Matching Items (447)
Description
The artificial neural network is a form of machine learning that is highly effective at recognizing patterns in large, noise-filled datasets. Possessing these attributes uniquely qualifies the neural network as a mathematical basis for adaptability in personal biomedical devices. The purpose of this study was to determine the viability of neural networks in predicting Freezing of Gait (FoG), a symptom of Parkinson's disease in which the patient's legs are suddenly rendered unable to move. More specifically, a class of neural networks known as layered recurrent networks (LRNs) was applied to an open- source FoG experimental dataset donated to the Machine Learning Repository of the University of California at Irvine. The independent variables in this experiment \u2014 the subject being tested, neural network architecture, and sampling of the majority classes \u2014 were each varied and compared against the performance of the neural network in predicting future FoG events. It was determined that single-layered recurrent networks are a viable method of predicting FoG events given the volume of the training data available, though results varied significantly between different patients. For the three patients tested, shank acceleration data was used to train networks with peak precision/recall values of 41.88%/47.12%, 89.05%/29.60%, and 57.19%/27.39% respectively. These values were obtained for networks optimized using detection theory rather than optimized for desired values of precision and recall. Furthermore, due to the nature of the experiments performed in this study, these values are representative of the lower-bound performance of layered recurrent networks trained to detect gait freezing. As such, these values may be improved through a variety of measures.
ContributorsZia, Jonathan Sargon (Author) / Panchanathan, Sethuraman (Thesis director) / McDaniel, Troy (Committee member) / Adler, Charles (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Perspection is an art exhibition dealing with the ideas of perspective and perception, as it relates to observation of artwork. As a viewer, art is seen as an inanimate thing, however, so much time is spent in the conception and execution of a piece that it begins to take on a life of its own. This thesis is the exploration of how art has the power to come alive, creating conversations with a viewer while showing them another way to observe the world around them.
ContributorsMeyer, Michelle Castrejon (Author) / White, James (Thesis director) / Harp, Hilary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
‘why we bend' a Bachelor of Fine Arts honors thesis exhibition by Ximenna Hofsetz and Tiernan Warner brings together installation, digital, sculptural, and printed artwork. The main focus concerns memory; and its vague, formless, and hazy nature. The work also examines what would happen if cognitive space could be physically mapped? What would it look like in sculptural form? Memory erodes and distorts with time. We influence our memories as much as they affect us. Thus, just as relationships are ever-changing, and our memories of those we interact with constantly shifting, our relationships with our own memories are malleable and evolve through time. This transient nature of memory is depicted in the various stylistic means of this exhibition by referencing time and space as well as personal memories and ephemera in both concrete and abstract ways. ‘why we bend’ implements a variety of multimedia techniques to examine recollection and its hold on us.
ContributorsHofsetz, Ximenna Cedella (Author) / Gutierrez, Rogelio (Thesis director) / Hood, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2014-12
DescriptionThis is a project to create an electric field sensing system which is fully portable. This system should provide accurate electric field readings from transmission lines allowing abstraction to find the voltage on the transmission line.
ContributorsScowen, Kegan (Co-author) / Vora, Sandeep (Co-author) / Ye, Weidong (Co-author) / Sciacca, Jacob (Co-author) / Allee, David (Thesis director) / Karady, George (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Victor Hugo crafted a relationship with architecture that demonstrated his nuanced experience of the "harmony" of historical monuments, as exemplified in the novel Notre-Dame de Paris. In the first chapter, I will introduce the largest aspect of Notre-Dame de Paris' contradictory nature: its role as both historian and revolutionary. The Gothic's rise to prominence is traceable in Notre-Dame, and Hugo presented the edifice as proof of France's enduring cultural significance. Notre-Dame was just as influential in its revolutionary capacity: Hugo believed that the cathedral acted as an invigorating force to the medieval public and was a vital component of revolutions that took place in the sixteenth century. The second chapter deals with the juxtaposition between the cathedral's identity as a victim of human society and as a figure who engages in its own strategic defense. Hugo categorized several kinds of damage inflicted upon Notre-Dame, with the severity of each category depending upon its source: time, revolution, and shifting taste, which was by far the most egregious. Notre-Dame proves itself to be a formidable opponent in the novel, however, by confronting a violent mob with blows of its own; it also demonstrates the ability to psychically wound its enemies through the infernal hallucinations of Claude Frollo. The final contradiction explored in the third chapter is the nature of the cathedral's spirit. In the novel, Hugo personifies Notre-Dame, giving the structure individual relationships with human characters and the ability to nurture and influence Quasimodo in particular. The bell ringer is presented to the reader as a man reared by a cathedral, and Hugo's exploration of the particulars of their relationship composes a significant part of this chapter. Quasimodo experiences Notre-Dame as an ageless, self-perpetuating universe, and Hugo's juxtaposition of this relationship with that of Frollo emphasizes the author's reverent attitude towards the edifice and its ultimate transcendence of the culture that created it.
ContributorsHeidinger, Sedona Lee (Author) / Codell, Julie (Thesis director) / Dove-Viebahn, Aviva (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
How do we visualize environments outside our solar system? I have researched two very alien planets and their compositions with the goal of finding out how those differences would affect the way a planet appears on its surface. The first is a planet orbiting the nearby G type star Tau Ceti. This star has Mg/Si ratio of 1.78, compared to 1.2 found on the Earth. A planet formed around this star could have a very active surface, covered in volcanoes. The other planet is a hypothetical carbon planet that could orbit the star HD 144899. This star has a C/O ratio of 0.8, compared to 0.5 in the Sun. A planet formed here might be comprised mostly of carbides, with a hydrocarbon atmosphere. It would likely be geologically dead, the main forces shaping its surface being meteorites. Both planets, due to their extremes, would likely be barren and lifeless. The results of this project are two digital paintings showcasing my vision of these planets.
ContributorsGonzales, Joshua Michael (Author) / Young, Patrick (Thesis director) / Patience, Jennifer (Committee member) / Button, Melissa (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The recent emergence of DNA-based diagnostics increases the demand for rapid DNA sequencing technologies. One method to achieve this is to pass DNA through a nanopore, recording the trans-membrane current with a low-noise current amplifier. The project outlined in this report aims to demonstrate a design of a custom amplifier that offers a wider bandwidth than current designs while maintaining a low signal to noise ratio. The novel amplifier has been designed such that a multi-stage RF signal chain is integrated with an existing amplifier circuit to achieve DNA translocation. Both the existing amplifier circuit and the RF signal chain have produced outputs showing that the two amplifiers are functional and both low frequency signals and high frequency signals can be amplified with this comprehensive circuit design.
ContributorsDharan, Abhishek (Co-author) / Becker, Jared (Co-author) / Goryll, Michael (Thesis director) / Yu, Hongyu (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
A high voltage plasma arc can be created and sustained in air by subjecting the gases to an electric field with high voltage potential, causing ionization. The internal energy of the ionized gases can be transferred to corresponding pressure waves when the matter involved switches between the gaseous and plasma states. By pulse-width modulating a transformer driving signal, the transfer of internal electrical energy to resonating pressure waves may be controlled. Audio wave input to the driver signal can then be modulated into the carrier wave and be used to determine the width of each pulse in the plasma, thus reconstructing the audio signal as pressure, or sound waves, as the plasma arc switches on and off. The result will be the audio waveform resonating out of the plasma arc as audible sound, and thus creating a plasma loudspeaker. Theory of operation was tested through construction of a plasma arc speaker, and resultant audio playback was analyzed. This analysis confirmed accurate reproduction of audio signal in audible sound.
ContributorsBoehringer, Brian Thomas (Author) / Roedel, Ronald (Thesis director) / Huffman, James (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
This study looked at college-age students' ability to comprehend and retain information learned from news articles depending on what platform they read from. Fifteen participants read three local New York Times articles on each of the platforms provided: iPad, laptop, and paper. They took one test immediately after to test comprehension and another two weeks later to test their retention. Participants were also asked if they found the articles interesting, enjoyable, clear, etc. Results showed that participants' views on each format had little, if any, affect on their number of correct responses. The most consistent results on the participants' perceptions of the formats came from the laptop and paper, whereas the iPad received a bimodal pattern of responses. Participants were also asked to share their news habits while taking the test by selecting how frequently they gain news from various sources such as social media or television. These habits also seemed to have very little effect on their scores.
ContributorsKillin, Jamie Faye (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Russomanno, Joseph (Committee member) / Dodge, Nancie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Language is powerful. The words we use define our perceptions. They label what we see and paint a picture for those with whom we are communicating. Words serve as heuristic when assigning value to an object, experience, or person. My thesis, Eye of the BeholdHer, focuses on the language used in American pop-culture to describe women. I comment on the dehumanization of women through the use of animal names used to describe personality, appearance, and genitalia, as well as the way the English language implies domestication and inferiority of women through the use of the certain words. Examples include, but are not limited to: bitch , chick, pussy, beaver, cougar, catty, heifer, old bat, mousy, foxy, and vixen. Eye of the Behold(her) reflects upon my observations and calls for social change. Eye of the BeholdHer is a call for action. It is time to make conscious word choices and realize the impact words have on shaping our society. It is time for us to empowHer through words.
ContributorsGibly, Sophia (Author) / Maxwell, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Ellsworth, Angela (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor)
Created2014-05