Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Materials Prediction Using High-Throughput And Machine Learning Techniques, Chandramouli Nyshadham

Theses and Dissertations

Predicting new materials through virtually screening a large number of hypothetical materials using supercomputers has enabled materials discovery at an accelerated pace. However, the innumerable number of possible hypothetical materials necessitates the development of faster computational methods for speedier screening of materials reducing the time of discovery. In this thesis, I aim to understand and apply two computational methods for materials prediction. The first method deals with a computational high-throughput study of superalloys. Superalloys are materials which exhibit high-temperature strength. A combinatorial high-throughput search across 2224 ternary alloy systems revealed 102 potential superalloys of which 37 are brand new, all …

Depositional Analysis Of A Holocene Carbonate Strand Plain Using High Resolution Gpr, Sediment Analysis, And C-14 Dating, Kaleb Robert Markert

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding modern carbonate depositional systems gives valuable insights into the interpretation of ancient carbonate systems. Ancient carbonate strand plains have the potential to act as productive hydrocarbon reservoirs because of their relatively high porosity. Unfortunately, they are difficult to identify in the rock record because of the lack of work done on modern analogues. San Salvador Island in the Bahamas hosts a well-exposed and easily accessible Holocene strand plain, ideal as a modern analogue. Sandy Hook, located on the southeast part of the island, consists of approximately 35 ridge-swale features that show signs of four distinct zones of deposition. In …

Measurements And Synthetic Imaging Of Water Surface Gravity Waves Using Optical Techniques, Jennifer Closson

Theses and Dissertations

Remote sensing technologies are useful tools when gathering spatial and temporal information about dynamic coastal regions. A method is proposed using an in-situ space-time imaging technique for evaluating wave periods and wavelengths of surface water waves in shallow urban coastal water environments. Video imagery of shallow water waves was acquired using high definition video cameras. Video imagery records of surface water waves using staff gauges and simultaneously deployed targets were used to determine wave periods, wavelengths and wave amplitudes. Time series analyses is applied to the video derived time series. Wave energy spectrums are extracted and used to simulated synthetic …

Social Media Sentiment Analysis With A Deep Neural Network: An Enhanced Approach Using User Behavioral Information, Ahmed Sulaiman M. Alharbi

Dissertations

Sentiment analysis on social media such as Twitter has become a very important and challenging task. Due to the characteristics of such data (including tweet length, spelling errors, abbreviations, and special characters), the sentiment analysis task in such an environment requires a non-traditional approach. Moreover, social media sentiment analysis constitutes a fundamental problem with many interesting applications, such as for Business Intelligence, Medical Monitoring, and National Security. Most current social media sentiment classification methods judge the sentiment polarity primarily according to textual content and neglect other information on these platforms. In this research, we propose deep learning based frameworks that …

Scalable Algorithms And Hybrid Parallelization Strategies For Multivariate Integration With Paradapt And Cuda, Omofolakunmi Elizabeth Olagbemi

Dissertations

The evaluation of numerical integrals finds applications in fields such as High Energy Physics, Bayesian Statistics, Stochastic Geometry, Molecular Modeling and Medical Physics. The erratic behavior of some integrands due to singularities, peaks, or ridges in the integration region suggests the need for reliable algorithms and software that not only provide an estimation of the integral with a level of accuracy acceptable to the user, but also perform this task in a timely manner. We developed ParAdapt, a numerical integration software based on a classic global adaptive strategy, which employs Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) in providing integral evaluations. Specifically, ParAdapt …

Sustainable Flowers, Fall 2019, Rose Ho, Annie Yaris, Maia Sanders, Sophie Watterson

Sustainability Exchange

The Sustainable Flowers Initiative, led by Professor Suzanne Langlois of Arts & Sciences, aimed to shift the supply chain of floral arrangements on campus from depending upon resource-intensive, chemical-heavy international suppliers. Students developed a strategy for working collaboratively with campus event organizers, local floral suppliers, and WU Grounds & Maintenance to make floral arrangements more sustainable.

Investigation Of Constant Volume And Constant Flux Initial Conditions On Bidensity Particle-Laden Slurries On An Incline, Dominic Diaz, Jessica Bojorque, Joshua Crasto, Margaret Koulikov, Tameez Lati, Aviva Prins, Andrew Shapiro, Clover Ye, David Arnold, Michael R. Lindstrom

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Particle-laden slurries are pervasive in both natural and industrial settings, whenever particles are suspended or transported in a fluid. Previous literature has investigated the case of a single species of negatively buoyant particles suspended in a viscous fluid. On an incline, three distinct regimes emerge depending on the particle concentration and inclination angle: settled (where particles settle and there is a pure fluid front), well-mixed (where particle concentration is constant throughout), and ridged (where a particle-rich ridge leads the flow). Recently, the same three regimes were also found for constant volume two species bidensity slurries. We extend the literature on …

Evaluation Of Modern Missing Data Handling Methods For Coefficient Alpha, Katerina Matysova

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

When assessing a certain characteristic or trait using a multiple item measure, quality of that measure can be assessed by examining the reliability. To avoid multiple time points, reliability can be represented by internal consistency, which is most commonly calculated using Cronbach’s coefficient alpha. Almost every time human participants are involved in research, there is missing data involved. Missing data means that even though complete data were expected to be collected, some data are missing. Missing data can follow different patterns as well as be the result of different mechanisms. One traditional way to deal with missing data is listwise …

Strongly Leakage Resilient Authenticated Key Exchange, Revisited, Guomin Yang, Rongmao Chen, Yi Mu, Willy Susilo, Guo Fuchun, Jie Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Authenticated Key Exchange (AKE) protocols allow two (or multiple) parties to authenticate each other and agree on a common secret key, which is essential for establishing a secure communication channel over a public network. AKE protocols form a central component in many network security standards such as IPSec, TLS/SSL, and SSH. However, it has been demonstrated that many standardized AKE protocols are vulnerable to side-channel and key leakage attacks. In order to defend against such attacks, leakage resilient (LR-) AKE protocols have been proposed in the literature. Nevertheless, most of the existing LR-AKE protocols only focused on the resistance to …

The Dynamic Impacts Of Online Healthcare Community On Physician Altruism: A Hidden Markov Model, Kai Luo, Qiu-Hong Wang, Hock Hai Teo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Physician altruism is not only a key foundation of modern medical professionalism, but also a critical component in the theoretical health economics study. There is considerable interest in understanding the impacts of contemporary healthcare technology on physician altruism. In this paper, we investigate the dynamic influence of multiple incentive mechanisms developed by an online healthcare community (OHC) on physician altruism. We model physician altruism as the degree of tendency to benefit the patients at the cost of oneself and focus on the incentive mechanisms that give physicians social and economic returns. The dynamics of physician altruism is characterized via a …

The Information Disclosure Trilemma: Privacy, Attribution And Dependency, Ping Fan Ke

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Information disclosure has been an important mechanism to increase transparency and welfare in various contexts, from rating a restaurant to whistleblowing the wrongdoing of government agencies. Yet, the author often needs to be sacrificed during information disclosure process – an anonymous disclosure will forgo the reputation and compensation whereas an identifiable disclosure will face the threat of retaliation. On the other hand, the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) lessens the tradeoff between privacy and attribution while introducing dependency and potential threats. This study will develop the desirable design principles and possible threats of an information disclosure system, and discuss how …

Optimal Control For Transboundary Pollution Under Ecological Compensation: A Stochastic Differential Game Approach, Ke Jiang, Ryan Knowles Merrill, Daming You, Pan Pan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

To account for previously ignored, yet widely observed uncertainty in nature's capability to replenish the natural environment in ways that should inform ideal design of ecological compensation (EC) regimes, this study constructs a stochastic differential game (SDG) model to analyze transboundary pollution control options between a compensating and compensated region. Equilibrium strategies in the stochastic, two player game inform optimal control theory and reveal a welfare distribution mechanism to form the basis of an improved cooperative game contract. A case-based numerical example serves to verify the theoretical results and supports three key insights. First, accounting for various random disturbance factors, …

Salience-Aware Adaptive Resonance Theory For Large-Scale Sparse Data Clustering, Lei Meng, Ah-Hwee Tan, Chunyan Miao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Sparse data is known to pose challenges to cluster analysis, as the similarity between data tends to be ill-posed in the high-dimensional Hilbert space. Solutions in the literature typically extend either k-means or spectral clustering with additional steps on representation learning and/or feature weighting. However, adding these usually introduces new parameters and increases computational cost, thus inevitably lowering the robustness of these algorithms when handling massive ill-represented data. To alleviate these issues, this paper presents a class of self-organizing neural networks, called the salience-aware adaptive resonance theory (SA-ART) model. SA-ART extends Fuzzy ART with measures for cluster-wise salient feature modeling. …

Identifying Regional Trends In Avatar Customization, Peter Mawhorter, Sercan Sengun, Haewoon Kwak, D. Fox Harrell

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Since virtual identities such as social media profiles and avatars have become a common venue for self-expression, it has become important to consider the ways in which existing systems embed the values of their designers. In order to design virtual identity systems that reflect the needs and preferences of diverse users, understanding how the virtual identity construction differs between groups is important. This paper presents a new methodology that leverages deep learning and differential clustering for comparative analysis of profile images, with a case study of almost 100 000 avatars from a large online community using a popular avatar creation …

A Taxonomy Of Security Features For The Comparison Of Home Automation Protocols, Amal Abdullah Alasiri

Theses and Dissertations

Both academia and industry environments are getting significant attention to the Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology because of the unlimited benefits that this technology can bring to the environment. The technology presents a vision of a future Internet where computing systems, nodes, users, and daily nodes such as sensors and actuators cooperate with unprecedented convenience and economic benefits. The umbrella of IoT covers various applications as the following (smart home, transport, community, and national applications). Most of the studies focus on its technical and usage more than the security perspective. Especially, there are limited papers focus on smart home protocols security regarding …

Human-Robot Plan Communication, Rajaa A. Rahil

Theses and Dissertations

Although the technical development of robots has made them more autonomous, they still benefit from some human skills and advice. Therefore, the robot needs to interact with a human and ask him for help to get out of difficulties in the best way. This dissertation addresses the problem of finding better mechanisms to communicate to a robot the directions for navigation in indoor environments. We identify which out of a set of combinations of speech, gestures, and drawing mechanisms are the most comfortable, easier to learn, and least error-prone for human users. Three different methods: a Speaking method, a Gesturing …

Social Groups Characterization And Dynamics: A Network Science Approach, Josemar Faustino Da Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

Over the course of our lives, we tend to transition through many social groups. From an early age, our first social group is our family, then we have our schoolmates, later in life, our coworkers, and likely another family. As we move from one group to another, we embed ourselves in the dynamics of social groups’ losses and gains of new members. These dynamics are a complex system of interactions, which at scale, form the structural basis of our societies. In many years of sociological research, the details of social group interactions remained poorly understood. Certainly, not because of lack …

Applying Formal Methods For Integrating Advanced Algorithms In Safety Critical Systems, Milton Stafford

Theses and Dissertations

In software engineering it is essential that updates are deployed for continual improvement. While software updates bring new functionality, updates also may introduce instability. This leads to failures of various kinds. This is especially problematic in safety-critical systems where there is a potential for injury or loss of life. However, newer and more sophisticated software carries potential advantages, including higher performance and reliability. Therefore, there are benefits in adopting newer software if the integration process is assured. In this thesis, I present a framework for assured integration; one that links requirements, design, and implementation. The proposed framework includes a new …

An Agile And Rapidly Reconfigurable Test Bed For Hardware-Based Security Features, Daniel Smith Beard

Theses and Dissertations

Current general-purpose computing hardware and the software that runs on it have evolved over more than a half century from large mainframe systems in corporate, military, and research use to interconnected commodity devices more common than wrist watches. Computational power, storage capacity, and communication capabilities have increased in wonderful and staggering ways; however, when we read about the latest vulnerability or data breach it seems that cybersecurity is stuck somewhere between 1983 when Matthew Broderick first heard a synthesized voice ask “Shall we play a game?”, [93] and 1988 when the Morris worm hit the Internet [116]. Multics [82] and …

Getting Over The Dam: Overcoming Institutional Barriers To The Recovery Of Atlantic Salmon By Navigating The Social-Science/Policy Interface, Melissa E. Flye

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term governance has undergone somewhat of an evolution since its inception, originally describing the act of governing, it has come to represent a more collaborative form of governing which is distinct from hierarchical control models (Marin and Mayntz, 1991). Collaborative governance refers to the systems associated with public policy decision making and resource management which span the jurisdictional boundaries of public agencies, levels of government, and/or public and private spheres in order to pursue a public policy goal or outcome (Emerson et al., 2012). Environmental management is often considered an inherently collaborative effort, as ecological systems and species rarely …

Digital Simulations For Grade 7 To 10 Mathematics, Ma. Louise Antonette N. De Las Peñas, Debbie Marie Verzosa, Maria Alva Q. Aberin, Len Patrick Dominic M. Garces, Flordeliza F. Francisco, Evangeline P. Bautista, Mark Anthony C. Tolentino, Winfer C. Tabares

Mathematics Faculty Publications

This article describes a Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology (DOST-PCIEERD) project aimed to facilitate the implementation of the mathematical objectives raised by the Department of Education’s (DepEd) K to 12 program in the Philippines through the use of innovative digital technologies. In particular, a selection of application software (“apps”) were created for Grade 7 to 10 mathematics that covered topics indicated in the five strands outlined in the K to 12 program – namely (1) number, (2) geometry, (3) measurement, (4) patterns and algebra, and (5) statistics and probability. The design …

Raman Investigations On Gamma Irradiated Ipp-Vgcnf Nanocomposites: The Polymer's Tale, Dorina M. Chipara, Corina Secu, Karen Lozano, Mihail Secu, Mircea Chipara

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Raman investigations on nanocomposites obtained by loading various amounts of vapor grown carbon nanofibers within an isotactic polypropylene matrix, and gamma irradiated in air, at various integral doses ranging between 0 and 27 kGy, are reported. The analysis is focused on the polymer's answers as revealed by Raman spectroscopy and investigate in detail the effect of ionizing radiation on the position of the Raman line originating from the polymer. The as-obtained data are correlated to the elastic features of the nanocomposites. A competition between gamma irradiation and loading by carbon nanofiber, resulting in the stretching of the polymeric matrix …

2020 Comprehensive Conservation And Management Plan: Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment, Ivy Mlsna

PREP Reports & Publications

The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP), one of 28 National Estuary Programs supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is updating their Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) for the 2020-2030 timeframe. A broad, risk-based, qualitative, planning-level climate change vulnerability assessment was conducted concurrent with this update, as directed by the Funding Guidance for this program.

Effects Of Water Table Depth And Edaphic Characteristics On Plant Diversity In A Southern Mississippi Pitcher Plant Bog, Patrick Kirby

Master's Theses

This study examined the effects that water table depth and soil characteristics have on plant species richness and species composition within pitcher plant bogs across seasons. Eight piezometers were installed at random distances to monitor long-term water table depth and pressure fluctuations along a ~710-meter line transect traversing upland and bog habitats. Vegetation sampling quadrats (n=128) were set up near each piezometer. Cover data and water table depths were collected in spring and late summer. Soil samples collected from each treatment group were used to obtain soil texture and nutrient data. The summer collection period yielded a total gdiversity of …

The Variability Of High-Frequency Motions And Their Interactions With The Mesoscale On The Mississippi Shelf, Jordan Earls

Master's Theses

In this study, we examine the spatial and temporal variability of high-frequency and low-frequency motions across the Mississippi Shelf and how the high-frequency motions are modulated by low-frequency mesoscale motions. For this purpose, we use Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) measurements collected at nearshore (23 m), mid-shelf (60 m), and shelf break (88 m) stations. High-frequency motions are defined as motions with periods less than 36 hours, whereas mesoscale motions have larger periods. The collected datasets are analyzed through bandpass filtering, least square harmonic analysis, spectral analysis, and empirical orthogonal functions (EOF). We find that along-shelf barotropic mesoscale motions contain …

Predation Of Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus Floridanus) By Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias), Carlos E. Cintra-Buenrostro, J. E. Cifuentes-Lujan

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

An opportunistic predation by Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) on Eastern cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) was observed in south Texas on 31 Oct 2019. The Great Blue Heron had already captured the Eastern cottontail rabbit at the first observation but the maneuvering process, killing, and ingestion were recorded photographically, which make this observation unique even though this might constitute the second report on Great Blue Heron eating Eastern cottontail rabbits.

Production Of Biscuits By Substitution With Different Ratios Of Yellow Pea Flour, Jikai Zhao, Xin Liu, Xiang Bai, Fengcheng Wang

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

To promote the commercialization of yellow pea flour (YPF) due to its nutritional benefits. Four biscuits with different YPF ratio (10%–50%) were conducted to explore the optimal addition percentage. The effects of YPF on the rheological and baking performance of biscuits were performed. The results showed that the substitution ratio of YPF and milling methods had a critical impact on the rheological properties of dough. The dough stability decreased gradually while a softening degree increased with YPF ratio increased. In a term of biscuits, the dimensions of length (L), width (W), thickness (T) and color (L*) of biscuits reduced as …

Lucerne For Acid Soils: A Field Evaluation Of Early Generation Aluminium Tolerant Genotypes, Richard C. Hayes, Guangdi Li, Shoba Venkatanagappa, Alan W. Humphries, Ross Ballard

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

The development of lucerne germplasm tolerant of acidic soil conditions has long been a research objective of international significance. Many initiatives have previously failed to produce genotypes with adequate improvement in tolerance to be deemed economically viable and as a consequence, still no cultivar of lucerne exists that has improved adaptation to acidic soils. An Australian research program spanning the previous decade sought to redress this issue by developing lucerne genotypes with significantly enhanced tolerance to aluminium (Al) toxicity. Using recurrent selection in hydroponic solution culture, populations selected comprised individuals which displayed enhanced seedling root growth following a pulse of …

Dissecting Drought-Response Strategies Of Perennial Ryegrass (Lolium Perenne L.), Jean-Hugues B. Hatier, Lulu He, Marty J. Faville, Micheal J. Hickey, Chris S. Jones, Mohamed Z. Z. Jahufer, Cory Matthew

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Periodic drought is a severe constraint on the profitability and sustainability of pastoral production. As a result of climate change, drought events are anticipated to increase in frequency and intensity even in regions where annual precipitation is unchanged, as well as where it is reduced.

Many studies have been carried out on drought resistance of forage species (Holloway-Phillips and Brodribb 2011). However, for most experiments, it is unclear which mechanism(s) are responsible for variation in plant performance under moisture stress, whether drought response mechanisms were triggered, or whether differences in performance were simply the result of intrinsic plant vigour. The …

The Effect Of Salinity Stress On Seed Germination Of Agropyron Elongatum, Ghasem Ali Dianati Tilaki, Arezu Alizadeh, Behnam Naserian Khiabani

IGC Proceedings (1993-2023)

Successful seedling establishment depends on the frequen-cy and the amount of precipitation as well as on the ability of the seed species to germinate and grow while soil mois-ture and osmotic potentials decrease. Germination and seedling characteristics are the most valuable criteria for selecting salt tolerance in plants. Salinity stress can reduce seed germination through osmotic effects (Jamil et al. 2006). Agropyron is a perennial grass genus with 19 dif-ferent species reported. This genus has wide adaptation and can be grown in different climates.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of salinity stress on the germination …