Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

S2cd: Self-Heuristic Speaker Content Disentanglement For Any-To-Any Voice Conversion, Pengfei Wei, Xiang Yin, Chunfeng Wang, Zhonghao Li, Xinghua Qu, Zhiqiang Xu, Zejun Ma

Machine Learning Faculty Publications

In this paper, we propose a Self-heuristic Speaker Content Disentanglement (S2CD) model for any to any voice conversion without using any external resources, e.g., speaker labels or vectors, linguistic models, and transcriptions. S2CD is built on the disentanglement sequential variational autoencoder (DSVAE), but improves DSVAE structure at the model architecture level from three perspectives. Specifically, we develop different structures for speaker and content encoders based on their underlying static/dynamic property. We further propose a generative graph, modelled by S2CD, so as to make S2CD well mimic the multi-speaker speech generation process. Finally, we propose a self-heuristic way to introduce bias …

A Language Framework For Modeling Social Media Account Behavior, Alexander C. Nwala, Alessandro Flammini, Filippo Menczer

Arts & Sciences Articles

Malicious actors exploit social media to inflate stock prices, sway elections, spread misinformation, and sow discord. To these ends, they employ tactics that include the use of inauthentic accounts and campaigns. Methods to detect these abuses currently rely on features specifically designed to target suspicious behaviors. However, the effectiveness of these methods decays as malicious behaviors evolve. To address this challenge, we propose a language framework for modeling social media account behaviors. Words in this framework, called BLOC, consist of symbols drawn from distinct alphabets representing user actions and content. Languages from the framework are highly flexible and can be …

Evaluating How Well Active Fault Mapping Predicts Earthquake Surface-Rupture Locations, Chelsea Scott, Ramon Arrowsmith, Rachel Adam, Christopher Madugo, Joseph Powell, John Ford, Brian Gray, Ashley Streig, Multiple Additional Authors

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Earthquake surface-fault rupture location uncertainty is a key factor in fault displacement hazard analysis and informs hazard and risk mitigation strategies. Geologists often predict future rupture locations from fault mapping based on the geomorphology interpreted from remote-sensing data sets. However, surface processes can obscure fault location, fault traces may be mapped in error, and a future rupture may not break every fault trace. We assessed how well geomorphology-based fault mapping predicted surface ruptures for seven earthquakes: 1983 M 6.9 Borah Peak, 2004 M 6.0 Parkfield, 2010 M 7.2 El Mayor–Cucapah, 2011 M 6.7 Fukushima-Hamadori, 2014 M 6.0 South Napa, 2016 …

Physics-Guided Deep Learning For Solar Wind Modeling At L1 Point, Robert M. Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Neural networks are adept at finding patterns that are too long and too small for humans to find in data. Usually, this power is used to generate predictions with greater accuracy than most alternative models. However, we can also use this power to understand more about the data we train these networks on. We do this by changing the data that the networks train on and the data they are tested on. This allows us to both control the maximum length of a pattern and to compare data between different groups, in our case, different solar cycles. This thesis is …

Influence Of Hydrologic History On Nitrogen Cycling In Lake Sediments, Emily Jainarain

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Water quality is declining in freshwater lakes around the world due to environmental change and anthropogenic activities that threaten the physical, ecological, and geochemical integrity of freshwater ecosystems. Excess N and P in lakes can cause eutrophication, a major driver of water quality impairment that leads to excessive algal growth, or harmful algal blooms (HABs), and poses risks to recreation, fisheries, and public drinking water. Water level fluctuations in lakes are expected to become more frequent and intense as climate change increases periods of drought and alters precipitation patterns, and fluctuations may stimulate biogeochemical reactions in littoral sediments that add …

Overcoming Barriers To Aquatic Plant Restoration: Addressing Gaps In Species Identification And Planting Techniques In The Intermountain West, Kate A. Sinnott

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Aquatic ecosystems provide many critical and economically valuable benefits, including drinking water, food, recreational opportunities, and water supply for irrigation and agriculture. However, the health of these systems has been severely impacted by human activities such as pollution, land conversion, and introductions of harmful species. Restoring native aquatic plants can help reverse this damage and reestablish benefits, though it is not a common practice. With an objective to increase capacity for aquatic plant restoration in the Intermountain West, I identified and addressed two major barriers: 1) a lack of confidence in aquatic species identification among wetland professionals, and 2) underdeveloped …

Big Fish And More Of Them: Salmonid Habitat Availability, Quality, And Use Across Multiple Scales Within A River-Reservoir System, John S. Mclaren V

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Reservoirs and their associated rivers provide water for agricultural and municipal uses, ecological benefits for fish and wildlife, and associated recreational activity. However, in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem climate change and population growth are putting pressure on water quality and supply, potentially damaging the unique and economically important coldwater trout habitat that these systems support. In this study, the author investigates the impact of changing water quality and supply on trout habitat quality, quantity, and selection to assist conservation goals in the Henry’s Fork Watershed in eastern Idaho. The study found that higher availability of cold-water refuge habitat in Island …

Effects Of Soil Amendments On Water Quality And Hydrologic Properties In Low Impact Development Systems, Lily Wetterlin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Low impact development (LID) systems are practices that use natural elements, such as soils and vegetation, to absorb and filter stormwater to protect water quality and aquatic habitats. Many LID designs use native soils; however, urban soils typically have a limited potential for infiltrating and treating stormwater. Incorporation of soil amendments, such as compost and biochar, into LID soils can improve the physical properties of soil. However, soil amendments may increase or decrease pollutants in the water leaving the site. A comparison of the effects of different types and application rates of amendments on water quality is necessary to determine …

Age And Paleontology Of The Turin Pit Locality, Monona County, Iowa, Samantha Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Turin Pit locality (Monona county, Iowa) has been known to paleontologists since 1908, yet the age of the fauna has been unclear. Early paleontologists considered Turin Pit to date to a pre-Illinoian interglacial (the “Aftonian).” Subsequent researchers suggested it dated to the last glaciation. This study provides a partial list of mammals in the Turin Pit fauna, and together with stratigraphic information, uses the known age ranges of taxa to estimate an age for the assemblage. The presence of Mammuthus, Aenocyon, and Castoroides combined with a magnetically-reversed till located stratigraphically above fossil-bearing deposits, suggest the Turin Pit …

Estimation Of Gross Primary Productivity Of Rice In Arkansas Using The Vegetation Photosynthesis Model, Riasad Bin Mahbub

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An estimate of the gross primary productivity (GPP) of rice fields can be instrumental to understand their harvest yield and to fulfill an array of agricultural monitoring needs. One of the most common satellite-based models to estimate GPP is the vegetation photosynthesis model (VPM). In this study, we use the VPM model for rice cropland in Arkansas and validate our findings against 16 site-years in-situ data (eddy covariance (EC)). At the site scale, results validated against 16 site-years have shown that the VPM with site information (R2 = 0.71, MAE = 2.90 g C m-2day- 1, and RMSE = 4.04 …

Outgassing Behavior And Heat Treatment Optimization Of Jsc-1a Lunar Regolith Simulant, Ryan P. Wilkerson, Mihail P. Petkov, Gerald E. Voecks, Catherine S. Lynch, Holly S. Shulman, Santhoshkumar Sundaramoorthy, Amitava Choudhury, Douglas L. Rickman, Michael R. Effinger

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

As NASA Strives towards a Long Duration Presence on the Moon, It Has Become Increasingly Important to Learn How to Better Utilize Resources from the Lunar Surface for Everything from Habitats, Vehicle Infrastructure, and Chemical Extraction. to that End, a Variety of Lunar Simulants Have Been Sourced from Terrestrially Available Volcanic Minerals and Glass as Apollo Regolith is Unavailable for Experimentation Needing Large Masses. However, While Mineralogy and Chemical Composition Can Approach that of Lunar Material in These Simulants, There Are Still Distinct Non-Lunar Phases Such as Hydrates, Carbonates, Sulfates, and Clays that Can Cause Simulants to Behave Distinctly Non-Lunar …

Assessment Of Pathogens In Flood Waters In Coastal Rural Regions: Case Study After Hurricane Michael And Florence, Moiz Usmani, Sital Uprety, Nathan Bonham, Yusuf Jamal, Yuqing Mao, Daisuke Sano, Joanna Shisler, Avinash Unnikrishnan, Thanh H. Nguyen, Antarpreet Jutla

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The severity of hurricanes, and thus the associated impacts, is changing over time. One of the understudied threats from damage caused by hurricanes is the potential for cross-contamination of water bodies with pathogens in coastal agricultural regions. Using microbiological data collected after hurricanes Florence and Michael, this study shows a dichotomy in the presence of pathogens in coastal North Carolina and Florida. Salmonella typhimurium was abundant in water samples collected in the regions dominated by swine farms. A drastic decrease in Enterococcus spp. in Carolinas is indicative of pathogen removal with flooding waters. Except for the abundance presence of Salmonella …

The G_2-Hitchin Component Of Triangle Groups: Dimension And Integer Points, Hannah E. Downs

Doctoral Dissertations

The image of $\PSL(2,\reals)$ under the irreducible representation into $\PSL(7,\reals)$ is contained in the split real form $G_{2}^{4,3}$ of the exceptional Lie group $G_{2}$. This irreducible representation therefore gives a representation $\rho$ of a hyperbolic triangle group $\Gamma(p,q,r)$ into $G_{2}^{4,3}$, and the \textit{Hitchin component} of the representation variety $\Hom(\Gamma(p,q,r),G_{2}^{4,3})$ is the component of $\Hom(\Gamma(p,q,r),G_{2}^{4,3})$ containing $\rho$.

This thesis is in two parts: (i) we give a simple, elementary proof of a formula for the dimension of this Hitchin component, this formula having been obtained earlier in [Alessandrini et al.], \citep{Alessandrini2023}, as part of a wider investigation using Higgs bundle techniques, …

Smartbrush: Text And Shape Guided Object Inpainting With Diffusion Model, Shaoan Xie, Zhifei Zhang, Zhe Lin, Tobias Hinz, Kun Zhang

Machine Learning Faculty Publications

Generic image inpainting aims to complete a corrupted image by borrowing surrounding information, which barely generates novel content. By contrast, multi-modal inpainting provides more flexible and useful controls on the inpainted content, e.g., a text prompt can be used to describe an object with richer attributes, and a mask can be used to constrain the shape of the inpainted object rather than being only considered as a missing area. We propose a new diffusion-based model named SmartBrush for completing a missing region with an object using both text and shape-guidance. While previous work such as DALLE-2 and Stable Diffusion can …

Addressing Learning Gaps In Acid-Base Chemistry Using Novel Three-Dimensional Models With Learning Module, Gabrielle Marie Grimes

Theses and Dissertations

Teaching scientific concepts is very complex and includes the discussion and use of different models that support students’ understanding of particle-level interactions and behavior of chemical phenomena. The presented research describes the development of three-dimensional acid-base models and an accompanying learning module to support students’ understanding of the autoionization of water, acidic strength, pH, and Ka in aqueous acid-base chemistry. The model set includes acid and base models embedded with magnets and removable hydrogen atoms or hydroxide groups to model particle-level interactions. The magnetic models allow students to investigate particle-level processes with student-built models of aqueous acid and base systems. …

Parallelization Of Dial-A-Ride Using Tabu Search, Raghuveer Naraharisetti

Theses and Dissertations

Dial-A-Ride is a transport system heavily constrained by following fleet size, vehicle capacity, and a fixed number of requests (pickup and drop-off points) with time windows. It is often modelled as Integer Programming, various solutions are proposed using heuristics. One such heuristic is "Tabu Search". Tabu Search is very CPU intensive with its process of search, therefore many modern computing techniques like using GPUs have been employed to make it efficient.

As with many other greedy algorithms, the local optima is not always the same as the global optima, so it is not possible to go past the local optima …

Structural And Kinematic Investigation Of The Dadeville Complex-Brevard Zone Contact (Southern Appalachians): Polyphase Emplacement Of An Allochthonous Terrane On The Laurentian Margin, Andrew Williams

Master's Theses

The Dadeville Complex (DC) lies in the Inner Piedmont of eastern Alabama and western Georgia. The DC formed as a volcanic island arc during the Taconic orogeny (Ordovician Period) and was accreted onto Laurentia during the Acadian orogeny (Devonian-Mississippian Periods); however, the mechanism and role of accretion during the Acadian orogeny is not well constrained. Three proposed emplacement mechanisms for the DC include: (1) orogen-perpendicular translation; (2) orogen-parallel translation; (3) orogenic channel flow.

Today, the DC is a major (over 100 kilometers long) allochthonous terrane composed mostly of meta-igneous rocks. This study investigated structural fabrics and kinematic indicators in the …

Random Quotients Of Hyperbolic Groups And Property (T), Prayagdeep Parija

Theses and Dissertations

What does a typical quotient of a group look like? Gromov looked at the density model of quotients of free groups. The density parameter $d$ measures the rate of exponential growth of the number of relators compared to the size of the Cayley ball. Using this model, he proved that for $d<1/2$, the typical quotient of a free group is non-elementary hyperbolic. Ollivier extended Gromov's result to show that for $d<1/2$, the typical quotient of many hyperbolic groups is also non-elementary hyperbolic.

Żuk and Kotowski--Kotowski proved that for $d>1/3$, a typical quotient of a free group has Property (T). We show that (in a closely related density model) for $1/3

An Optimal Decay Estimation Of The Solution To The Airy Equation, Ashley Scherf

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we investigate the initial value problem to the Airy equation \begin{align} \partial_t u + \partial_{x}^3 u &= 0\\ u(0,x) &= f(x). \end{align}

Cybersecurity Safeguards: What Cybersecurity Safeguards Could Have Prevented The Intelligence/Data Breach By A Member Of The Air National Guard, Christopher Curtis Royal

Cyber Operations and Resilience Program Graduate Projects

Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old IT specialist Air National Guard found himself on the wrong side of the US law after sharing what is considered classified and extremely sensitive information about USA's operations and role in Ukraine and Russia war. Like other previous cases of leakage of classified intelligence, the case of Teixeira raises concerns about the weaknesses and vulnerability of federal agencies' IT systems and security protocols governing accessibility to classified documents. Internal leakages of such classified documents hurt national security and can harm the country, especially when such secretive intelligence finds its way into the hands of enemies. Unauthorized …

Understanding The Factors Affecting Nebraskan Farmers’ And Landowners' Decision To Adopt Precision Agricultural Technologies And Programs, Corrin C. Winter

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Advisors: Andrew Little, Christopher Chizinski

To gain insights into the challenges faced by Nebraska farmers and landowners when adopting precision agriculture technologies, I analyzed data collected from a 2022 survey involving 7,503 participants, consisting of producers and farmland owners from across the state of Nebraska. The primary objective was to provide valuable insights for agencies seeking to improve their precision agriculture and conservation outreach efforts for the benefit of conservation and Nebraskan farmers and landowners. This study aimed to understand key factors influencing adoption behaviors by evaluating the constraints to precision agriculture adoption, assessing the impact of producer and landowner …

Research Instrumentation Center (Ric), Ryan Hilger, Purdue University Office Of Research

University Research Core Facility Boilerplate Descriptions

No abstract provided.

Fuzz Testing Of Zigbee Protocol Implementations, Mengfei Ren

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

ABSTRACT: In recent years, we have witnessed the increasing of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices deployed by many areas, such as home automation, healthcare, manufacture, and smart vehicle. Among the numerous IoT wireless standards available, Zigbee stands out as one of the most globally popular choices, with major companies like Amazon, Samsung, IKEA, Huawei, and Xiaomi incorporating it into their products. Notably, Zigbee has even been utilized in NASA's Mars mission, where it serves as the communication radio between the flying drone and the Perseverance rover. However, with the rapid growth of Zigbee's global market presence, the incentive for …

Towards Nuclei Segmentation With Limited Annotations, Mohammad Minhazul Haq

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

Nuclei segmentation is a fundamental but challenging task in histopathology image analysis. For semantic segmentation of nuclei, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), and Vision Transformer (VT) models give very promising results. However, to successfully train fully-supervised CNN and VT models we need significant amount of annotated data which is highly rare in biomedical domain. Also, collecting an unannotated histopathology dataset first, and then manually doing pixel-level labeling is expensive, time-consuming and tedious process. Therefore, we require to discover a way for training nuclei segmentation models with unlabeled datasets. In this thesis, I present my work towards solving this critical problem by …

Fostering A Sense Of Wonder: Promoting Experiential Learning Through Outdoor Discoveries On The Coast Of Maine, Joslyn Primicias

Honors Theses

Recent generations of children have been experiencing a decrease in connection to Nature, causing various negative effects on personal development and well-being. Researchers are studying the impact of environmental education programs as a potential resolution to this issue dubbed “nature deficit disorder.” Studies have shown that while citizen science by youth is rapidly expanding, little research addresses conservation science with environmental education. Recognizing this gap, the summer camps at Wells NERR are designed to ensure children’s environmental stewardship as they learn about estuarine ecology alongside environmental issues. This educational study focuses on how environmental education through estuarine activities at summer …

Causal Inference Methods For Estimation Of Survival And General Health Status Measures Of Alzheimer’S Disease Patients, Ehsan Yaghmaei

Computational and Data Sciences (PhD) Dissertations

Identifying optimal treatment options with respect to survival of Alzheimer's disease patients is crucially important and previously uninvestigated research question. Our objective was to estimate the causal effects of the most prevalent classes of Alzheimer’s disease drugs, Donepezil and Memantine, and their combined use on Survival and General Health Status Measures of Alzheimer's disease patients for the first five years after initial diagnosis. We carried out a thorough causal inference study using doubly robust estimators, nonparametric bootstrap confidence intervals, Bonferroni corrections for multiple comparisons and analyzing one of the largest high-quality medical databases containing millions of de-identified electronic health records …

A Method For Generating A Non-Manual Feature Model For Sign Language Processing, Robert G. Smith Dr, Markus Hofmann Dr

Articles

While recent approaches to sign language processing have shifted to the domain of Machine Learning (ML), the treatment of Non-Manual Features (NMFs) remains an open question. The principal challenge facing this method is the comparatively small sign language corpora available for training machine learning models. This study produces a statistical model which may be used in future ML, rules-based, and hybrid-learning approaches for sign language processing tasks. In doing so, this research explores the emerging patterns of non-manual articulation concerning grammatical classes in Irish Sign Language (ISL). The experimental method applied here is a novel implementation of an association rules …

Application Of Quantum Mechanical Techniques To Optical Waveguide Structures, Stuart Ward

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

The focus of this dissertation is on the application of supersymmetric quantum mechanics to the problem of microbending in optical waveguides and on the analysis of soliton decay due solely to quantum mechanical effects.

The techniques of supersymmetric quantum mechanics are applied to the equation of motion describing light propagation in an optical waveguide which is undergoing microbending. Based on these supersymmetric techniques, given a particular refractive index profile, one may derive a new refractive index profile which results in less loss due to the microbending -- the particular example of the monomial index profile is analyzed in detail. An …

Sulfur Cycling Connects Microbiomes And Biogeochemistry In Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Plumes, Zhichao Zhou, Patricia Q. Tran, Alyssa M. Adams, Kristopher Kieft, John A. Breier, Caroline S. Fortunato, Cody S. Sheik, Julie A. Huber, Meng Li, Gregory J. Dick, Karthik Anantharaman

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

In globally distributed deep-sea hydrothermal vent plumes, microbiomes are shaped by the redox energy landscapes created by reduced hydrothermal vent fluids mixing with oxidized seawater. Plumes can disperse over thousands of kilometers and their characteristics are determined by geochemical sources from vents, e.g., hydrothermal inputs, nutrients, and trace metals. However, the impacts of plume biogeochemistry on the oceans are poorly constrained due to a lack of integrated understanding of microbiomes, population genetics, and geochemistry. Here, we use microbial genomes to understand links between biogeography, evolution, and metabolic connectivity, and elucidate their impacts on biogeochemical cycling in the deep sea. Using …

Decadal Climate Variability In Mesoscale-Resolving Coupled Models, Ilijana Mastilovic

Theses and Dissertations

Most of our knowledge about the causes of 20th-century climate change comes from simulation using numerical models. However, the observed climate variability and the one simulated by the state-of-the-art climate models exhibit substantial discrepancies at the decadal-to-multidecadal time scale and thus it hinders our fundamental understanding of the observed climate change. Evidence is mounting that vigorous intrinsic variability associated with mesoscale oceanic features contributes significantly to large-scale low-frequency climate variability, with fundamental implications for decadal climate low-frequency climate prediction. As of yet, extensive simulation of these decadal effects using high-resolution state-of-the-art coupled climate models has been computationally prohibitive, as it …