Matching Items (383)
Description
This paper analyzes existing literature regarding how excessive aggravating stimuli in a hospital environment can reduce the quality and quantity of sleep. The sick and injured are most sensitive to aggravating stimuli and the most vulnerable to poor sleep conditions. For individuals with anxiety, stress, hypersensitivity, or conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as additional stress during rest periods could seriously harm development and overall well-being. While solutions have been proposed and tested, there is no one solution to the problem. One possible solution is to design a device that monitors a patient's room and alerts a nurse or parent of aggravating stimuli so that it can be removed.
ContributorsKhan, Zarah Noor (Author) / Goryll, Michael (Thesis director) / Adams, James B. (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The Built-In Self-Test for Simultaneous Transmit and Receive (BIST for STAR) will be able to solve the challenges of transmitting and receiving at the same time at the same frequency. One of the major components is the STAR antenna which transmits and receives along the same pathway. The main problem with doing both on the same path is that the transmit signal is usually much stronger in power compared to the received signal. The transmit signal has echoes and leakages that cause self-interference, preventing the received signal from being properly obtained. The solution developed in this project is the BIST component, which will help calculate the functional gain and phase offset of the interference signal and subtract it from the pathway so that the received signal remains. The functions of the proposed circuit board can be modeled in Matlab, where an emulation code generates a random, realistic functional gain and delay for the interference. From the generated values, the BIST for STAR was simulated to output what the measurements would be given the strength of the input signal and a controlled delay. The original Matlab code models an ideal environment directly recalculating the functional gain and phase from the given measurements in a second Matlab script. The actual product will not be ideal; a possible source of error to be considered is the effect of thermal noise. To observe the effect of noise on the BIST for STAR's performance, the Matlab code was expanded upon to include a component for thermal noise, and a method of analyzing the results of the board.
ContributorsLiu, Jennifer Yuan (Author) / Ozev, Sule (Thesis director) / Kozicki, Michael (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Delusions of Grandeur: A Collection of Emotionally Revealing and Probably Not Funny Comedy Vignettes
Description
This creative project, titled What Did You Expect?, is five comedy plays all written and edited by me (with the help of my director Jason Scott), to ideally be performed all in a single night of entertainment. All five plays are united with an overarching theme, which sits somewhere on the borders of subverting expectations and the fortitude of human emotion. I have a long history writing sketch comedy (for a college student), but each of these plays were all written with the specific intention to divert from the style of short-form comedy to longer stories with dynamic characters and plot movement, rather than circling around one singular joke. Each play tells a story placed in a setting with specific expectations, then follows an absurd character as she or he subverts each and every one of those expectations. There are five plays. The first and fifth play comprise the two parts of the story of Leonardo Da Vinci and Mona Lisa, their secret love affair, and it discusses, through a series of misunderstandings and insults, broad realizations about love and art. The second is the story of a therapy session between a seasoned professional and a nightmare patient, and it follows the therapist's absurd descent into (brief) madness, as well as the patient's ascent into (brief) catharsis. The third play serves as a transition; a short monologue by a 13-year old boy delivering a science fair presentation about a hermit crab \u2014 only to realize that he and the crab have more in common than he would like to think. Finally, the fourth play is called Space Cowboy, and to discuss it any further would take all the fun out of reading it. Overall, the project was about self-discovery through a new form of comedy writing, and hopefully it's funny enough for someone to read. Hell, I'd even take a skim. If someone skimmed the plays, I'd consider this creative project a success. You've already read the abstract though, so we're off to a good start! If it's not up to your standards, all I have to say is...what did you expect?
ContributorsMahai, Cameron Jahon (Author) / Scott, Jason (Thesis director) / Maday, Gregory (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Popular culture has a longstanding tendency for being affected by, and reversely affecting, politics. Films, in particular, can exist as either purse “escapism” or heady pathways for political commentary. During the Second World War, governments in both the United States and Great Britain used film as a vessel for their own messages, but after the war ended, the two nations allowed their respective film industries more free expression in commenting on wartime and post-war politics. Film also provided particularly vivid political commentary during, and in the years immediately following, the Cold War. Though film has a longstanding history of being a force for political commentary, the medium’s specific engagement with the Cold War holds particular significance because works produced by the two nations’ film industries paralleled the social trend toward political activism at the time. While films produced in the UK and the United States in the 1960s addressed a wide range of contentious political issues, a huge body of work was spurred on by one of the most pressing political tensions of the time: namely, the Cold War.
The United States and Great Britain were major, allied forces during the Cold War. Despite their allied positions, they had unique politico-social perspectives that greatly reflected their immediate involvement in the conflict, in addition to their respective political histories and engagement in previous wars. As the Cold War threat was a large and, in many ways, incomprehensible one, each country took certain elements of the Cold War situation and used those elements to reflect their varied political social positions to a more popular audience and the culture it consumed.
In turn, filmmakers in both countries used their mediums to make overarching political commentaries on the Cold War situation. This analysis looks at five films from those countries during the 1960s, and explores how each representation offered different, often conflicting, perspectives on how to “manage” Cold War tensions, while simultaneously reflecting their conflicted culture and political decisions. The films analyzed reveal that each country focused on contrasting perceptions about the source of the threat posed by Soviet forces, thus becoming tools to further promote their distinct political stances. While the specifics of that commentary changed with each filmmaker, they generally paralleled each country’s perspective on the overall Cold War atmosphere. The British message represented the Cold War as a very internal battle—one that involved the threat within UK borders via the infiltration of spies the tools of espionage. In contrast, the American films suggest that the Cold War threat was largely an internal one, a struggle best combatted by increasing weaponry that would help control the threat before it reached American borders.
The United States and Great Britain were major, allied forces during the Cold War. Despite their allied positions, they had unique politico-social perspectives that greatly reflected their immediate involvement in the conflict, in addition to their respective political histories and engagement in previous wars. As the Cold War threat was a large and, in many ways, incomprehensible one, each country took certain elements of the Cold War situation and used those elements to reflect their varied political social positions to a more popular audience and the culture it consumed.
In turn, filmmakers in both countries used their mediums to make overarching political commentaries on the Cold War situation. This analysis looks at five films from those countries during the 1960s, and explores how each representation offered different, often conflicting, perspectives on how to “manage” Cold War tensions, while simultaneously reflecting their conflicted culture and political decisions. The films analyzed reveal that each country focused on contrasting perceptions about the source of the threat posed by Soviet forces, thus becoming tools to further promote their distinct political stances. While the specifics of that commentary changed with each filmmaker, they generally paralleled each country’s perspective on the overall Cold War atmosphere. The British message represented the Cold War as a very internal battle—one that involved the threat within UK borders via the infiltration of spies the tools of espionage. In contrast, the American films suggest that the Cold War threat was largely an internal one, a struggle best combatted by increasing weaponry that would help control the threat before it reached American borders.
ContributorsNelson, Taylor Lynn (Author) / Miller, April (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The apparent phenomenon of the human eye retaining images for fractions of a second after the light source has gone is known as Persistence of Vision. While its causes are not fully understood, it can be taken advantage of in order to create illusions which trick the mind into perceiving something which, in actuality, is very different from what the mind portrays. It has motivated many creative engineering technologies in the past and is the core for how we perceive motion in movies and animations. This project applies the persistence of vision concept to a lesser explored medium; the wheel of a moving bicycle. The motion of the wheel, along with intelligent control of discrete LEDs, create vibrant illusions of solid lines and shapes. These shapes make up the image to be displayed on the bike wheel. The rotation of the bike wheel can be compensated for in order to produce a standing image (or images) of the user's choosing. This thesis details how the mechanism for conducting the individual LEDs was created in order to produce a device which is capable of delivering colorful, standing images of the user's choosing.
ContributorsSaltwick, Ian Mark (Author) / Goryll, Michael (Thesis director) / Kozicki, Michael (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
RRAM is an emerging technology that looks to replace FLASH NOR and possibly NAND memory. It is attractive because it uses an adjustable resistance and does not rely on charge; in the sub-10nm feature size circuitry this is critical. However, RRAM cross-point arrays suffer tremendously from leakage currents that prevent proper readings in larger array sizes. In this research an exponential IV selector was added to each cell to minimize this current. Using this technique the largest array-size supportable was determined to be 512x512 cells using the conventional voltage sense amplifier by HSPICE simulations. However, with the increase in array size, the sensing latency also remarkably increases due to more sneak path currents, approaching 873 ns for the 512x512 array.
ContributorsMadler, Ryan Anton (Author) / Yu, Shimeng (Thesis director) / Cao, Yu (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
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
PHXmuraltour is an app for iPhone and Android that guides users through the plethora of mural art in downtown Phoenix. It can be found and downloaded from iTunes and the Android app store. Before the artists began drawing people downtown for events like First Fridays and ArtDetour during the 1980s, Phoenix was notorious for having a deserted city core. The art community brought life, color and vibrancy to the downtown landscape. The website giving more information about the project can be found at http://kristenhwang.com/PHX-mural-tour.html. This project aims to widen the reach of the mural art in downtown Phoenix. Public art has the unique ability to foster a conversation between people who may not think of themselves as art connoisseurs, but like all kinds of art the message can sometimes be mysterious to passersby. Many of the murals downtown portray Hispanic or Native American themes, make political statements, document historic events and people, or serve as visual spice. They are emblems of the values the downtown community identifies with--values like creativity, enterprise, civic responsibility and diversity. This project hopes to make these messages more prominent to people in downtown Phoenix. It is important for the students, workers, shop owners and residents downtown to have the opportunity to learn more about the mural art because the art community surrounding Roosevelt Row played an integral role in shaping the culture and texture of their daily lives.
ContributorsHwang, Kristen Lee Anne (Author) / Thornton, Leslie (Thesis director) / Dodge, Nancie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (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
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