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Along with the number of technologies that have been introduced over a few years ago, gesture-based human-computer interactions are becoming the new phase in encompassing the creativity and abilities for users to communicate and interact with devices. Because of how the nature of defining free-space gestures influence user's preference and the length of usability of gesture-driven devices, defined low-stress and intuitive gestures for users to interact with gesture recognition systems are necessary to consider. To measure stress, a Galvanic Skin Response instrument was used as a primary indicator, which provided evidence of the relationship between stress and intuitive gestures, as well as user preferences towards certain tasks and gestures during performance. Fifteen participants engaged in creating and performing their own gestures for specified tasks that would be required during the use of free-space gesture-driven devices. The tasks include "activation of the display," scroll, page, selection, undo, and "return to main menu." They were also asked to repeat their gestures for around ten seconds each, which would give them time and further insight of how their gestures would be appropriate or not for them and any given task. Surveys were given at different time to the users: one after they had defined their gestures and another after they had repeated their gestures. In the surveys, they ranked their gestures based on comfort, intuition, and the ease of communication. Out of those user-ranked gestures, health-efficient gestures, given that the participants' rankings were based on comfort and intuition, were chosen in regards to the highest ranked gestures.
ContributorsLam, Christine (Author) / Walker, Erin (Thesis director) / Danielescu, Andreea (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering (Contributor) / School of Arts, Media and Engineering (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Computing and Informatics Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Accidental wetlands have been created on the bed of the Salt River and are fed by storm-water outfalls discharging at various sections of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. Water discharges from these outfalls throughout the year, during both dry conditions (base flow) and during rain events (storm flow). In this study, DOC content and composition was studied during these two flow conditions, in the outfalls and along the wetland flow path. The importance of DOC lies in its role in transporting carbon via water movement, between different parts of a landscape, and therefore between pools in the ecosystem. Urbanization has influenced content and composition of DOC entering the accidental urban wetland via outfalls as they represent watersheds from different areas in Phoenix. First, DOC load exhibited higher quantities during stormflow compared to baseflow conditions. Second, DOC load and fluorescence analysis outcomes concluded the outfalls are different from each other. The inputs of water on the north side of the channel represent City of Phoenix watersheds were similar to each other and had high DOC load. The northern outfalls are both different in load and composition from the outfall pipe on the southern bank of the wetland as it represents South Mountain watershed. Fluorescence analysis results also concluded compositional changes occurred along the wetland flow path during both stormflow and baseflow conditions. In this study, it was explored how urbanization and the associated changes in hydrology and geomorphology have affected a desert wetland's carbon content.
ContributorsBone, Stephanie Rosalia (Author) / Hartnett, Hilairy (Thesis director) / Palta, Monica (Committee member) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
G3Box's 2013 Marketing Plan outlines a strategic plan and short term operational strategies for the company. The document includes a discussion of the company's decision to enter the market for healthcare facilities in developing counties, and a situation assessment of the market conditions. G3Box is targeting small and large NGOs that currently provide healthcare facilities in developing countries. The market size for healthcare aid in developing countries is estimated to be $1.7 billion. The plan also analyses the customer's value chain and buying cycle by using voice of the customer data. The strategic position analysis profiles G3Box's competition and discusses the company's differential advantage versus other options for healthcare facilities in developing countries. Next the document discusses G3Box's market strategy and implementation, along with outlining a value proposition for the company. G3Box has two objectives for 2013: 1) Increase sales revenue to $1.3 million and 2) increase market presence to 25%. In order to reach these objectives, G3Box has developed a primary and secondary strategic focus for each objective. The primary strategies are relationship selling and online marketing. The secondary strategies are developing additional value-added activities and public relations.
ContributorsWalters, John (Author) / Denning, Michael (Thesis director) / Ostrom, Lonnie (Committee member) / Carroll, James (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
The majority of the 52 photovoltaic installations at ASU are governed by power purchase agreements (PPA) that set a fixed per kilowatt-hour rate at which ASU buys power from the system owner over the period of 15-20 years. PPAs require accurate predictions of the system output to determine the financial viability of the system installations as well as the purchase price. The research was conducted using PPAs and historical solar power production data from the ASU's Energy Information System (EIS). The results indicate that most PPAs slightly underestimate the annual energy yield. However, the modeled power output from PVsyst indicates that higher energy outputs are possible with better system monitoring.
ContributorsVulic, Natasa (Author) / Bowden, Stuart (Thesis director) / Bryan, Harvey (Committee member) / Sharma, Vivek (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
The 21st century engineer will face a diverse set of challenges spread out along a broad spectrum of disciplines. Among others, the fields of energy, healthcare, cyberspace, virtual reality, and neuroscience require monumental efforts by the new generation of engineers to meet the demands of a growing society. However the most important, and likely the most under recognized, challenge lies in developing advanced personalized learning. It is the core foundation from which the rest of the challenges can be accomplished. Without an effective method of teaching engineering students how to realize these grand challenges, the knowledge pool from which to draw new innovations and discoveries will be greatly diminished. This paper introduces the Inventors Workshop (IW), a hands-on, passion-based approach to personalized learning. It is intended to serve as a manual that will inform the next generation of student leaders and inventioneers about the core concepts the Inventors Workshop was built upon, and how to continue improvement into the future. Due to the inherent complexities in the grand challenge of personalized learning, the IW has developed a multifaceted solution that is difficult to explain in a single phrase. To enable comprehension of the IW's full vision, the process undergone to date of establishing and expanding the IW is described. In addition, research has been conducted to determine a variety of paths the Inventors Workshop may utilize in future expansion. Each of these options is explored and related to the core foundations of the IW to assist future leaders and partners in effectively improving personalized learning at ASU and beyond.
ContributorsEngelhoven, V. Logan (Author) / Burleson, Winslow (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Fortun, A. L. Cecil (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering (Contributor)
Created2012-12
ContributorsShah, Beejal (Author) / Nakamura, Mutsumi (Thesis director) / Balasooriya, Janaka (Committee member) / Wilkerson, Kelly (Committee member) / Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Electrospun nanofibers can be prepared from various kinds of inorganic substances by electro-spinning techniques. They have great potential in many applications including super capacitors, lithium ion batteries, filtration, catalyst and enzyme carriers, and sensors [1]. The traditional way to produce electrospun nanofibers is needle based electro-spinning [1]. However, electrospun nanofibers have not been widely used in practice because of low nanofiber production rates. One way to largely increase the electro-spinning productivity is needleless electro-spinning. In 2005, Jirsak et al. patented a rotating roller fiber generator for the mass production of nanofibers [2]. Elmarco Corporation commercialized this technique to manufacture nanofiber equipment for the production of all sorts of organic and inorganic nanofibers, and named it "NanospiderTM". For this project, my goal is to build a needleless electro-spinner to produce nanofibers as the separator of lithium ion batteries. The model of this project is based on the design of rotating roller fiber generator, and is adapted from a project at North Dakota State University in 2011 [3].
ContributorsQiao, Guanhao (Author) / Yu, Hongyu (Thesis director) / Jiang, Hanqing (Committee member) / Goryll, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Agriculture is the second largest water consumer in the Phoenix Metropolitan region, after the municipal sector. A significant portion of the cultivated land and agricultural water demand is from the production of animal feed, including alfalfa (~69% of total cropland area), corn (~8), and sorghum (-3%), which are both exported and needed to support local dairy industry. The goal of this thesis is to evaluate the impacts on water demand and crop production of four different crop portfolios using alfalfa, corn, sorghum, and feed barley. For this aim, the Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) platform and the embedded MABIA agronomic module are applied to the Phoenix Active Management Area (AMA), a political/hydrological region including most of Phoenix Metro. The simulations indicate that the most efficient solution is a portfolio where all study crop production is made up by sorghum, with an increase of 153% in crop yield and a reduction of 60% of water consumption compared to current conditions. In contrast, a portfolio where all study crop production is made up by alfalfa, which is primary crop grown in current conditions, decreased crop yield by 77% and increases water demand by 105%. Solutions where all study crop production is achieved with corn or feed barley lead to a reduction of 77% and 65% of each respective water demand, with a portfolio of all corn for study crop production increasing crop yield by 245% and a portfolio of all feed barley for study crop production reducing crop yield by 29%.
ContributorsRees, Kendall Marcella (Author) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Thesis director) / Muenich, Rebecca (Committee member) / Chhetri, Netra (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Eng Program (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
There has been much work done predicting the effects of climate change on transportation systems, this research parallels that past work and focuses on the effect of changes in precipitation on roadway drainage systems. On a macro level, this work addresses the process that should be taken to make predictions about the vulnerability of this system due to changes in precipitation. This work also addresses the mechanisms of failure of these drainage systems and how they may be affected by changes in precipitation due to climate change. These changes may entail more frequent failure by certain mechanisms, or a shift in the mechanisms for particular infrastructure. A sample water basin in the urban environment of Phoenix, Arizona is given as a case study. This study looks at the mechanisms of failure of the infrastructure therein, as well as provides a process of analyzing the effects of increases in precipitation to the vulnerability of this infrastructure. It was found that drainage structures at roadways being currently designed will see increases from 20-30% in peak discharge, which will lead to increased frequency of failure.
ContributorsHolt, Nathan Thomas (Author) / Chester, Mikhail V (Thesis director) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Underwood, Benjamin S. (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
There is a considerable need for improved understanding of the outcome and amounts of water used to manage urban landscapes in arid and semiarid cities. Outdoor irrigation in urban parks consists of a large fraction of water demands in Phoenix, Arizona. Hence, ecohydrological processes need to be considered to improve outdoor irrigation management. With the goal of reducing outdoor water use and advancing the general knowledge of water fluxes in urban parks, this study explores water conservation opportunities in an arid city through observations and modeling.Most urban parks in Phoenix consist of a mosaic of turfgrass and trees which receive scheduled maintenance, fertilization and watering through sprinkler or flood irrigation. In this study, the effects that different watering practices, turfgrass management and soil conditions have on soil moisture observations in urban parks are evaluated. Soil moisture stations were deployed at three parks with stations at control plots with no compost application and compost treated sites with either a once or twice per year application instead of traditional fertilizer. An eddy covariance system was installed at a park to help quantify water losses and water, energy and carbon fluxes between the turfgrass and atmosphere. Additional meteorological observations are provided through a network of weather stations. The assessment covers over one year of observations, including the period of turfgrass growth in the warm season, and a period of dormancy during the cool season. The observations were used to setup and test a plot-scale soil water balance model to simulate changes in daily soil moisture in response to irrigation, precipitation and evapotranspiration demand for each park.
Combining modeling and observations of climate-soil-vegetation processes, I provide guidance on irrigation schedules and management that could help minimize water losses while supporting turfgrass health in desert urban parks. The irrigation scenarios suggest that water savings of at least 18% can be achieved at the three sites. While the application of compost treatment to study plots did not show clear improvements in soil water retention when compared to the control plots, this study shows that water conservation can be promoted while maintaining low plant water stress.
ContributorsKindler, Mercedes (Author) / Vivoni, Enrique R (Thesis advisor) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Garcia, Margaret (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021