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Developing Machine Learning and Deep Learning Soil Moisture Models for Precision Agricultural Applications
Get PDFMonitoring soil moisture is increasingly becoming a research focus in the fields of agriculture, hydrology, meteorology, and ecology. While soil moisture measurements at points (<1 m?) and their estimation at larger scales (100-25,000 km?) have improved considerably, soil moisture modeling at the intermediate scales (10 to 100 m?) needs more attention. In this study, machine learning and deep learning models including multi-linear regression (MLR), support vector machine (SVM), Gaussian process regression (GPR), and convolutional neural networks (CNN) were built and compared for soil moisture predictions at different depths at the weather stations in the Red River Valley using locations, meteorological data, and soil physical properties. The results showed that the GPR (R?=0.80-0.90) outperformed other models including MLR (R?=68-0.82), SVM (R?=0.44-0.60), and CNN (R?=0.66-0.84) for soil moisture prediction. The prediction performance in the topsoil was better than in the subsoils. The GPR outperformed SVM when both models used the same kernel functions and kernel parameters
A Reader Response Approach to Storytelling and Tabletop Games: The Player's Experience of Dungeons and Dragons and Its Pedagogical Applications
Get PDFDungeons and Dragons (D&D) is a role-playing game (RPG) that has exploded in popularity since its conception in the 1970s. This paper aims to examine how D&D, and other RPGs like it, can be utilized within an academic setting by utilizing Reader Response theory. This theory, pioneered by theorists Louise Rosenblatt and Wolfgang Iser, would serve to measure the impact that D&D has on the players. Using an IRB approved study, this paper views the emotional impact, literary experience, and individual connections that participants make while playing D&D to show the worth that D&D has as a literary tool and pedagogical device. These responses from participants would also lead to viewing D&D as a pedagogical tool by taking inspiration from Simulation Games, Devised Theatre, and the use of Reader Response within the classroom
Aortic Stenosis and the Path to Polymer Valves
No full textAll available heart valve medical devices on the market are made from biological tissues.
The major drawback of using biological tissue is that it is prone to calcification, which is generally why the intervention was needed in the first place. There is also the limitation of lifetime of the device; because it is a biological material it is more prone to degradation, wear, and tear. This leaves room for improvement of the valve device, to move from a tissue valve to a polymer valve. There has been great promise with preliminary materials studies showing resistant to calcification and an almost doubling lifespan for a valve. However, none of this proposed polymer valves have gone through clinical testing and are in general still being bench- top studied. There is ample room for companies or research groups to explore medical device innovation relating to a polymer leaflet material
The Monster-as-Slayer in Blade (1998): Blade and Posthuman Identity
Get PDFBlade (1998) features an African American half-vampire whose goals seem contradictory: save the humans that would fear and hate him. A new character trope, the monster-as-slayer, is introduced in the movie?s eponymous hero, Blade, the half-vampire half-human private eye. Via this trope, the movie explores contradictions in its hero?s identity and motivations, leaving audiences in suspense throughout the film. Although there are examples of the monster-as-slayer in other media, Blade seems to begin this trend for modern film by combining classic elements of the vampire with new science fiction approaches. The result is the creation of a show-stopping posthuman superhero with whom the audience cannot help but empathize, monster or no monster. By analyzing the monster-as-slayer trope, I demonstrate a posthuman future on screen that encourages audiences to accept the monsters we are
Chatting with Confidence: A Review on the Impact of User Interface, Trust, and User Experience in Chatbots, and a Proposal of a Redesigned Prototype
Get PDFAs artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent in our daily lives, trust has become a critical issue in ensuring that AI systems are reliable, ethical, and beneficial to society. This paper explores the role of user experience (UX) in shaping users' trust in chat AI. Chat AI has become increasingly popular as a communication tool, but users often struggle with trusting the technology. The paper examines how different design elements, such as conversational style, interface, and feedback mechanisms, affect users' perception of trust in chat AI by analyzing previous literature written in this area. Research demonstrates that UX plays a critical role in users' trust in chat AI, with factors such as transparency, responsiveness, and empathy contributing to higher levels of trust. Using the results found in the research around this topic, a redesigned prototype of a popular chat AI software called chatGPT was created with the help of Figma
Enability: Enabling the Disabled
No full textCurrently, in architecture there is a lack of urgency to design for inclusivity.
There are guidelines put forward to create accessible buildings, but these
guidelines are the minimum. The ADA guidelines, in general, ensure that
all people can use all parts of a building and that people can get required
information to get around a space. There are many kinds of disabilities that
are not accounted for with these bare minimum rules and just as many creative
solutions to include in designs to create a new way to design accessible buildings
Sentiment Analysis of Tweets for Hate Speech Detection Using Binary Classification Algorithms and BERT
Get PDFIn the modern world, social media wields a lot of power. Twitter, particularly, has provided people a platform to express their opinions about everything under the sun from mundane everyday life to politics, race, religion etc. It has often come under scrutiny for unabashed propagation of hate speech. This project employs natural language processing techniques on a corpus of tweets to detect hate speech. A total of 3538 unique tokens are identified that appear only in tweets classified as hate speech. With the help of data visualization techniques like word clouds and frequency distribution plots, it became evident that the occurrence of sexist, homophobic, and racist slurs is the most frequent in hate tweets. This implies that women, LGBTQ+ community, and people of color are the most targeted sections of society
Healing Architecture: Lung Cancer Research and Treatment Center
Get PDFEmotional well-being is important for everyone. It can be hard to encompass a
healthy mentality when cancer is a prevalent factor in your life. People affected by
cancer spend a lot of time in a hospital, a place that is usually harsh and cold.
Hospitals are designed to help you heal physically, but it is becoming increasingly
known that mental health is just as important as physical health. Hospitals should be
designed with emotional wellbeing in mind. Researching the affects cancer has on
people emotionally will provide insight on how to design a hospital that will promote
emotional well-being and enhance the lives of those who spend the majority of their
time there
Arizona Arena: Ice in the Desert
Get PDFSports have the ability to bring a whole city together, especially
in a time of such division in this world, sports can bridge
those differences, even if it is for just a few hours. For many,
sports are a source for passion in one?s life. Growing up, playing
sports gave me an outlet to escape from the normal world.
Arena?s have some of the most unique design options in the entire
world. This thesis proposal shows how these buildings can be
built for sustainability, and made for all athletes at different stages
in their careers. These spaces provide a community with multiple
purposes, from hosting games, to concerts, to even holding farmer?s
markets on days where the team isn?t playing
Concertare: An Architectural Rediscovery of Spiritual Harmony in a Secular World
Get PDFEvery day, billions of tiny little miracles occur just to give us another breath. From a microscopic level of your
heart getting the energy it needs to beat 100,000 times a day to the cosmic level of the rotation of Earth and its
perfect distance from the Sun - that keeps us warm enough, but not incinerated - there is a chaos of neurons
firing, stars exploding, and atoms colliding, yet in it is a harmony that allows us to go about our everyday
lives. We are not independent of this cosmic song. Rather, we are inextricably a part of it, contributing to the
attunement of the universe with each heartbeat. The ancient world recognized this universal harmony as an
expression of divine intelligence, which constructed meaning in music and architecture. But with the rise of
Positivism, our world view has shifted from a spiritual one of human experience to a secular one of scientific
observation, resulting in disconnectedness. How do we recover an awareness of this harmony? In a world
that no longer holds a common belief, there is a need to expand the definition of spirituality to be collectively
understood by a modern audience. A common thread across all spiritual languages and beliefs emerges: poetic
analogy.
Through poetic analogy, this thesis proposes a series of architectural spaces that address our fundamental
human need for spirituality. Acting as a gallery for cosmic interconnectivity, these structures are a
programmatic sequence of musical, spiritual, and cosmic spaces that unfold across three sites: Dublin, Ireland,
London, United Kingdom, and Boston, Massachusetts. Grounded by the narrative of Handel's Messiah and
rooted in an endless narrative of cosmic harmony, these sites function analogically, as a symphony of their
own: connecting things near and far, tangible and intangible, and the self with Otherness in a poetic quest to
situate humanity between the earth and the heavens