The core element of democracy is elections. Modern elections not only cost a lot of money to conduct elections, but we also bear a lot of social costs when the election is questioned. For this reason, the US and European countries have been considering ways to innovate by introducing IT...
Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are the key building block for sensor applications, such as wireless communications and digital electronics. These applications require ADCs to have medium to high accuracy (normally from 10-14 bits) and relatively low signal bandwidth (ranging from 100Hz-150kHz). Since these applications are often powered by batteries, high power...
Histones, as part of nucleosomes, are responsible for DNA packaging in chromosomes. They also affect DNA expression by a multitude of post-translational modifications, especially prevalent on the amino terminus of histones. Co-activator protein complexes “write”, “read”, or “erase” histone modifications, and in balance determine which sections of DNA are free...
Background: Legislators, policy-makers, and leaders in higher education and within communities, are increasingly turning to place-based scholarships, or “promise programs”, to encourage college enrollment and address growing public concerns regarding college affordability. One such program, the Oregon Promise, was implemented across the state of Oregon in the fall of 2016....
While human tool-use proficiency helped define our history, the cognitive and perceptual mechanics of how humans use tools are not fully understood. This question is of great value to the design of hand-held tools and prosthetics. A prominent theory, tool embodiment, suggests that tool use is facilitated by a flexible...
This Thesis examines Brazil’s political and historical context to explore and understand the logics behind the high rates of violence in our society. It focuses in education as one of our main vehicles of disseminating knowledge and therefore culture, language and values that might be contributing and perpetuating sexism, racism,...
Urban stormwater runoff with a high impervious area can significantly impact pollution concentrations of receiving water bodies. The use of low impact development (LID), which mimics the hydrological properties of the site before development, has been studied in an increasing number of studies, and the available database has shown to...
This dissertation focuses on indoor free-space optical communications systems for use in short range wireless networks. We propose that current radio frequency wireless links be augmented or replaced with optical frequency links due to overcrowding in the radio frequency spectrum. Optical frequencies contain hundreds of terahertz of unregulated bandwidth and...
Characterizing stakeholder behavior when making decisions in watershed management is a great challenge for planners, not only because plans are associated with physical uncertainties but also because stakeholders’ behaviors are influenced by numerous factors. Since stakeholders’ decision-making is linked to multiple types of uncertainty, communication of uncertainty to stakeholders by...
Advanced geomatics tools such as robotic and terrestrial laser scanners have the potential to significantly improve the progress monitoring of construction sites throughout their life cycle, particularly in the concrete structures, from the initial stage to cracking the ground for excavation and shoring to outdoor pouring of concrete at above...