. Unfortunately an individual's physical activity and health goals are often not supported by the social context of their daily lives. This single-case design study, Walking Intervention through Text messaging for CoHabiting individuals (WalkIT CoHab), looks at the efficacy of a text based adaptive physical activity intervention to promote walking over a three month period and the effects of social support in intervention performance in three pairs of cohabiting pairs of individuals (n=6). Mean step increase from baseline to intervention ranged from 1300 to 3000 steps per day for all individuals, an average 45.87% increase in physical activity. Goal attainment during the intervention ranged from 43.96% to 71.43%, meaning all participants exceeded the 40% success rate predicted by 60th percentile goals. Social support scores for study partners, unlike social support scores for family and friends, were often in the high social support range and had a moderate increase from pre to post visits for most participants. Although there was variation amongst participants, there was a high correlation in physical activity trends and successful goal attainment in each pair of participants. Less ambitious percentile goals and more personalized motivational text messages might be beneficial to some participants. An extended intervention, something the majority of participants expressed interest in, would further support the efficacy of this behavioral intervention and allow for possible long term benefits of social support in the intervention to be investigated.
ContributorsFernandez, Jacqueline Alyssa (Author) / Adams, Marc (Thesis director) / Angadi, Siddhartha (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Twitter, the microblogging platform, has grown in prominence to the point that the topics that trend on the network are often the subject of the news and other traditional media. By predicting trends on Twitter, it could be possible to predict the next major topic of interest to the public. With this motivation, this paper develops a model for trends leveraging previous work with k-nearest-neighbors and dynamic time warping. The development of this model provides insight into the length and features of trends, and successfully generalizes to identify 74.3% of trends in the time period of interest. The model developed in this work provides understanding into why par- ticular words trend on Twitter.
ContributorsMarshall, Grant A (Author) / Liu, Huan (Thesis director) / Morstatter, Fred (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
While not officially recognized as an addictive activity by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, video game addiction has well-documented resources pointing to its effects on physiological and mental health for both addict and those close to the addict. With the rise of eSports, treating video game addiction has become trickier as a passionate and growing fan base begins to act as a culture not unlike traditional sporting. These concerns call for a better understanding of what constitutes a harmful addiction to video games as its heavy practice becomes more financially viable and accepted into mainstream culture.
ContributorsGohil, Abhishek Bhagirathsinh (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Kashiwagi, Jacob (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05