Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Determining Political Inclination In Tweets Using Transfer Learning, Mehtab Iqbal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Last few years have seen tremendous development in neural language modeling for transfer learning and downstream applications. In this research, I used Howard and Ruder’s Universal Language Model Fine Tuning (ULMFiT) pipeline to develop a classifier that can determine whether a tweet is politically left leaning or right leaning by likening the content to tweets posted by @TheDemocrats or @GOP accounts on Twitter. We achieved 87.7% accuracy in predicting political ideological inclination.

Computer Vision-Based Traffic Sign Detection And Extraction: A Hybrid Approach Using Gis And Machine Learning, Zihao Wu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traffic sign detection and positioning have drawn considerable attention because of the recent development of autonomous driving and intelligent transportation systems. In order to detect and pinpoint traffic signs accurately, this research proposes two methods. In the first method, geo-tagged Google Street View images and road networks were utilized to locate traffic signs. In the second method, both traffic signs categories and locations were identified and extracted from the location-based GoPro video. TensorFlow is the machine learning framework used to implement these two methods. To that end, 363 stop signs were detected and mapped accurately using the first method (Google …

Bulky Thiolated Gold Nanomolecules: Synthesis, Characterization, Optical Properties, And Atomic Structure, Tanya Clorise Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gold nanomolecules (NMs) have a distinct number of gold atoms and thiolate ligands, Aux(SR)y, with unique spectroscopic, electrochemical, and chiral properties which are dependent on “x” and “y”. The properties of NMs are dictated by the type of capping ligand. The overall structure, size, surface percentage of ligands, and structure of an entire gold NM is changed based on the type of ligand used to synthesize it. Ligand type, such as aliphatic, aromatic or bulky play a crucial role in determining the size and composition of such NMs. A NM’s composition and properties vary widely depending on the type of …

Mefenamic Acid – Hpmc As Hg Amorphous Solid Dispersions: Dissolution Enhancement Using Hot Melt Extrusion Technology, Ashay Shukla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mefenamic acid, a BCS class II drug, displays high permeability and low solubility, thereby exhibiting a poor dissolution profile. Hence to improve the solubility and dissolution rate of Mefenamic acid, Hot Melt Extrusion (HME) technique was employed. The amorphous solid dispersion matrix exhibited enhanced dissolution with desired release characteristics. Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose acetate succinate (AquaSolve™ HPMC-AS HG) was used as a carrier with the poloxamer (Kolliphor P407). The drug load was varied from 20% to 40% within the blend. Drug and polymers were blended using a twin shell V-blender for 10 minutes and extruded using an 11mm twin-screw co-rotating extruder (ThermoFisher Scientific, …

Barrier Graphs And Extremal Questions On Line, Ray, Segment, And Hyperplane Sensor Networks, Kirk Anthony Boyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A sensor network is typically modeled as a collection of spatially distributed objects with the same shape, generally for the purpose of surveilling or protecting areas and locations. In this dissertation we address several questions relating to sensors with linear shapes: line, line segment, and rays in the plane, and hyperplanes in higher dimensions.

First we explore ray sensor networks in the plane, whose resilience is the number of sensors that must be crossed by an agent traveling between two known locations. The coverage of such a network is described by a particular tripartite graph, the barrier graph of the …

Development And Characterization Of An Inexpensive Single-Particle Fluorescence Spectrometer For Detection And Classification Of Pollen And Other Bioaerosols, Benjamin E. Swanson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric aerosols are ubiquitous throughout the Earth’s atmosphere and can be important with respect to environmental systems and human health. Pollen particles are a class of primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs) that cost the United States billions of dollars a year in loss of productivity and healthcare costs due to allergy and respiratory effects. Traditional methods of pollen detection rely on collection and subsequent identification by visual microscopy, yet few measurement stations exist in the United States. As such, current pollen forecasting models have relatively high prediction uncertainty, especially in regions without sampling stations. Recently, laser-induced fluorescence instrumentation has been …

Lewis Base Promoted Annulations Of Allenoates With 1,4-Naphthoquinones, Nicole Marie Shoup

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lewis base promoted cyclization of allenoates with electron deficient olefins open up the possibility to generate more complex organic structures. By generating more complex molecules, we are able to produce new compounds for biomedical and material applications. Both phosphine and amine Lewis bases offer interesting annulations with allenoates resulting in Lu or Morita–Baylis–Hillman type reactions. Once the Lewis base engages with the allenoate there can be several modes of nucleophilic reactivity that allows for the allenic ester to act as a two or three carbon synthon. The allenoate can then react with varying electron deficient olefins generating more complex molecules …

Scalable Network Design And Management With Decentralized Software-Defined Networking, Kuldip Singh Atwal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Network softwarization is among the most significant innovations of computer networks in the last few decades. The lack of uniform and programmable interfaces for network management led to the design of OpenFlow protocol for the university campuses and enterprise networks. This breakthrough coupled with other similar efforts led to an emergence of two complementary but independent paradigms called software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). As of this writing, these paradigms are becoming the de-facto norms of wired and wireless networks alike. This dissertation mainly addresses the scalability aspect of SDN for multiple network types. Although centralized control and …

Quantitative Aspects Of Interface Remodeling During Germband Extension, Timothy E. Vanderleest

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Oriented cell intercalation is an essential developmental process that shapes tissue morphologies through the directional insertion of cells between their neighbors. Intercalary behaviors in the early Drosophila embryo occur through a remodeling of cell topologies, with cells contracting shared AP interfaces to a single point, followed by newly juxtaposed DV cells constructing horizontally-oriented interfaces between them. Previous research has focused on properties of cell-cell interfaces, and led to a model in which actomyosin networks mediate higher line tensions at AP interfaces to direct contraction. However, the contribution of tricellular vertices to tissue elongation remains unclear. This study shows that cell …

Applications Of Geometric And Spectral Methods In Graph Theory, Lauren Morey Nelsen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Networks, or graphs, are useful for studying many things in today’s world. Graphs can be used to represent connections on social media, transportation networks, or even the internet. Because of this, it’s helpful to study graphs and learn what we can say about the structure of a given graph or what properties it might have. This dissertation focuses on the use of the probabilistic method and spectral graph theory to understand the geometric structure of graphs and find structures in graphs. We will also discuss graph curvature and how curvature lower bounds can be used to give us information about …

Application Of Retrograde Analysis To Fighting Games, Kristen Yu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the advent of the fighting game AI competition, there has been recent interest in two-player fighting games. Monte-Carlo Tree-Search approaches currently dominate the competition, but it is unclear if this is the best approach for all fighting games. In this thesis we study the design of two-player fighting games and the consequences of the game design on the types of AI that should be used for playing the game, as well as formally define the state space that fighting games are based on. Additionally, we also characterize how AI can solve the game given a simultaneous action game model, …

Gallai-Ramsey Number For Classes Of Brooms, Benjamin J. Hamlin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Given a graph $G$, we consider the problem of finding the minimum number $n$ such that any $k$ edge colored complete graph on $n$ vertices contains either a rainbow colored triangle or a monochromatic copy of the graph $G$, denoted $gr_k(K_{3}:G)$. More precisely we consider $G=B_{m,\ell}$ where $B_{m,\ell}$ is a broom graph with $m$ representing the number of vertices on the handle and $\ell$ representing the number of bristle vertices. We develop a technique to reduce the difficulty of finding $gr_{k}(K_{3}:B_{m,\ell})$, and use the technique to prove a few cases with a fixed handle length, but arbitrarily many bristles. Further, …

The Relationship Between Housing Affordability And Demographic Factors: Case Study For The Atlanta Beltline, Chapman T. Lindstrom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Housing affordability has been a widely examined subject for populations residing in major metropolitan regions around the world. The relationship between housing affordability and the city’s demographics and its volume of urban development are important to take into consideration. In the past two decades there has been an increasing volume of literature detailing Atlanta Georgia’s large-scale redevelopment project, the Atlanta BeltLine (ABL), and its relationship with Atlanta’s Metropolitan population and housing affordability. The first objective of this paper is to study the relationship between housing affordability at two scales within the Atlanta Metropolitan Area (AMA) for both renters and homeowners. …

Data Patterns Discovery Using Unsupervised Learning, Rachel A. Lewis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Self-care activities classification poses significant challenges in identifying children’s unique functional abilities and needs within the exceptional children healthcare system. The accuracy of diagnosing a child's self-care problem, such as toileting or dressing, is highly influenced by an occupational therapists’ experience and time constraints. Thus, there is a need for objective means to detect and predict in advance the self-care problems of children with physical and motor disabilities. We use clustering to discover interesting information from self-care problems, perform automatic classification of binary data, and discover outliers. The advantages are twofold: the advancement of knowledge on identifying self-care problems in …

Safety Constraint Optimization Of Combination Drug Therapy In Hypertension Clinical Trials, Victor Chukwu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Clinical Practice, combination drug therapy has become common in treating many disease conditions. The purpose of these combinations is often to ensure optimal efficacy and to reduce adverse effects that may arise from monotherapy. Clinical trials have also been conducted to ensure efficacy and safety of these combinations before they are introduced into the market. However, adverse effects still occur with combination therapies. The objective of this study is to (1) To determine a region of optimum doses of Drug A and Drug B in combination while focusing on efficacy alone (2) To determine a region of optimum doses …

Decidability For Residuated Lattices And Substructural Logics, Gavin St. John

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We present a number of results related to the decidability and undecidability of various varieties of residuated lattices and their corresponding substructural logics. The context of this analysis is the extension of residuated lattices by various simple equations, dually, the extension of substructural logics by simple structural rules, with the aim of classifying simple equations by the decidability properties shared by their extensions. We also prove a number of relationships among simple extensions by showing the equational theory of their idempotent semiring reducts coincides with simple extensions of idempotent semirings. On the decidability front, we develop both semantical and syntactical …

Photoassisted Synthesis Of Complex Polyheterocycles Via Esipt-Driven Dearomative Intramolecular Cycloadditions, Dmitry Kuznetsov

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research is focused on the development of novel photoassisted synthetic methodologies that provide straightforward access to complex and diverse libraries of polyheterocycles from modularly assembled precursors. All methods are based on the dearomative cycloadditions between two components: (i) o-azaxylylenes, generated by the excited-state intramolecular proton transfer, and (ii) tethered arene groups.

We have demonstrated the synthetic utility of four new photoinduced processes that yield complex products amenable for post-photochemical modifications:

• [4+4] Cycloaddition of o-azaxylylenes to 1,3,4-oxadiazoles with subsequent dinitrogen extrusion. This reaction furnishes compounds outfitted with epoxide fragments, which undergo ring-openings with various nucleophiles; furthermore, the oxidized products …

Rapid-Scan Epr And Imaging, Yilin Shi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

EPR imaging at low frequency is a powerful tool to obtain important biological information in vivo in a non-invasive way. Properties of nitroxide and trityl radical imaging reagents have been studied. Developments in rapid scan imaging techniques are reported that improve efficiency of experiments and user-friendliness of software.

Relaxation and signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) in pulse experiments on trityl radicals were measured at frequencies between 400 MHz and 1.5 GHz. Relaxation time increases as the frequency increases and the radical concentration decreases. Since relaxation time is a sensitive and accurate measure of oxygen pressure, this study provides criteria for the selection …

Coupling Of Light's Orbital Angular Momentum To A Quantum Dot Ensemble, Alaa A. Bahamran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We theoretically and experimentally investigate the transfer of orbital angular momentum from light to an ensemble of semiconductor-based nanostructures composed of lead sulfide quantum dots. Using an ensemble of quantum dots offers a higher cross-section and more absorption of twisted light fields compared to experimentally challenging single-nanostructure measurements. However, each quantum dot (except for on-center) sees a displaced light beam parallel to its own axis of symmetry. The transition matrix elements for the light-matter interaction are calculated by expressing the displaced light beam in terms of the appropriate light field centered on the nanoparticles. The resulting transition rate induced by …

Evaluating Software Testing Techniques: A Systematic Mapping Study, Mitchell Mayeda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Software testing techniques are crucial for detecting faults in software and reducing the risk of using it. As such, it is important that we have a good understanding of how to evaluate these techniques for their efficiency, scalability, applicability, and effectiveness at finding faults. This thesis enhances our understanding of testing technique evaluations by providing an overview of the state of the art in research. To accomplish this we utilize a systematic mapping study; structuring the field and identifying research gaps and publication trends. We then present a small case study demonstrating how our mapping study can be used to …

A Comparison Of Bayesian Estimation Techniques In A Multidimensional Two-Parameter Partial Credit Item Response Model, Peiyan Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bayesian estimation methods have shown better performance than the traditional Marginal Maximum Likelihood (MML) estimation method for parameter estimation in relatively simple item response models. However, extant literature is lacking on the investigation of Bayesian parameter estimation approaches for a multidimensional two parameter partial credit (M2PPC) model, therefore this simulation study investigated the performance of two Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms: Gibbs Sampler and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo-No-U-Turn-Sampler (HMC-NUTS) for M2PPC models' parameter estimation. It compared the estimation accuracy and computing speed in different combinations of situations, including prior choices, test lengths, and the relationships between dimensions.

The datasets …

Probabilistic Record Linkage With Elliptic Curve Operations, Shreya Dhiren Patel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Federated query processing for an electronic health record infrastructure enables large epidemiology studies using data integrated from geographically dispersed medical institutions. However, government imposed privacy regulations prohibit disclosure of patient's health record outside the context of clinical care, thereby making it difficult to determine which records correspond to the same entity in the process of query aggregation.

Privacy-preserving record linkage is an actively pursued research area to facilitate the linkage of database records under the constraints of regulations that do not allow the linkage agents to learn sensitive identities of record owners. In earlier works, scalability has been shown to …

Development Of A Hek293 Cell Line To Show Inhibition Of Tau Aggregation, Justin Ray Shady

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intracellular deposition of aggregated tau is the hallmark of several different tauopathies, the most widespread of these being Alzheimer's disease. Tau is a highly soluble, intrinsically disordered, microtubule associated protein. Tau's native function is to stabilize microtubule formation in the axons of neurons. Post translational modification such as hyperphosphorylation as well as several familial mutations allow tau to nucleate and form fibrils. These fibrils can recruit healthy monomers onto their ends in a fashion described as template-assisted growth. Tau has 6 isoforms that vary by the inclusion or exclusion of two N-terminal repeats and the inclusion or exclusion of the …

Multidimensional Spectroscopy Of Mixed-Cation Perovskite Thin Films, Geoffrey Michael Diederich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Metal halide perovskite (MHP) thin films are currently undergoing an intense re- search thrust due to the excellent performance of MHP based photovoltaic (PV) devices, which have the potential to revolutionize the worlds energy production via a unique combination of low-cost fabrication and high power conversion efficiency (PCE). However, the vast majority of research is currently aimed at incremental improvements in device PCE, resulting in a body of work without the foundational understanding of the charge-carrier dynamics of the system upon photoexcitation.

This thesis begins with the development of a phase-modulated multidimensional coherent spectroscopy (PM-MDCS) experiment. PM-MDCS is an ultrafast …

Synthesis Of N-Heterocyclic Molecules And Their Applicability Towards Ion Sensing: Polymeric Chemosensors, Aikohi M. Ugboya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Critical to biological and environmental processes are anions because often times their relative concentration in our body can be an indicator of one’s well-being. Therefore, highly sensitive and cost-efficient methods for ions recognition is necessary for human health. In recent times, polymeric chemosensors have become a vital tool for sensing ions because of its higher sensitivity and good mechanical properties compared to their monomeric counterparts. These sensors are designed to produce a measurable response in the presence of a targeted ion such as an electrochemical or optical signal. The unique structure and the photophysical properties of the 1,2,3-triazole core coupled …

Inverse Problems Related To The Wiener And Steiner-Wiener Indices, Matthew Gentry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a graph, the generalized distance between multiple vertices is the minimum number of edges in a connected subgraph that contains these vertices. When we consider such distances between all subsets of $k$ vertices and take the sum, it is called the Steiner $k$-Wiener index and has important applications in Chemical Graph Theory. In this thesis we consider the inverse problems related to the Steiner Wiener index, i.e. for what positive integers is there a graph with Steiner Wiener index of that value?

Petrology, Provenance, And Depositional Setting Of The Lower Tallahatta Formation (Meridian Sand) In Grenada County, Mississippi, Husamaldeen Zubi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Meridian Sand represents the lowermost member of the Middle Eocene Tallahatta Formation, which is found in the Gulf Coast region of the United States. Five stratigraphic sections in Grenada County were measured and described. Twenty-one sand and sandstone samples, and 2 mud samples were collected from all sections. Textural analyses were performed on all 23 samples to determine their lithologic properties. Petrographic descriptions and modal analyses were performed on thin sections made from the 21 sand and sandstone samples, and 400 grains were point counted in each sample. Geochemical analyses were carried out on all sand, sandstone, and mud …

Performance Evaluation Of Blocking And Non-Blocking Concurrent Queues On Gpus, Hossein Pourmeidani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The efficiency of concurrent data structures is crucial to the performance of multi-threaded programs in shared-memory systems. The arbitrary execution of concurrent threads, however, can result in an incorrect behavior of these data structures. Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have appeared as a powerful platform for high-performance computing. As regular data-parallel computations are straightforward to implement on traditional CPU architectures, it is challenging to implement them in a SIMD environment in the presence of thousands of active threads on GPU architectures. In this thesis, we implement a concurrent queue data structure and evaluate its performance on GPUs to understand how it …

Development Of Cobalt And Iron Catalysts Bearing Rigid Polydentate Ligands For Proton Reduction And C-H Bond Oxidation, Lizhu Chen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The demand for energy consumption has increased exponentially since the Industrial Revolution. The major source of this energy has been and continues to be fossil fuels. The depletion of fossil fuels and environmental concerns associated with their combustion has motivated us to develop a renewable energy alternative to meet future energy demands. Hydrogen is a clean energy alternative to fossil fuels, which can be generated from solar-driven water splitting. However, more efficient and inexpensive catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are needed. In this context, hydrogen production has been investigated with a stable and highly reactive cobalt-based catalyst. While …

Utilizing Various Neural Network Architectures To Play A Game Developed For Human Players, Michael Blake Arender

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neural Networks have received an explosive amount of attention and interest in recent years. Despite the fact that Neural Network algorithms having existed for many decades, it was not until recent advances in computer hardware that they saw widespread use. This is in no small part due to the success these algorithms have had in tasks ranging from image classification, voice recognition, game theory, and many other applications. Thanks to recent strides in hardware development, most importantly in the advancements in Graphics Processor Units including the capabilities of modern GPU Computing, Neural Networks are now capable of solving tasks at …