Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Enabling And Optimizing Multi-Modal Sense-Making For Human-Ai Interaction Tasks, Dulanga Kaveesha Weerakoon Weerakoon Mudiyanselage

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The rapid pace of adoption of mixed-reality in tandem with advances in NLP and computer vision have opened up unprecedented opportunities for more naturalistic interaction interfaces which underpin Human-AI collaborative applications such as spatial computing and interactive conversational agents. One notable example is the emergence of interactive virtual assistants, which facilitate more natural communication of instructions and queries through modalities like voice and text. This trend is driving the development of innovative ubiquitous, mixed-reality computing applications. Such interactive, natural communication is also critical to support advances in human-robot interactive co-working, across a variety of industrial, commercial and home environments. Conventional …

Enabling Criticality-Aware Optimized Machine Perception At The Edge, Ila Nitin Gokarn

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Cyber-physical systems and applications have fundamentally changed people and processes in the way they interact with the physical world, ushering in the fourth industrial revolution. Supported by a variety of sensors, hardware platforms, artificial intelligence and machine learning models, and systems frameworks, CPS applications aim to automate and ease the burden of repetitive, laborious, or unsafe tasks borne by humans. Machine visual perception, encompassing tasks such as object detection, object tracking and activity analysis, is a key technical enabler of such CPS applications. Efficient execution of such machine vision perception tasks on resource-constrained edge devices, especially in terms of ensuring …

Improving The Performance Of Wi-Fi Indoor Localization In Both Dense And Unknown Environments, Quang Truong Hai

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Indoor localization is important for various pervasive applications, garnering considerable research attention over recent decades. Despite numerous proposed solutions, the practical application of these methods in real-world environments with high applicability remains challenging. One compelling use case for building owners is the ability to track individuals as they navigate through the building, whether for security, customer analytics, space utilization planning, or other management purposes. However, this task becomes exceedingly difficult in environments with hundreds or thousands of people in motion. Conversely, the need to track oneself’s location is also meaningful from the perspective of individuals traversing in crowded spaces. These …

Reducing Carbon Emissions With Returned Concrete, John M. Maxwell Jr.

Construction Management

The concrete industry is one of the most energy-intensive sectors of construction. Specifically, the cement production aspect is the most energy intensive, and produces the most carbon emissions. Concrete, a material ubiquitous with nearly every facet of construction; certain types of structures are composed of nearly all concrete. Production of cement is one of the biggest contributors to emissions within the industry. There have been initiatives to reduce or offset emissions from this process, through things like carbon capture, and the purchase of carbon or emissions credits. The objective of this paper was to investigate a new method of carbon …

Biomass Estimation Of Mature Mangrove Trees In The Uae Using Spaceborne Remote Sensing Techniques, Yasmine Ashraf Heikal

Theses

Mangrove forest ecosystems play an essential role in diminishing the effects of climate change caused by the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Estimating mangrove forest aboveground biomass (AGB) and hence aboveground carbon (AGC) can assist in decision-making for conservation, sustainable use, and protection of these forests. The goal of this research project was to map the AGB of mangrove forests along the coasts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with the aid of Landsat-8-9 satellite imagery data acquired in September 2023. 12 AGB estimation models were developed based on the combination of in situ measurements and Landsat-8-9 derived …

Evaluation Of Avian Use Of Agricultural Cover Crops During The Winter, Migration Stopover, And The Breeding Season In Tennessee, Brittany Panos

Masters Theses

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service administers the cover crop program to provide technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers to sow herbaceous plant seeds to establish cover crops to protect agricultural fields from soil erosion during the non-growing season (late fall through spring). Soil retention and water quality benefits have been documented, but potential benefits for avian wildlife remain largely unknown. I used line-transect avian and vegetation surveys to examine use of cover crop fields by birds during the non-breeding period (winter), migration, and the breeding season. I compared avian use of cover crop fields with …

Genetic Algorithm Optimization Of Experiment Design For Targeted Uncertainty Reduction, Alexander Amedeo Depillis

Masters Theses

Nuclear cross sections are a set of parameters that capture probability information about various nuclear reactions. Nuclear cross section data must be experimentally measured, and this results in simulations with nuclear data-induced uncertainties on simulation outputs. This nuclear data-induced uncertainty on most parameters of interest can be reduced by adjusting the nuclear data based on the results from an experiment. Integral nuclear experiments are experiments where the results are related to many different cross sections. Nuclear data may be adjusted to have less uncertainty by adjusting them to match the results obtained from integral experiments. Different integral experiments will adjust …

Evaluation Of Regression Methods And Competition Indices In Characterizing Height-Diameter Relationships For Temperate And Pantropical Tree Species, Sakar Jha

Masters Theses

Height-diameter relationship models, denoted as H-D models, have important applications in sustainable forest management which include studying the vertical structure of a forest stand, understanding the habitat heterogeneity for wildlife niches, analyzing the growth rate pattern for making decisions regarding silvicultural treatments. Compared to monocultures, characterizing allometric relationships for uneven-aged, mixed-species forests, especially tropical forests, is more challenging and has historically received less attention. Modelling how the competitive interactions between trees of varying sizes and multiple species affects these relationships adds a high degree of complexity. In this study, five regression methods and five distance-independent competition indices were evaluated for …

Advancing Compact Modeling Of Electronic Devices: Machine Learning Approaches With Neural Networks, Mixture Density Networks, And Deep Symbolic Regression, Jack Robert Hutchins

Masters Theses

This thesis pioneers the integration of deep learning techniques into the realm of compact modeling, presenting three distinct approaches that enhance the precision, efficiency, and adaptability of compact models for electronic devices. The first method introduces a Generalized Multilayer Perception Compact Model, leveraging the function approximation capabilities of neural networks through a multilayer perception (MLP) framework. This approach utilizes hyperband tuning to optimize network hyperparameters, demonstrating its effectiveness on a HfOx memristor and establishing a versatile modeling strategy for both single-state and multistate devices.

The second approach explores the application of Mixture Density Networks (MDNs) to encapsulate the inherent stochasticity …

Understanding Student Experiences With Tls Client Authentication, Clay A. Shubert

Masters Theses

This thesis presents a comprehensive investigation into student experiences with TLS client authentication, highlighting the usability challenges and learning curves associated with this long term key managament system. We designed a study that required future innovators in technology and security to use modern-day implementations of this certificate-based authentication system. From this study, we analyzed server logs, project reports, and survey responses from students enrolled in the applied cryptography course. We revealed significant hurdles in the initial setup and long-term key management of credentials used in TLS client authentication, emphasizing the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical implementation skills. Through quantitative …

Evaluation Of An End-To-End Radiotherapy Treatment Planning Pipeline For Prostate Cancer, Mohammad Daniel El Basha, Court Laurence, Carlos Eduardo Cardenas, Julianne Pollard-Larkin, Steven Frank, David T. Fuentes, Falk Poenisch, Zhiqian H. Yu

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Radiation treatment planning is a crucial and time-intensive process in radiation therapy. This planning involves carefully designing a treatment regimen tailored to a patient’s specific condition, including the type, location, and size of the tumor with reference to surrounding healthy tissues. For prostate cancer, this tumor may be either local, locally advanced with extracapsular involvement, or extend into the pelvic lymph node chain. Automating essential parts of this process would allow for the rapid development of effective treatment plans and better plan optimization to enhance tumor control for better outcomes.

The first objective of this work, to automate the treatment …

Information Based Approach For Detecting Change Points In Inverse Gaussian Model With Applications, Alexis Anne Wallace

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Change point analysis is a method used to estimate the time point at which a change in the mean or variance of data occurs. It is widely used as changes appear in various datasets such as the stock market, temperature, and quality control, allowing statisticians to take appropriate measures to mitigate financial losses, operational disruptions, or other adverse impacts. In this thesis, we develop a change point detection procedure in the Inverse Gaussian (IG) model using the Modified Information Criterion (MIC). The IG distribution, originating as the distribution of the first passage time of Brownian motion with positive drift, offers …

Artificial Intelligence's Ability To Detect Online Predators, Olatilewa Osifeso

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Online child predators pose a danger to children who use the Internet. Children fall victim to online predators at an alarming rate, based on the data from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children. When making online profiles and joining websites, you only need a name, an email and a password without identity verification. Studies have shown that online predators use a variety of methods and tools to manipulate and exploit children, such as blackmail, coercion, flattery, and deception. These issues have created an opportunity for skilled online predators to have fewer obstacles when it comes to contacting and …

Leveraging Blockchain Technology To Revamp The Vehicle Electrification Journey: Perspectives Of Accountability And Economic Circularity, Eva Escobar Brown

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The automotive industry is undergoing a significant transition accelerated by global emission regulations for a phase out of internal combustion engines (ICEs) and a transition toward the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). While regulatory measures and incentivized adoption for EVs presents opportunities for reducing emissions and promoting sustainability, it also poses complex challenges. The EV industry faces potential production challenges, particularly in the sourcing, manufacturing, and lifecycle management of critical minerals and raw materials for electric vehicle batteries (EVBs). With a heavy reliance on a steady and diversified supply of critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements, …

Crash Detecting System Using Deep Learning, Yogesh Reddy Muddam

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Accidents pose a significant risk to both individual and property safety, requiring effective detection and response systems. This work introduces an accident detection system using a convolutional neural network (CNN), which provides an impressive accuracy of 86.40%. Trained on diverse data sets of images and videos from various online sources, the model exhibits complex accident detection and classification and is known for its prowess in image classification and visualization.

CNN ensures better accident detection in various scenarios and road conditions. This example shows its adaptability to a real-world accident scenario and enhances its effectiveness in detecting early events. A key …

Sustainable Methodologies For Synthesis Of Small Organic Molecules Using Micellar Catalysis., Deborah Sam Ogulu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Organic synthesis is a critical process in the creation of small molecule pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. However, most methods for synthesizing these small molecules rely on toxic organic solvents as the reaction medium which account for approximately 80% of pharmaceutical waste. Moreover, many catalytic reactions require expensive endangered precious metals like palladium and costly metals. This dissertation presents research that aims to develop sustainable, eco-friendly reaction conditions to address these issues. We developed a ligand-free bimetallic nanocatalyst for the hydrogenation of unsaturated enones. This ligand-free nanocatalyst was prepared from nickel and ppm loading of palladium and was stabilized by harnessing the …

Assessing Sustainability Within The Brewing Industry: A Literature Review And Benchmarking Analysis., Elijah Thomas Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goals of this study were twofold: to further examine sustainability within the brewing industry through a literature analysis across four academic journals, and a benchmarking analysis of a Louisville, Kentucky brewery’s resource consumption and emissions production. Publications related to the brewing industry were examined for the presence of sustainability keywords: “efficiency, sustainability, carbon footprint, climate change and greenhouse gas”. Benchmarking examined the local brewery’s primary production facility to determine their performance compared to other surveyed breweries pursuing sustainability across the country. Literature examination found noticeable discrepancies between the appearance of sustainability topics within article abstracts and their discussion within …

Ligand-Stabilized Sno2 As A High-Performance And Scalable Electron Transport Material For Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells., Sashil Chapagain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, perovskite solar cell (PSC) technology has attracted significant attention for its low material costs, simple fabrication processes, and impressive photovoltaic performance, with recent power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) surpassing 26%. This advancement marks PSCs as strong competitors to traditional silicon-based photovoltaics. Despite the high efficiency of PSCs, the path to commercialization is hindered by challenges in stability, scalability, and module efficiency. The stability and scalability of PSCs are primarily dependent on the successive charge transfer layers (CTLs) that are interfaced with the perovskite layer. Among CTLs, metal oxide (MO_x) CTLs are preferred for their cost-effectiveness, …

Utilizing Metal Ligand Cooperativity To Activate Small Molecules., Christine Burgan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The problems created from the excessive use of fossil fuels can be approached from two directions: capture the CO₂ from the atmosphere or develop alternative energy sources. The current industrial standards for these are environmental and/or health hazards and utilize precious metals, respectively. Metal ligand cooperativity (MLC) has emerged as a promising alternative to using precious metals to activate small molecules. In this dissertation, we focus on a series of metal complexes based on the ligand diacetyl-2-(4-methyl-thiosemicarbazone)-3-(2-hydrazinopyridine) (H₂L¹) for either hydrogen evolution or CO₂ capture. The novel complexes were characterized by ¹H NMR, …

Mechanical And Thermal Measurement Techniques For Crystalline-Core/Crystalline-Clad Optical Fibers, Evan Watkins

All Theses

Optical fiber laser systems offer advantages such as high optical gain, efficient cooling, and the production of high-quality optical beams. Fiber lasers are characterized by their unique core-cladding structure, providing optical benefits and mechanical properties that impact their performance. Interests in materials such as yttrium aluminum garnets (YAG) and lutetium oxide (Lu2O3 also lutetia) as laser mediums are due to their high average power capabilities, but thermal management remains a challenge. This thesis discusses the choice of ytterbium (Yb3+) as a dopant in YAG and lutetia, exploring its electronic structure and relevance to thermal properties. The thesis focuses on the …

Multi-Script Handwriting Identification By Fragmenting Strokes, Joshua Jude Thomas

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

This study tests the effectiveness of Multi-Script Handwriting Identification after simplifying character strokes, by segmenting them into sub-parts. Character simplification is performed through splitting the character by branching-points and end-points, a process called stroke fragmentation in this study. The resulting sub-parts of the character are called stroke fragments and are evaluated individually to identify the writer. This process shares similarities with the concept of stroke decomposition in Optical Character Recognition which attempts to recognize characters through the writing strokes that make them up. The main idea of this study is that the characters of different writing‑scripts (English, Chinese, etc.) may …

Exploring The Relationship Between Anxiety And Virtual Reality Sickness, David Wesley Woolverton

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

As virtual reality (VR) becomes more commonly used in education, it is important to understand the technology’s weakness and mitigate any potential negative effects on student success. One adverse side-effect of VR use is simulation-induced motion sickness, known in the context of VR as VR sickness. Previous research by Howard and Van Zandt (2021) found that possessing a phobia had a significant positive correlation with VR sickness, but only if the phobia is triggered by the simulation, suggesting that symptoms are actually connected to the anxiety the phobia induces. This study explored the hypothesized correlation between anxiety and VR sickness, …

Geomagnetic Substorms Prediction Model Using Combined Physics-Based And Deep Learning Modeling Techniques, Ruthba Yasmin

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

This thesis aims to develop a hybrid physics-incorporated neural network model (PINN) for classifying geomangnetic substorms in Earth's Magnetosphere. The model is trained using a comprehensive list of substorm onsets, ground magentometer data from a global network, and solar wind parameters from the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite. Two different neural network architectures are used, and the physics model used for training is called WINDMI. The magnetic field components on the ground, which are a function of the ionospheric currents, are captured by the SML index. The methodology involves using 60-minute data segments preceding an event to train the hybrid …

Bay Water Level Influences On Inundation And Morphological Changes Of A Semi-Connected Barrier Island During A Hurricane, Sydney D. Goodman

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

This research aims to identify flooding and erosion changes along a semi-connected barrier island system due to varying bay water levels during storm conditions. The numerical model XBeach is used to simulate Hurricane Michael conditions and the resulting inundation and morphological change near Tyndall Air Force Base (Tyndall AFB). The installation is located 12 miles southeast of Panama City Beach along the panhandle of Florida and is vulnerable to flooding due to its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), Saint Andrew Sound and Saint Andrew Bay. A land bridge connects the barrier island to the mainland of Tyndall AFB …

Examining Outcomes Of Privacy Risk And Brand Trust On The Adoption Of Consumer Smart Devices, Marianne C. Loes

<strong> Theses and Dissertations </strong>

With more connected devices on earth than there are people, Internet of Things (IoT) is arguably just as innovative as the original introduction of the Internet. Though much of the research on technology acceptance and adoption has been conducted in organizational settings, the consumer use of IoT technologies, such as smart devices, is becoming a fertile field of research. The merger of these research streams is especially relevant from a societal perspective as smart devices become more embedded in consumer’s daily lives, particularly with the introduction of the “meta verse.” While original technology acceptance research is limited to two system-specific …

An Analysis Of Lyrical Repetition And Popularity In Popular Music Genres, Josh White

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper examines the correlation between repetitiveness and popularity in the genres of Christian, Country, EDM, Hip-Hop, Latin, Pop, R&B, and Rock. Repetitiveness is defined by the frequency of repeated words in lyrics, and the average number of streams per day defines popularity. This analysis also acknowledges the "popularity" metric provided by Spotify in calculating the correlation. To calculate this correlation, I wrote a program that accesses the Spotify and Genius APIs to gather metadata related to 76,069 songs from 1,246 artists, including data on repetitiveness, tempo, duration, and Spotify's audio metrics of "danceability," "energy," "speechiness," "acousticness," and "instrumentalness." I …

An Evaluation Of Spectroscopic Databases: Content, Structure, Toolsets, Usability, And Documentation, Joseph William Braker

Masters Theses

Spectroscopic databases provide a critical service in the greater field of spectroscopy. Many subdisciplines of spectroscopists use the data contained within, whether calculating theoretical models, evaluating the atmosphere of a planet in the furthest reaches of the galaxy, or monitoring the emission levels of a chemical process. The intention of this research is to seek a deeper level of understanding of spectroscopy and the resources available while providing a comparison of the databases, the content within, and their peripheral tools and features. An experimental effort was derived to utilize existing experimental data from multiple sources and determine which data source …

In-Between Frame Generation For 2d Animation Using Generative Adversarial Networks, Francisco Arriaga Pazos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Traditional 2D animation remains a largely manual process where each frame in a video is hand-drawn, as no robust algorithmic solutions exist to assist in this process. This project introduces a system that generates intermediate frames in an uncolored 2D animated video sequence using Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN), a deep learning approach widely used for tasks within the creative realm. We treat the task as a frame interpolation problem, and show that adding a GAN dynamic to a system significantly improves the perceptual fidelity of the generated images, as measured by perceptual oriented metrics that aim to capture human judgment …

Monero: Powering Anonymous Digital Currency Transactions, Jake Braddy

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Cryptocurrencies rely on a distributed public ledger (record of transactions) in order to perform their intended functions. However, the public’s ability to audit the network is both its greatest strength and greatest weakness: Anyone can see what address sent currency, and to whom the currency was sent. If cryptocurrency is ever going to take some of the responsibility of fiat currency, then there needs to be a certain level of confidentiality. Thus far, Monero has come out on top as the preferred currency for embodying the ideas of privacy and confidentiality. Through numerous cryptographic procedures, Monero is able to obfuscate …

Analysis Of Additively Manufactured Inconel 718 Combustion Behavior In Promoted Oxygen Environments, Dominic George Dieguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Promoted combustion testing is a vital tool for engineers to establish the combustion and flammability characteristics of materials (metallic or otherwise) in oxygen enriched environments. Historically, much of the established data for metallic promoted combustion has been with regards to materials in their cast and wrought forms. However, with the emergence of additive manufacturing as a preferred method of fabrication, the need exists to evaluate how metals in that form behave. Recent testing has demonstrated that even if a metal or alloy is nominally the same with regards to chemistry, flammability between samples in the wrought form can differ significantly …