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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Student Performance In Traditional In-Person Vs. Online Sections Of An Introductory Graduate Mathematics Course, Lauran E. Kittle Mar 2023

Student Performance In Traditional In-Person Vs. Online Sections Of An Introductory Graduate Mathematics Course, Lauran E. Kittle

Theses and Dissertations

The growth of technology impacts nearly every aspect of everyday life, to include education and learning. The availability of distance learning (online) classes has increased drastically in the last few decades, expanding access to education for millions of people. However, it is imperative to consider exactly how the growth of technology impacts education – whether it is a positive, negative, or neutral impact. Previous research comparing distance learning and in-residence (traditional) classes have widely mixed, disparate conclusions. This type of research, two-stage analysis, and modeling has yet to be conducted on a graduate school level. For this reason, a detailed …


Leveraging Subject Matter Expertise To Optimize Machine Learning Techniques For Air And Space Applications, Philip Y. Cho Sep 2022

Leveraging Subject Matter Expertise To Optimize Machine Learning Techniques For Air And Space Applications, Philip Y. Cho

Theses and Dissertations

We develop new machine learning and statistical methods that are tailored for Air and Space applications through the incorporation of subject matter expertise. In particular, we focus on three separate research thrusts that each represents a different type of subject matter knowledge, modeling approach, and application. In our first thrust, we incorporate knowledge of natural phenomena to design a neural network algorithm for localizing point defects in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images of crystalline materials. In our second research thrust, we use Bayesian feature selection and regression to analyze the relationship between fighter pilot attributes and flight mishap rates. We …


Classification And Keyword Identification Of Covid 19 Misinformation On Social Media: A Framework For Semantic Analysis, Grace Y. Smith Mar 2022

Classification And Keyword Identification Of Covid 19 Misinformation On Social Media: A Framework For Semantic Analysis, Grace Y. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The growing surge of misinformation among COVID-19 communication can pose great hindrance to truth, magnify distrust in policy makers and/or degrade authorities’ credibility, and it can even harm public health. Classification of textual context on social media data relating to COVID-19 is an effective tool to combat misinformation on social media platforms. In this research, Twitter data was leveraged to 1) develop classification methods to detect misinformation and identify Tweet sentiment with respect to COVID-19 and 2) develop a human-in-the-loop interactive framework to enable identification of keywords associated with social context, here, being misinformation regarding COVID-19. 1) Six fusion-based classification …


Equichordal Tight Fusion Frames And Biangular Orthopartitionable Tight Frames, Benjamin R. Mayo Sep 2021

Equichordal Tight Fusion Frames And Biangular Orthopartitionable Tight Frames, Benjamin R. Mayo

Theses and Dissertations

An equichordal tight fusion frame (ECTFF) is a sequence of equidimensional subspaces of a Euclidean space that achieves equality in Conway, Hardin and Sloane's simplex bound, and so is a type of optimal Grassmannian code. In the special case where its subspaces have dimension one, an ECTFF corresponds to an equiangular tight frame (ETF); such frames have minimal coherence and so are useful for compressed sensing. More generally, an ECTFF will yield a frame with minimal block coherence when its subspaces are pairwise isoclinic, namely when it is an equi-isoclinic tight fusion frame (EITFF). In this dissertation, we generalize the …


Instabilities Of Overturned Traveling Waves, Tyler B. Pierce Sep 2021

Instabilities Of Overturned Traveling Waves, Tyler B. Pierce

Theses and Dissertations

The instabilities of overturned traveling waves are determined by the use of spectral methods. Two separate numerical methods, Spectral Stability Analysis and Dynamic Stability Analysis, are used to assess the instabilities of branches of waves solved from conformally-mapped Euler equations. The branches of waves with Bond number less than two were found to be spectrally stable to super-harmonic perturbations. The branches of waves with Bond number in [2,3) had some waves that were stable and some that were unstable. All overturned waves with Bond number greater than or equal to two were unstable.


Correlated Positron-Electron Orbital (Cpeo): A Novel Method That Models Positron-Electron Correlation In Virtual Ps At The Mean-Field Level, Kevin E. Blaine Jun 2021

Correlated Positron-Electron Orbital (Cpeo): A Novel Method That Models Positron-Electron Correlation In Virtual Ps At The Mean-Field Level, Kevin E. Blaine

Theses and Dissertations

The Correlated Positronic-Electronic Orbital (CPEO) method was developed and implemented to capture correlation effects at between the positron and electron in the modeling of systems that involve a bound positron. Methods that effectively model these systems require many hundred basis functions and use a mean field approach as the beginning step. CPEO builds an orbital for virtual Positronium (Ps) that contains a positron in a bound state along with an accompanying electron to the larger system. Assigning the virtual Ps orbital allows for the two particle variational optimization in conjunction with the other particles that compose the whole system. This …


An Analysis Of The Effects Of Technology Readiness Levels On Cost Growth, Christopher R. Bissing Mar 2021

An Analysis Of The Effects Of Technology Readiness Levels On Cost Growth, Christopher R. Bissing

Theses and Dissertations

This research seeks to evaluate the effects of Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) on Cost Growth. It makes use of data from Technology Readiness Assessments (TRA) and Selected Acquisition Reports (SAR) to explore relationships between TRLs at Milestone B and cost growth in Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAP) and Major Automated Information Systems (MAIS). Programs using higher proportions of critical technologies rated below TRL 7 tend to experience greater cost growth than programs that use more mature technologies. Current DoD doctrine requires TRL 6 to enter Milestone B. The results of this research seek to evaluate the merit of this requirement. …


Modeling Nonlinear Heat Transfer For A Pin-On-Disc Sliding System, Brian A. Boardman Mar 2020

Modeling Nonlinear Heat Transfer For A Pin-On-Disc Sliding System, Brian A. Boardman

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research is to develop a numerical method to characterize heat transfer and wear rates for samples of Vascomax® 300, or Maraging 300, steel. A pin-on-disc experiment was conducted in which samples were exposed to a high-pressure, high-speed, sliding contact environment. This sliding contact generates frictional heating that influences the temperature distribution and wear characteristics of the test samples. A two-dimensional nonlinear heat transfer equation is discretized and solved via a second-order explicit finite difference scheme to predict the transient temperature distribution of the pin. This schematic is used to predict the removal of material from the …


Dimension-Breaking For Traveling Waves In Interfacial Flows, Matthew W. Seiders Aug 2019

Dimension-Breaking For Traveling Waves In Interfacial Flows, Matthew W. Seiders

Theses and Dissertations

Fluid flow models in two spatial dimensions with a one-dimensional interface are known to support overturned traveling solutions. Computational methods of solving the two-dimensional problem are well developed, even in the case of overturned waves. The three-dimensional problem is harder for three prominent reasons. First, some formulations of the two-dimensional problem do not extend to three-dimensions. The technique of conformal mapping is a prime example, as it is very efficient in two dimensions but does not have a three-dimensional equivalent. Second, some three-dimensional models, such as the Transformed Field Expansion method, do not allow for overturned waves. Third, computational time …


Modeling The Distribution Of Lightning Strike Distances Outside A Preexisting Lightning Area, Dawn L. Sanderson Mar 2019

Modeling The Distribution Of Lightning Strike Distances Outside A Preexisting Lightning Area, Dawn L. Sanderson

Theses and Dissertations

Air Force Instruction 91-203 (AFI 91-203) directs that a lightning warning be issued when lightning is occurring or imminent within a 5 nautical mile (NM) radius of a predetermined location or activity. The 45 Weather Squadron (WS), located on the central eastern coast of Florida, balances the safety of personnel and space launch vehicles with lost productivity of taking shelter from lightning. The primary objective of this study investigates if this 5 NM safety radius can be reduced while maintaining a desired level of safety. The research uses processed Lightning Detection and Ranging (LDAR) data to map the movement of …


Harmonic Equiangular Tight Frames Comprised Of Regular Simplices, Courtney A. Schmitt Mar 2019

Harmonic Equiangular Tight Frames Comprised Of Regular Simplices, Courtney A. Schmitt

Theses and Dissertations

An equiangular tight frame (ETF) is a sequence of equal-norm vectors in a Euclidean space whose coherence achieves equality in the Welch bound, and thus yields an optimal packing in a projective space. A regular simplex is a simple type of ETF in which the number of vectors is one more than the dimension of the underlying space. More sophisticated examples include harmonic ETFs, which are formed by restricting the characters of a finite abelian group to a difference set. Recently, it was shown that some harmonic ETFs are themselves comprised of regular simplices. In this thesis, we continue the …


An Imputation Approach To Developing Alternative Futures Of Country Conflict, Zachary J. Kane Mar 2019

An Imputation Approach To Developing Alternative Futures Of Country Conflict, Zachary J. Kane

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding what causes countries to be in a state of violent conflict is of vital importance to developing realistic national strategies on both a regional and global scale. Given these causes, it is important to understand the effects of missing data, how to impute that data, and the interrelation between data elements. Utilizing both open source data and previously generated equations that predict a country’s likelihood to transition conflict statuses, this research projects data into the future and predicts each nations’ subsequent conflict statuses. Future data is populated using a novel approach inspired by stochastic regression imputation. The replicated future …


Compressive Sampling For Phenotype Classification, Eric L. Brooks Aug 2018

Compressive Sampling For Phenotype Classification, Eric L. Brooks

Theses and Dissertations

Phenotype classification has become an increasingly important genomic research method for disease identification and treatment. Phenotype classification is the investigation into the genetic information concerned with locating biomarkers (features) in order to identify an observed effect. The primary challenge associated with phenotype classification is with analyzing the data due to the inherent high-dimensionality of DNA data. As a result, phenotype classification faces challenges with feature selection, and consequently, classification accuracy. This research developed a methodology to alleviate these challenges while improving classification performance. The methodology leverages concepts of compressive sampling, to arrive at a process that identifies features most relevant …


Numerical Simulation Of High Energy Laser Propagation, Dana F. Morrill Aug 2018

Numerical Simulation Of High Energy Laser Propagation, Dana F. Morrill

Theses and Dissertations

High energy lasers have many applications, such as in aerospace, weapons, wireless power transfer, and manufacturing. Fluid-laser interaction is important to predicting power at receiver, and other measures of laser beam quality. Typically the carrying medium of the laser is modeled statistically. This dissertation describes a novel method of coupling fluid dynamics to beam propagation in free space. The coupled laser-fluid solver captures dynamic interaction of fluid temperature and beam intensity. Ultimately, the model captures the effects of fluid convection in the laser intensity-field. Boundary conditions play an important role for fluid dynamics, more so than for beam dynamics. Simulation …


Statistical Inference To Evaluate And Compare The Performance Of Correlated Multi-State Classification Systems, Beau A. Nunnally Aug 2018

Statistical Inference To Evaluate And Compare The Performance Of Correlated Multi-State Classification Systems, Beau A. Nunnally

Theses and Dissertations

The current emphasis on including correlation when comparing diagnostic test performance is quite important, however, there are cases in which correlation effects may be negligible with respect to inference. This proposed work examines the impact of including correlation between classification systems with continuous features by comparing the optimal performance of two diagnostic tests with multiple outcomes as well as providing inference for a sequence of tests. We define the optimal point using Bayes Cost, a metric that sums the weighted misclassifications within a diagnostic test using a cost/benefit structure. Through simulation, we quantify the impact of correlation on standard errors …


Analysis Of Temperature And Humidity Effects On Horizontal Photovoltaic Panels, Corey J. Booker Mar 2018

Analysis Of Temperature And Humidity Effects On Horizontal Photovoltaic Panels, Corey J. Booker

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force seeks to address power grid vulnerability and bolster energy resilience through the use of renewable energy sources. Air Force Institute of Technology engineers designed and manufactured control systems to monitor power production from the most widely-used silicon-based solar cells at 38 testing locations around the globe spanning the majority of climate types. Researchers conducted multivariate regression analysis to establish a statistical relationship between photovoltaic power output, ambient temperature, and humidity pertaining to monocrystalline and polycrystalline photovoltaic panels. Formulated models first characterized power output globally, then by specific climate type with general inaccuracy. Location-specific models are …


Improving Annual Fixed Wing Maintenance Cost Estimates Through Cost Estimating Relationships, Kirsten Bunecke Mar 2018

Improving Annual Fixed Wing Maintenance Cost Estimates Through Cost Estimating Relationships, Kirsten Bunecke

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force executes its mission primarily through the use of fixed-wing aircrafts. Maintaining these aircrafts represents approximately one-third of annual Operating and Support costs; which in turn, make up the majority of Life Cycle Costs. The current approach to estimating aircraft maintenance costs does not take into consideration programmatic data available in the Air Force Total Ownership Cost (AFTOC) database. The four maintenance cost subcategories researched in this thesis are Consumable Materials and Repair Parts, Depot Level Repairables (DLRs), Depot Maintenance, and Contractor Logistic Support. Each of these cost categories must first be standardized to be able to compare …


An Analysis Of The Estimate At Complete For Department Of Defense Contracts, Deborah B. Kim Mar 2018

An Analysis Of The Estimate At Complete For Department Of Defense Contracts, Deborah B. Kim

Theses and Dissertations

When contractors provide timely and reliable information on the status of a contract, both contractors and government program offices can provide an accurate estimate of a contract’s completion costs. This research shows that the cumulative cost performance indices provided by contractors and program offices are high and less accurate than those of previous years and/or that a significant amount of ACWP is being documented in the final portion of a contract. The high performance indices resulted in EACs that were low-balled during the majority of a contract’s life which shows a need to improve the use of EVM metrics for …


Radial Basis Function Generated Finite Differences For The Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation, Justin Ng Mar 2018

Radial Basis Function Generated Finite Differences For The Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation, Justin Ng

Theses and Dissertations

Solutions to the one-dimensional and two-dimensional nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation are obtained numerically using methods based on radial basis functions (RBFs). Periodic boundary conditions are enforced with a non-periodic initial condition over varying domain sizes. The spatial structure of the solutions is represented using RBFs while several explicit and implicit iterative methods for solving ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are used in temporal discretization for the approximate solutions to the NLS equation. Splitting schemes, integration factors and hyperviscosity are used to stabilize the time-stepping schemes and are compared with one another in terms of computational efficiency and accuracy. This thesis shows …


Modeling Multimodal Failure Effects Of Complex Systems Using Polyweibull Distribution, Daniel A. Timme Mar 2018

Modeling Multimodal Failure Effects Of Complex Systems Using Polyweibull Distribution, Daniel A. Timme

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense (DoD) enlists multiple complex systems across each of their departments. Between the aging systems going through an overhaul and emerging new systems, quality assurance to complete the mission and secure the nation‘s objectives is an absolute necessity. The U.S. Air Force‘s increased interest in Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and the Space Warfighting domain are current examples of complex systems that must maintain high reliability and sustainability in order to complete missions moving forward. DoD systems continue to grow in complexity with an increasing number of components and parts in more complex arrangements. Bathtub-shaped hazard functions arise …


Lightning Prediction Using Artificial Neural Networks And Electric Field Mill Data, Daniel E. Hill Mar 2018

Lightning Prediction Using Artificial Neural Networks And Electric Field Mill Data, Daniel E. Hill

Theses and Dissertations

Electric Field Mills (EFMs) located in the region surrounding Cape Canaveral record the electrification of the atmosphere near them. Research studying how these sensors could improve lightning warnings has had mixed results. This paper used a Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network (CRNN) and data from 30 EFMs from May-July of 2012-2016. The mean was calculated for every 60 second period and 30 minutes of this summarized data was used to create a lightning prediction with a warning period of 15 minutes. This method achieved a True Positive Rate (TPR) of 77.6%, a False Positive Rate (FPR) of 8.3%, a False Discovery …


Analysis Of A Medical Center's Cardiac Risk Screening Protocol Using Propensity Score Matching, Jake E. Johnson Mar 2018

Analysis Of A Medical Center's Cardiac Risk Screening Protocol Using Propensity Score Matching, Jake E. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore have developed a cardiac risk stratification protocol in the hopes of reducing the time-from arrival-to-first-operation for geriatric orthopedic patients. They collected observational data for two years prior to and following the October 2014 implementation of the new screening protocol. Therefore, advanced analytical techniques are required to isolate the treatment effect of the new screening protocol. Propensity score matching (PSM) is used to handle the observational data in order to reduce the bias attributable to the confounding covariates. In addition to PSM, various regression techniques are used to help the researchers …


Quasi-Static Nonlinear Analysis Of A Celestial Icosahedron Shaped Vacuum Lighter Than Air Vehicle, Kyle D. Moore Mar 2018

Quasi-Static Nonlinear Analysis Of A Celestial Icosahedron Shaped Vacuum Lighter Than Air Vehicle, Kyle D. Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the many drawbacks associated with a traditional lighter than air vehicle (LTAV), there is a desire for a LTAV which generates lift from an internal vacuum. To date, two feasible designs (the icosahedron and the hexakis icosahedron) for this so called vacuum lighter than air vehicle (VLTAV) have been studied at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). This research looks to show the feasibility of a new design for a VLTAV, the celestial icosahedron. This research includes a boundary condition study which proves the symmetric nature of the celestial icosahedron's frame with laterally constrained and unconstrained vertices. …


The Air Force Fitness Test: Creating New Fitness Assessment Charts Using Waist To Height Ratios, John R. Griffith Mar 2017

The Air Force Fitness Test: Creating New Fitness Assessment Charts Using Waist To Height Ratios, John R. Griffith

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force currently uses AFI 36-2905 for fitness standards and evaluation, but no study to our knowledge has evaluated these standards using large databases. Using a 5.38 million record database from the Air Force Fitness Management System, we evaluated how the abdominal circumference, body mass index (BMI), waist to height ratio (WtHR), and height to weight ratio correlated to fitness as assessed by the 1.5 mile aerobic run in the Air Force Fitness Test. Whether individually or adjusting for age group and gender, WtHR performed better that the rest with an average rank score of 1.1 with a relative …


Time Domain Analysis Of Electromagnetic Scattering From Multiple Cavities Embedded In A Ground Plane, Richard P. Uber Sep 2016

Time Domain Analysis Of Electromagnetic Scattering From Multiple Cavities Embedded In A Ground Plane, Richard P. Uber

Theses and Dissertations

This work examines the scattered fields produced when a transient wave is reflected from an infinite perfect electric conductor (PEC) ground plane with multiple embedded cavities. Incident and reflected waves will be decomposed into transverse magnetic to the z direction (TMz) and transverse electric to the z direction (TEz) polarizations, with primary focus given to the TMz. Cavities may be unfilled, partially filled, or fully filled with non-magnetic dielectric material and no assumptions are made regarding similarity, regularity, or periodicity. The Newmark method is used to discretize time and a variational formulation is presented for each time step. The principle …


Synergistic Effects Of Phase Folding And Wavelet Denoising With Applications In Light Curve Analysis, Andrew M. Armstrong Sep 2016

Synergistic Effects Of Phase Folding And Wavelet Denoising With Applications In Light Curve Analysis, Andrew M. Armstrong

Theses and Dissertations

The growing size of cosmological data sets is causing the current human-centric approach to cosmology to become impractical. Autonomous data analysis techniques need to be developed in order to advance the field of cosmology. This research examines the benefits of combining two signal analysis techniques, namely phase folding and wavelet denoising, into a newly-developed suite of autonomous light curve analysis tools which includes aspects of component extraction and period detection. The improvements these tools provide, with respect to autonomy and signal quality, are demonstrated using both simulated and real-world light curve data. Although applied to light curve data, the suite …


Radial Basis Function Based Quadrature Over Smooth Surfaces, Maloupu L. Watts Mar 2016

Radial Basis Function Based Quadrature Over Smooth Surfaces, Maloupu L. Watts

Theses and Dissertations

The numerical approximation of denite integrals, or quadrature, often involves the construction of an interpolant of the integrand and subsequent integration of the interpolant. It is natural to rely on polynomial interpolants in the case ofone dimension; however, extension of integration of polynomial interpolants to two or more dimensions can be costly andunstable. A method for computing surface integrals on the sphere is detailed in the literature (Reeger and Fornberg,Studies in Applied Mathematics, 2016). The method uses local radial basis function (RBF) interpolation to reducecomputational complexity when generating quadrature weights for the particular node set. This thesis expands upon thesame …


A Logistic Regression And Markov Chain Model For The Prediction Of Nation-State Violent Conflicts And Transitions, Nicholas Shallcross Mar 2016

A Logistic Regression And Markov Chain Model For The Prediction Of Nation-State Violent Conflicts And Transitions, Nicholas Shallcross

Theses and Dissertations

Using open source data, this research formulates and constructs a suite of statistical models that predict future transitions into and out of violent conflict and forecasts the regional and global incidences of violent conflict over a ten-year time horizon. A total of thirty predictor variables are tested and evaluated for inclusion in twelve conditional logistic regression models, which calculate the probability that a nation will transition from its current conflict state, either In Conflict or Not in Conflict, to a new state in the following year. These probabilities are then used to construct a series of nation-specific Markov chain models …


Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder Through Brain Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Kyle A. Palko Mar 2016

Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder Through Brain Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Kyle A. Palko

Theses and Dissertations

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that can be debilitating to social functioning. Previous functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) classification studies have included only small subject sample sizes (n 50) and have seen high classification accuracy. The recent release of the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) provides fMRI data for over 1,100 subjects. In our research, we derive a subject's functional network connectivity (FNC) from their fMRI data and develop a regularized logistic classifier to determine whether a subject has autism. We obtained up to 65% classification accuracy, similar to other studies using the ABIDE dataset, suggesting …


Testing The Adequacy Of A Semi-Markov Process, Richard S. Seymour Sep 2015

Testing The Adequacy Of A Semi-Markov Process, Richard S. Seymour

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the versatility of its structure, the semi-Markov process is a powerful modeling tool used to describe complex systems. Though similar in structure to continuous time Markov chains, semi-Markov processes allow for any transition time distribution which enables these processes to t a wider range of problems than the continuous time Markov chain. While semi-Markov processes have been applied in fields as varied as biostatistics and finance, there does not exist a theoretically-based, systematic method to determine if a semi-Markov process accurately fits the underlying data used to create the model. In fields such as regression and analysis of …