Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Modeling Factual Claims With Semantic Frames: Definitions, Datasets, Tools, And Fact-Checking Applications, Fatma Arslan

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

As social media sites have become major channels for the quick dissemination of news, misinformation has become a significant challenge for our society to tackle. Today fact-checking rests primarily on the shoulders of human fact-checkers who laboriously sift through various trustworthy sources, interview subject experts, and check references before reaching a verdict regarding the degree of truthfulness of a factual claim. Compounded with the speed and scale at which misinformation spreads, the demanding process may leave many harmful factual claims unchecked. In the fight to curb the spread of misinformation, researchers from various disciplines have come forward to assist fact-checkers …

Coarse Proximity Spaces, Jeremy D. Siegert

Doctoral Dissertations

This work is meant to present the current general landscape of the theory of coarse proximity spaces. It is largely comprised of two parts that are heavily interrelated, the study of boundaries of coarse proximity spaces, and the dimension theory of coarse proximity spaces. Along the way a study of the relationships between coarse proximity spaces and other structures in coarse geometry are explored.

We begin in chapter 2 by going over the necessary preliminary definitions and concepts from the study of small scale proximity spaces as well as coarse geometry. We then quickly proceed to the introduction of coarse …

Computational Analysis To Study The Efficiency Of Shear Activated Nano-Therapeutics In The Treatment Of Atherosclerosis, Nicholas Jefopoulos

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Strokes are the fifth leading cause of death in the United States and can cause long-term disabilities in patients who survive a stroke. The vast majority of these strokes are ischemic, primarily caused by intracranial atherosclerosis. Most therapies to combat intracranial atherosclerosis simply manage it and do not remove the buildup of plaque. Targeted shear-activated nanotherapeutics are currently being developed to remove these plaques. We discuss the roles that aggregate particle density, aggregate particle diameter, vessel geometry, stenosis shape and breakup threshold play in the efficiency of this new technology. Computational studies were performed to test these parameters in three …

Mining Bitcoin To Avoid Sanctions, Tyler C. Lubin

Master's Theses

Though the world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was introduced over a decade ago, it was not until recently that it became a mainstream subject. While cryptocurrencies offer many advantages, a potential downside for governments, is that no central bank controls the monetary policy and new coins can be mined by anyone anywhere in the world. Governments have always been deeply involved with how a their countries’ currency is ran and the policies they create are meant to keep a currencies’ value stable and make sure other factors like inflation is under control. Even though as of 2021, there were well over …

Aerial Flight Paths For Communication, Alisha Bevins

Department of Computer Science and Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This body of work presents an iterative process of refinement to understand naive perception of communication using the motion of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). This includes what people believe the UAV is trying to communicate, and how they expect to respond through physical action or emotional response. Previous work in this area sought to communicate without clear definitions of the states attempting to be conveyed. In an attempt to present more concrete states and better understand specific motion perception, this work goes through multiple iterations of state elicitation and label assignment. The lessons learned in this work will be …

Host-Microbiome Interactions: Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha) Gut Immune Function And Bacterial Community Composition, Farwa Zaib

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Population divergence through selection can drive local adaptation, which has implications for effectively restoring declining and extirpated populations. Salmonid species provide an excellent model system to explore locally adapted traits as they are reproductively isolated and experience diverse environments. Here we focused on integrated immune function, which is affected by variation in host genetics and gene transcription as well as gut microbiome (bacterial community) variation. Furthermore, we explore interactions between host gut gene transcription levels and bacterial community composition to test co-adaptation of the host and its microbiome. In chapter 2, we utilized a factorial breeding design to determine the …

Blessings, God, Sacrifices: Possible Rational Explanations Of Biblical Ideas, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In this paper, we show that many seemingly irrational Biblical ideas can actually be rationally interpreted: that God is everywhere, that we can only say what God is not, that God's name is holy, why cannot you bless as many people as you want, etc. We do not insist on our interpretations, there probably are many others, our sole objective was to show that many Biblical ideas can be rationally explained.

An Evaluation Of The Central Coast Rangeland Coalition: Trust And Other Factors Important For Collaborative Conservation, Dustin Tran

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

The proliferation of collaborative partnerships across the western United States and the lack of tools and protocols to evaluate them have been well documented. As the number and types (conservation-based, policy actions, information sharing) of collaboratives rises, there is a need for research that aims to evaluate these partnerships' performance and collaborative process considering their importance and potential to solve complex ecological, economic, and social problems. This study aims to contribute to this pool of research by interviewing the Steering Committee (SC) members of the Central Coast Rangeland Coalition (CCRC), a volunteer-based and information-sharing rangeland collaborative coalition. We evaluate and …

A Comparative Review Of Cell-Based Mariculture And Conventional Seafood Life Cycle Assesments, Kyle Rathbone

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

The global fishing and aquaculture industries inflict significant environmental impacts on our planet’s oceans. The overfishing, pollution, and environmental degradation currently caused by these industries threatens the sustainability of marine ecological and industrial systems. Despite this, demand for seafood is expected to rise in the coming decades to service the growing global population with nutrient-rich foods. The difficulty in reconciling the need for drastic improvements in marine sustainability and the need to continue meeting global seafood demand has produced an interest in alternative solutions to seafood production. The emerging cell-based foods industry may hold the potential to produce seafood products …

Investigations Of Elastin Recoil On Molecular And Macroscopic Levels., Nour Mohammad Jamhawi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Elastin is one of the most hydrophobic proteins, and it is extremely flexible when hydrated. The driving force for recoil is the decrease in entropy of the protein and/or the hydrating solvent. This dissertation is a study of both mechanisms. Following an introduction (Chapter 1), Chapters 2 and 3 investigate the recoil mechanism on the molecular level in the hydrating solvent and in the protein, respectively. Chapter 4 examines macroscopic properties of recoil by thermomechanics. Conclusions are discussed in Chapter 5. Using double quantum NMR, the deuterated water ordering at the elastin surface was studied quantitatively as a function of …

Micellar Nanocatalysis For Efficient Reactions., Uyen T Duong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Water is considered a green, sustainable, and inexpensive solvent for organic synthesis. However, performing organic reactions in water is especially challenging due to the inherent insolubility of substrates and catalysts. Inspired from Nature, where chemistry happens in water, micellar catalysis has recently gained much attention, especially for applications in pharmaceutical industry. Aqueous micelles are generally formed by amphiphile`s self-aggregation, a particular class of molecules possessing both hydrophobic and hydrophilic components. The aqueous micelle contains a hydrophobic cavity, which allows the lipophilic substrates and catalyst to go inside micelles, allowing their much higher localized concentration that enhances the reaction rates and …

Recent Studies On The Synthesis Of Medicinal Molecules., Paige Monsen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Medicinal chemistry interfaces synthetic organic chemistry, natural product chemistry and chemical biology, with a goal of yielding therapeutic agents. Natural products or compounds derived from natural sources such as plants, animals, and microorganisms, are often biologically active and render that compound a likely drug lead. For thousands of years humankind has utilized natural products for medicinal purposes and consequently scientists take advantage of both these compounds’ core structural characteristics and their modes of actions on selected targets as inspiration to develop therapeutics. Because the total synthesis of such complex molecules can be cumbersome and expensive, semi-synthetic methods on isolated natural …

Machine Learning Methods To Improve Fairness And Prediction Accuracy On Largesocially Relevant Datasets, Bhanu Chaturvedi Jain

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations

Machine learning-based decision support systems bring relief to the decision-makers in many domains such as loan application acceptance, dating, hiring, granting parole, insurance coverage, and medical diagnoses. These support systems facilitate processing tremendous amounts of data to decipher the embedded patterns. However,these decisions can also absorb and amplify bias embedded in the data. An increasing number of applications of machine learning-based decision sup-port systems in a growing number of domains has directed the attention of stake-holders to the accuracy, transparency, interpretability, cost effectiveness, and fairness encompassed in the ensuing decisions. In this dissertation, we have focused on fairness and accuracy …

Decoupling-Based Approach To Centrality Detection In Heterogeneous Multilayer Networks, Kiran Mukunda

Computer Science and Engineering Theses

Graph analysis is one of the techniques widely used for data analysis. It is used extensively on single graphs. Its ability to capture entities and relationships makes it an attractive data model. Search on graphs, such as finding triangles, cliques, shortest paths, etc., and aggregate analysis, such as communities, substructure, or centrality measures have well-defined algorithms for single graphs. The centrality measure, which is the focus of this thesis, identifies the most important nodes in a graph or network. While there are many centrality measures, the most commonly used ones are degree and betweenness centrality. Algorithms for analyzing these measures …

Develop A Multi-Functional Green Pervious Concrete (Mgpc) Pavement With Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Pahs) Removal Function., Hong Shang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stormwater runoff induced Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) contaminant increasingly imperils the groundwater quality and the sustainable development of human society due to the potential carcinogenic risks. Pavement can be considered as the first line of defense for contaminant removal of the stormwater runoff. New construction materials with stormwater runoff quantity and quality control are in urgent demand for updating the existing pavement system. An innovative material called Multi-functional Green Pervious Concrete (MGPC) was developed in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Louisville. This material uses organoclay as the amendment to enhance the PAHs removal capacity of …

Signal Fingerprinting And Machine Learning Framework For Uav Detection And Identification., Olusiji Oloruntobi Medaiyese

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Advancement in technology has led to creative and innovative inventions. One such invention includes unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). UAVs (also known as drones) are now an intrinsic part of our society because their application is becoming ubiquitous in every industry ranging from transportation and logistics to environmental monitoring among others. With the numerous benign applications of UAVs, their emergence has added a new dimension to privacy and security issues. There are little or no strict regulations on the people that can purchase or own a UAV. For this reason, nefarious actors can take advantage of these aircraft to intrude into …

Multilateration Index., Chip Lynch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We present an alternative method for pre-processing and storing point data, particularly for Geospatial points, by storing multilateration distances to fixed points rather than coordinates such as Latitude and Longitude. We explore the use of this data to improve query performance for some distance related queries such as nearest neighbor and query-within-radius (i.e. “find all points in a set P within distance d of query point q”). Further, we discuss the problem of “Network Adequacy” common to medical and communications businesses, to analyze questions such as “are at least 90% of patients living within 50 miles of a covered emergency …

Lightweight Mutual Authentication And Privacy Preservation Schemes For Iot Systems., Samah Mansour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Internet of Things (IoT) presents a holistic and transformative approach for providing services in different domains. IoT creates an atmosphere of interaction between humans and the surrounding physical world through various technologies such as sensors, actuators, and the cloud. Theoretically, when everything is connected, everything is at risk. The rapid growth of IoT with the heterogeneous devices that are connected to the Internet generates new challenges in protecting and preserving user’s privacy and ensuring the security of our lives. IoT systems face considerable challenges in deploying robust authentication protocols because some of the IoT devices are resource-constrained with limited computation …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Catalytic Activity Of Functionalized Metal Bis(Thiosemicarbazones)., Caleb Aaron Calvary

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bis-(thiosemicarbazones) are a class of ligands that have found a wide range of uses from electrocatalysts to medicinal and diagnostic reagents. These ligands contain a diimine backbone, N₂S₂ chelating core, and pendent amines. In order to further explore this class of ligands, the previously underreported transamination reaction, which exchanges one pendent amine group for another, was utilized to create several derivatives using aliphatic and aromatic amines. The transamination reaction is appealing alternative to making the desired thiosemicarbazide. Further appeals come from the fact that it is a one-pot reaction that gives highly pure products in good yields. …

High-Density Parking For Autonomous Vehicles., Parag J. Siddique

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a common parking lot, much of the space is devoted to lanes. Lanes must not be blocked for one simple reason: a blocked car might need to leave before the car that blocks it. However, the advent of autonomous vehicles gives us an opportunity to overcome this constraint, and to achieve a higher storage capacity of cars. Taking advantage of self-parking and intelligent communication systems of autonomous vehicles, we propose puzzle-based parking, a high-density design for a parking lot. We introduce a novel method of vehicle parking, which leads to maximum parking density. We then propose a heuristic method …

Intercalation And High Pressure Studies Of Black Phosphorous - Pathways To Novel Materials And Physics., Manthila Chathurange Rajapakse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Discovery of graphene in 2004 initiated a new trend of materials known as two-dimensional (2D) materials which have exciting surface properties and anisotropies than their bulk counterparts. Phosphorene, which is the layered version of black phosphorous (BP) is one of the top 2D materials in terms of research interests and applications of the present day. Moving a step further, our interest is to understand the possibilities for structural modifications of phosphorene, by means of stimuli such as intercalation and high-pressure. It has been predicted by theoretical studies that these stimuli may lead to the formation of new structures and phases …

Bayesian Variable Selection Strategies In Longitudinal Mixture Models And Categorical Regression Problems., Md Nazir Uddin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this work, we seek to develop a variable screening and selection method for Bayesian mixture models with longitudinal data. To develop this method, we consider data from the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) conducted by University of Michigan. Considering yearly out-of-pocket expenditures as the longitudinal response variable, we consider a Bayesian mixture model with $K$ components. The data consist of a large collection of demographic, financial, and health-related baseline characteristics, and we wish to find a subset of these that impact cluster membership. An initial mixture model without any cluster-level predictors is fit to the data through an MCMC …

Mass Spectrometry Based Metabolomics And Lipidomics., Fang Yuan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Metabolomics and lipidomics studies are important to understand living organisms at the molecular level. In this dissertation, I conducted various untargeted and targeted metabolomics and lipidomics studies using mass spectrometry based analytical platforms. Firstly, I investigated the androgen depletion effects on fecal metabolites in a mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus and metabolite biomarkers for colorectal cancer using two-dimensional gas and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Secondly, I investigated the relationship between gut microbiota-mediated resistance and susceptibility to malaria and the production of short-chain fatty acids using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Thirdly, I developed a high-throughput liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method to profile long-chain …

Photophysics Of Substituted [1,4]Benzodioxino[3,2-B]Oxanthrene (Bdo) Chromophores And Their Macromolecules: A Spectroscopy And Density Functional Theory Study., Abdelqader M. Jamhawi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chromophores and macromolecules containing [1,4]benzodioxino[3,2-b]oxanthrene (BDO) has attracted attention since the beginning of this century. Previous studies demonstrated their potential in wide range of applications including gas permeability, hydrogen and energy storage, sensing, and catalysis. Better understanding of the geometrical and electronic structure characteristics of BOD-based chromophores is vital to advance their employment in these applications. This work utilizes spectroscopy techniques coupled with density functional theory methods to provide this required understanding. Substituted BDOs exhibit red-shift of >1 eV in their electronic transitions compared to unsubstituted BDOs. This shift is explained by a molecular orbital reorganization induced by the substituents. …

Micelles And Lipid Nanoparticles: Catalysis And Biomedical Application., Faisal Ibrahim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

RNA-based therapeutics is a rapidly expanding field due to its enormous potential for treatment of diseases through knockdown of genes or expression of therapeutic proteins. However, due to the overall negative-charge of an RNA molecule, RNA-based therapeutics must rely on delivery systems to overcome the various biological barriers for ultimate release of an RNA payload into the cytosol. Over the past three decades, the development of lipid-based RNA delivery systems, especially lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), have been comprehensively studied due to their unique properties. LNPs represent the most widely used delivery systems for RNA-based therapeutics, as evidenced by the clinical approvals …

Social Network Analysis: A Machine Learning Approach, Bonaventure Chidube Molokwu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is an appealing research topic, within the domain of Artificial Intelligence (AI), owing to its widespread application in the real world. In this dissertation, we have proposed effective Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) approaches toward resolving these open problems with regard to SNA, viz: Breakup Prediction, Link Prediction, Node Classification, Event-based Analysis, and Trend/Pattern Analysis. SNA can be employed toward resolving several real-world problems; and ML as well as DL have proven to be very effective methodologies for accomplishing Artificial Intelligence (AI)- related goals. Existing literature have focused on studying the apparent and latent …

Bootstrap Percolation On Random Geometric Graphs, Alyssa Whittemore

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Bootstrap Percolation is a discrete-time process that models the spread of information or disease across the vertex set of a graph. We consider the following version of this process:

Initially, each vertex of the graph is set active with probability p or inactive otherwise. Then, at each time step, every inactive vertex with at least k active neighbors becomes active. Active vertices will always remain active. The process ends when it reaches a stationary state. If all the vertices eventually become active, then we say we achieve percolation.

This process has been widely studied on many families of graphs, deterministic …

Implementing Of Phase Potentiation Program With College Triathletes, David Fish

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of an in-season resistance training program on improving measures of strength in female collegiate triathletes. Nine females (age = 19.2 ± 1.1 years, height = 166.5 ± 12.5 cm, body mass = 61.1 ± 9 kg) with limited resistance training experience were examined for this study. Formal RT intervention was monitored for 7 weeks with the athletes being assigned 6 weeks of independent RT prior to the pre-test. Athletes completed a standardized athlete monitoring program pre and post resistance training intervention. Paired sample t-tests were used to determine differences …

Predictive Modeling Of Clinical Outcomes For Hospitalized Covid-19 Patients Utilizing Cytof And Clinical Data., Onajia Stubblefield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In December 2019, an outbreak of a novel coronavirus initiated a global pandemic. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a virus that causes the disease coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Symptoms of infection with COVID-19 vary widely between individuals. While some infected individuals are asymptomatic, others need more extensive care and require hospitalization. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic was characterized by a shortage of hospital beds which presented additional complications in providing adequate care for patients. In this study, we used a combination of T cell population data collected from mass cytometry analysis and clinical markers to form a predictive …

Development Of A 7 Dof Exoskeleton Robot For Rehabilitation Of Lower Extremity, Sk Hasan

Theses and Dissertations

The World Health Organization reports that worldwide about 1 billion people have some form ofdisability. Of these, 110-190 million people have significant difficulties in functioning (mainly upper and lower extremity disability) independently. The major causes of human lower extremity disability include stroke, trauma, spinal cord injuries, and muscular dystrophy. Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke. A statistic shows that approximately 65% of post-stroke patients suffer lower extremity impairment. Rehabilitation programs are the main method to promote functional recovery in disabled individuals. The conventional therapeutic approach requires a long commitment from a therapist or a clinician. …