Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Achieving Responsible Anomaly Detection, Xiao Han

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

In the digital transformation era, safeguarding online systems against anomalies – unusual patterns indicating potential threats or malfunctions – has become crucial. This dissertation embarks on enhancing the accuracy, explainability, and ethical integrity of anomaly detection systems. By integrating advanced machine learning techniques, it improves anomaly detection performance and incorporates fairness and explainability at its core.

The research tackles performance enhancement in anomaly detection by leveraging few-shot learning, demonstrating how systems can effectively identify anomalies with minimal training data. This approach overcomes data scarcity challenges. Reinforcement learning is employed to iteratively refine models, enhancing decision-making processes. Transfer learning enables the …

Cost-Risk Analysis Of The Ercot Region Using Modern Portfolio Theory, Megan Sickinger

Master's Theses

In this work, we study the use of modern portfolio theory in a cost-risk analysis of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Based upon the risk-return concepts of modern portfolio theory, we develop an n-asset minimization problem to create a risk-cost frontier of portfolios of technologies within the ERCOT electricity region. The levelized cost of electricity for each technology in the region is a step in evaluating the expected cost of the portfolio, and the historical data of cost factors estimate the variance of cost for each technology. In addition, there are several constraints in our minimization problem to …

The Impact Of Ai On Ux: Challenges And Opportunities, Susan Stephanie Wells

Theses

Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in user experience (UX) design is reshaping the field of UX, offering new opportunities and challenges for designers. This thesis project explores the multifaceted relationship between AI and UX design, focusing on the challenges, opportunities, and skills demanded of UX designers in the age of AI. Through a review of academic research and real-world experiences, this project studies the impact of AI on web design processes, UX testing, and data analysis. Key findings highlight the transformative potential of AI in enhancing user experiences, from suggesting website structures to facilitating UX testing and data analysis.

Comparative analysis …

The Mathematics Of Financial Portfolio Optimization Incorporating Environmental, Social, And Governance Score Information, Ian Driskill

Master's Theses

We numerically investigate the effects that Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores have on portfolio optimization with Modern Portfolio Theory assumptions and how ESG scores correlate with the market returns of a rated company's stock. Additionally, we review and analyze a research paper published in the Journal of Financial Economics regarding ESG investing titled “Responsible investing: The ESG-efficient frontier” by Pedersen, Fitzgibbons, and Lukasz. Our overall goal is provide insight for socially responsible inclined investors, to help them understand what ESG scores tell us and how those scores may effect their overall investment returns."

A Statistical Fetch Model For Water Wave Glint Correction Using Worldview-3 Imagery, Amanda Jade Quintanilla

Theses and Dissertations

Sun glint in satellite imagery of the water surface contaminates the upwelling signal received by a detector. Many models exist that attempt to correct for this wave facet effect and phenomena. In this work a model for sun glint correction is created using the comparison of image transects between two nearly simultaneously collected images of the same area, although with differing sensor geometry. One image utilized in this research is almost entirely glint free while the other is contaminated by water wave facet glint. Although many models for removing sun glint exist based on various techniques, none are completely accurate, …

Deep Learning In Indus Valley Script Digitization, Deva Munikanta Reddy Atturu

Theses and Dissertations

This research introduces ASR-net(Ancient Script Recognition), a groundbreaking system that automatically digitizes ancient Indus seals by converting them into coded text, similar to Optical Character Recognition for modern languages. ASR-net, with an 95% success rate in identifying individual symbols, aims to address the crucial need for automated techniques in deciphering the enigmatic Indus script. Initially Yolov3 is utilized to create the bounding boxes around each graphemes present in the Indus Valley Seal. In addition to that we created M-net(Mahadevan) model to encode the graphemes. Beyond digitization, the paper proposes a new research challenge called the Motif Identification Problem (MIP) related …

Modelling Terrestrial And Potential Extraterrestrial Photopigments Via Density Functional Theory, Dorothea Illner

Theses and Dissertations

In the search for extraterrestrial life, biosignatures play a crucial role in identifying its putative traces. A commonly known and robust biosignature is the Vegetation Red Edge (VRE), which can be described as a sharp increase of reflectance observed from a planet and stems from the light absorption of photopigments in specific regions in the electromagnetic spectrum. For Earth, this VRE is known to occur around 700 nm, however, if the photopigments absorb light in different regions and have different structures the VRE could experience a wavelenght shift.

In this work, Chlorophyll a and a potential photopigment precursor called Phot0 …

Space Transformation For Open Set Recognition, Atefeh Mahdavi

Theses and Dissertations

Open Set Recognition (OSR) is about dealing with unknown situations that were not learned by the models during training. In OSR, only a limited number of known classes are available at the time of training the model and the possibility of unknown classes never seen at training time emerges in the test environment. In such a setting, the unknown classes and their risk should be considered in the algorithm. Such systems require not only to identify and discriminate instances that belong to the source domain (i.e., the seen known classes contained in the training dataset) but also to reject unknown …

Investigating The Impact Of Human-Centered Interface Design On The User Experience Of Mobile Device Users, Ruchir Gupta

Theses and Dissertations

In order to investigate the intricate interaction between interface design, user technological proficiency, and other components of the user experience, this research study used a mixed-method approach. The beginner user group—those with little experience or expertise with technology - were the main target audience. The important discovery emphasizes the substantial influence that careful design can have on improving the effectiveness and usability of interfaces for non-tech-savvy individuals. When using the suggested Interface B instead of the current Interface A, beginner participants' task completion times significantly improved, according to the user study. This underlines the significance of creating with the needs …

Development Of Chiral Lewis Base Catalysts For Chlorosilane-Mediated Asymmetric C-C Bond Formations, Changgong Xu

Theses and Dissertations

The chiral hydrazine is a crucial structural motif that serves as pivotal structural elements in numerous natural products and biologically significant molecules. We are particularly interested in the catalytic asymmetric reduction of hydrazones, as well as the catalytic asymmetric propargylation and allenylation of hydrazones, because they provide direct pathways to these enantio-enriched chiral building blocks. In this work, we will explore the potential of two different categories of chiral Lewis base catalysts in the said transformations.

Developed by another student in our group, axial-chiral 3,3’-triazolyl biisoquinoline N,N’-dioxides derived catalysts are tested and demonstrated its capability in activating various hydrazone …

Representation Learning For Generative Models With Applications To Healthcare, Astronautics, And Aviation, Van Minh Nguyen

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores applications of representation learning and generative models to challenges in healthcare, astronautics, and aviation.

The first part investigates the use of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) to synthesize realistic electronic health record (EHR) data. An initial attempt at training a GAN on the MIMIC-IV dataset encountered stability and convergence issues, motivating a deeper study of 1-Lipschitz regularization techniques for Auxiliary Classifier GANs (AC-GANs). An extensive ablation study on the CIFAR-10 dataset found that Spectral Normalization is key for AC-GAN stability and performance, while Weight Clipping fails to converge without Spectral Normalization. Analysis of the training dynamics provided further …

Detection Of Jamming Attacks In Vanets, Thomas Justice

Undergraduate Honors Theses

A vehicular network is a type of communication network that enables vehicles to communicate with each other and the roadside infrastructure. The roadside infrastructure consists of fixed nodes such as roadside units (RSUs), traffic lights, road signs, toll booths, and so on. RSUs are devices equipped with communication capabilities that allow vehicles to obtain and share real-time information about traffic conditions, weather, road hazards, and other relevant information. These infrastructures assist in traffic management, emergency response, smart parking, autonomous driving, and public transportation to improve roadside safety, reduce traffic congestion, and enhance the overall driving experience. However, communication between the …

An Experimental And Computational Study On The Dynamics Of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines, Stephen Conte

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis conducts preliminary analyses on the estimated performance of a novel Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine at a small-scale through experimental and numerical means. This includes the construction of a wind tunnel in the Complex Fluids Lab at Montclair State University for the simulation and analyses of small-scale prototypes of said VAWT; as well as the utilization of Ansys® 2024 Student Fluent R1 for CFD simulation of scaled single-blade pairs, and potentially full-models of said VAWT.

Understanding The Impact Of Divertor And Main Chamber Ion Fluxes On Divertor Closure In The Diii-D Tokamak, Kirtan M. Davda

Doctoral Dissertations

The diverted tokamak redirects extreme heat and particles to targets, a plasma-facing component designed for such loads. Here, the local fluxes produce strong particle recycling and sputtering. Recycled neutrals can “leak” into the region between the core and wall, the scrape-off-layer (SOL), impacting plasma performance. Increasing divertor closure can reduce leakage by containing neutrals within the divertor. However, there exists a need to quantify divertor baffle restrictions and understand closure directly from empirical data as opposed to indirectly through modeling.

Our study introduces the Geometric Restriction Parameter (GRP) based on simplifying neutral transport to ballistic pathways. Specifically, it considers the …

Bridging Biological Systems With Social Behavior, Conservation, Decision Making, And Well-Being Through Hybrid Mathematical Modeling, Maggie Renee Sullens

Doctoral Dissertations

Mathematical modeling can achieve otherwise inaccessible insights into bio-logical questions. We use ODE (ordinary differential equations) and Game Theory models to demonstrate the breadth and power of these models by studying three very different biological questions, involving socio-behavioral and socio-economic systems, conservation biology, policy and decision making, and organismal homeostasis.

We adapt techniques from Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) epidemiological models to examine the mental well-being of a community facing the collapse of the industry on which it’s economically dependent. We consider the case study of a fishing community facing the extinction of its primary harvest species. Using an ODE framework with a …

Using Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry In Conjuction With Derivatization Methods To Enhance The Separation Of Different Steroid Isomers, Shadrack Lucas

All Theses

One of the major problems facing analytical chemistry challenge is the isomers separation, due to their closely related molecular structures and physicochemical properties. Therefore, in this thesis, we have performed the separation of steroid isomers through the use of ion mobility mass spectrometry, using various chemical approaches. Ion mobility is an effective high-resolution separation techniques that utilizes the mobility of ions in the gas-phase environment. A useful tool for isomeric analysis due to the ability to separate different isomeric classes of steroids according to their varied collision cross-sections, which is achieved by taking advantage of differences in ion mobility.

Moreover, …

Assessing Equitable Distribution Of The Urban Tree Canopy At The Neighborhood Scale In Greenville, South Carolina., April Riehm

All Theses

We are living in an era that necessitates adaptation and resilience. The Earth is warming. Our climate has changed (EPA, 2016). Our planet is also rapidly urbanizing. It is predicted that 68% of people will live in cities by 2050. The City of Greenville is a rapidly growing city in South Carolina that has been losing its tree canopy to development(City of Greenville, 2023). The Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) is a community asset that provides many quality-of-life benefits including improved air quality, stormwater management, carbon sequestration, mental and physical well-being, increased mobility and access, aesthetics, a reduction in energy costs, …

Photobiomodulation Of Bovine Oocytes During Maturation Increases Atp Content And Enhances Subsequent Embryonic Development, Kendall Richey

All Theses

Bovine in-vitro production(IVP) of embryos is a growing field for producing offspring with desirable genetics in the cattle industries. While IVP is effective, oocyte cytoplasmic maturation is compromised, and bovine oocytes matured in-vitro have reduced metabolic activity than those matured in-vivo. Mitochondria are the central unit of oocyte metabolism, producing ATP through OXPHOS. Photobiomodulation is a light treatment reported to improve metabolic activity. In five experiments, we measured the effects of photobiomodulation treatment with red LED at 16-(L-16) and 20 h(L-20) of bovine oocyte in-vitro maturation on subsequent embryonic development, mitochondrial activity and nuclear progression. Bovine COCs were aspirated …

Low-Resource Icd Coding Of Discharge Summaries, Ashton Williamson

All Theses

Medical coding is the process by which standardized medical codes are assigned to patient health records. This is a complex and challenging task that typically requires an expert human coder to review health records and assign codes from a classification system based on a standard set of rules. Considering the downstream use of these codes in statistical analysis, billing, and patient care, improving the accuracy and efficiency of the medical coding process through automation could have a far-reaching impact on the healthcare domain. Since health records typically consist of a large proportion of free-text documents, this problem has traditionally been …

Using Strainmeters To Characterize Enhanced Geothermal Systems, Clem Laffaille

All Theses

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Elasticity Of Orders In Quadratic Rings Of Integers, Jared Kettinger

All Theses

This project explores elasticity in quadratic rings of integers, specifically, those of the form Z[pω] where p is a rational prime which remains prime in Z[w]. For these rings, we establish an upper bound on the elasticity which is attained in many cases. We also prove that this upper bound is an equality in the case when the ring of integers is a unique factorization domain. During this process, we also prove theorems about the class group of quadratic rings of integers and develop a useful method for calculating a constant similar to the Davenport constant.

Triangulation Guided High Clearance Collision-Free Paths, Sandeep Maharjan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Algorithms dealing with the construction of high clearance collision-free paths in the presence of polygonal obstacles is an important problem in robotics and transportation engineering. Method of extracting collision-free paths guided by triangulation of free space is examined. Two algorithms for improving the standard triangulation guided algorithms are presented. The time complexities of the presented algorithms are analysed. Finally, further applications of the proposed techniques are discussed.

Lake Mead: A Living Museum, Marley Salveter

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Lake Mead, the largest man-made water project in the nation and a prolific source of electricity, irrigation, and recreation for much of the western population, is currently experiencing a drastic transformation. Amid the ongoing water crisis parching the west, the once overflowing reservoir is consistently shrinking, descending into depths historically uncharted.While serving as a bleak demonstration of climate change’s effects, the body of water is simultaneously assuming an alternative role that may be less apparent to the public. As water levels decline, Lake Mead is actively metamorphosing into a “Living Museum”, by gradually unveiling previously submerged artifacts. As a result, …

Computational Study For Tissue-Specific Dosimetric Quantities Of Secondary Radiation For Mars Exploration, Sungmin Pak

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The two main sources of primary space radiation, Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) and Solar Particle Events (SPEs), encompass a spectrum of ions, ranging from protons (Z=1) to nickel ions (Z=28), with energies spanning from less than 1 keV to exceeding a few TeV. While SPEs represent sporadic events primarily comprised of a high flux of low- to intermediate-energy protons, GCRs are characterized by continuous low flux of diverse ions with higher energies, peaking in intensity near the solar minimum. During a Mars mission, astronauts will encounter primary particles of high energy from GCR and SPE spectra, capable of penetrating spacecraft …

Online Learning For Acid-Fast Bacilli Detection In Histopathological Images, Shizhao Wang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The acid-fast stain is frequently used for laboratory diagnosis of tuberculosis. It is a labor intensive task requiring thorough examination of extremely high-resolution images to pinpoint the presence of the mycobacteria. This paper presents a machine learning assisted slide image analysis tool with the aim of aiding histopathology professionals in the accurate diagnosis of tuberculosis in patients through the analysis of microscopic imagery. The proposed tool combines a digital whole slide image viewer with an online learning framework. We also conducted a survey of different state-of-the-art online learning methods, and found that MIR with pre-training has the best performance on …

Boron-Doped Diamond As A Resilient Electrode Material In Molten Salts, Hannah Katherine Patenaude

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Molten salt chemistry has a range of applications within nuclear technology, including for the Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) and pyroprocessing to recover valuable actinides for energy and national security needs. However, the high-temperature, corrosive nature of molten salts makes them particularly challenging to deploy on an industrial scale and study in benchtop measurements. Material accountability and corrosion monitoring of MSR fuels are essential components to the successful deployment of MSRs, and electroanalytical techniques like cyclic voltammetry (CV) and spectroelectrochemistry (SEC) can provide a wealth of information to describe salt systems in situ. To perform such measurements, it is imperative to …

Experiment Development And Validation Of A Granular Jamming Robotic Gripper, Jacob R. Dowd

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A granular jamming gripper (GJG) is widely known as a Universal Gripper because of the wide range of objects that it can grasp and the simplicity of control, design, and manufacturing. Despite multitude of research improving the GJG, here, we focus on the base version of the GJG and attempt to glean the range of objects that it may reliably grasp. Despite the limited range of objects, which were a sphere, rectangular prism, and cylinder, we gleaned geometric properties as it relates to successful and unsuccessful grasping. This was based on the two types of testing: push and pull testing …

Statistical Classification Using Selection And Ranking Methodologies With Statistical Learning, Jeong Jun Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The subject of Statistical Classification is concerned with identifying and allocating future observations into one of the pre-categorized classes based on the characteristics of the objects. Typically, these decisions to classify and categorize the objects have been dependent on identifying a system of classification, and from there, determining attributes for sorting.

In past decades, from discriminant analysis, various methods have been developed for classification. In particular, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and statistical learning theory has made it possible to consider improving the existing methods along with new developments and more comprehensive schemes in conjunction with data-driven …

Dynamical Studies Of Misaligned Circumbinary Disks, Ian C. Rabago

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Binary stars are common outcomes of the star formation process, with nearly half of Sun-like stars forming as part of a binary pair. The presence of a second star adds additional complexity and dynamical effects to the planet formation process in the surrounding circumbinary disk. In this work, I investigate the behavior of a circumbinary disk using hydrodynamic modeling, specifically in the case where the disk is misaligned to the binary orbital plane. Around eccentric binaries, highly inclined disks can align themselves perpendicular to the binary orbital plane. These "polar disks'' can produce vortices and spiral arms when the disk …

Identifying Disease-Related Gene-Environment Interactions Based On Method Of Moments, Linchuan Shen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Human diseases are often caused by a complex interplay of multiple factors, including genetics and environmental factors. These factors can play critical roles in the development and progression of diseases. Although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified many genetic variants associated with human diseases, the estimated effects of these variants are small and can explain only a relatively small portion of the heritability of the underlying diseases.

Detecting gene-environment interactions (G × E) can shed light on the biological mechanisms of diseases. However, most existing methods that investigate G × E only look at how one environmental …