Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Scalable Architecture For Simplifying Full-Range Scientific Data Analysis, Wesley James Kendall

Doctoral Dissertations

According to a recent exascale roadmap report, analysis will be the limiting factor in gaining insight from exascale data. Analysis problems that must operate on the full range of a dataset are among the most difficult. Some of the primary challenges in this regard come from disk access, data managment, and programmability of analysis tasks on exascale architectures. In this dissertation, I have provided an architectural approach that simplifies and scales data analysis on supercomputing architectures while masking parallel intricacies to the user. My architecture has three primary general contributions: 1) a novel design pattern and implmentation for reading multi-file …

Energy Functional For Nuclear Masses, Michael Giovanni Bertolli

Doctoral Dissertations

An energy functional is formulated for mass calculations of nuclei across the nuclear chart with major-shell occupations as the relevant degrees of freedom. The functional is based on Hohenberg-Kohn theory. Motivation for its form comes from both phenomenology and relevant microscopic systems, such as the three-level Lipkin Model. A global fit of the 17-parameter functional to nuclear masses yields a root- mean-square deviation of χ[chi] = 1.31 MeV, on the order of other mass models. The construction of the energy functional includes the development of a systematic method for selecting and testing possible functional terms. Nuclear radii are computed within …

Cytongrasp: Cyton Alpha Controller Via Graspit! Simulation, Nicholas Wayne Overfield

Masters Theses

This thesis addresses an expansion of the control programs for the Cyton Alpha 7D 1G arm. The original control system made use of configurable software which exploited the arm’s seven degrees of freedom and kinematic redundancy to control the arm based on desired behaviors that were configured off-line. The inclusions of the GraspIt! grasp planning simulator and toolkit enables the Cyton Alpha to be used in more proactive on-line grasping problems, as well as, presenting many additional tools for on-line learning applications. In short, GraspIt! expands what is possible with the Cyton Alpha to include many machine learning tools and …

Automated Pollen Image Classification, Nicholas Quentin Haas

Masters Theses

This Master of Science thesis reviews previous research, proposes a method anddemonstrates proof-of-concept software for the automated matching of pollen grainimages to satisfy degree requirements at the University of Tennessee. An ideal imagesegmentation algorithm and shape representation data structure is selected, alongwith a multi-phase shape matching system. The system is shown to be invariantto synthetic image translation, rotation, and to a lesser extent global contrast andintensity changes. The proof-of-concept software is used to demonstrate how pollengrains can be matched to images of other pollen grains, stored in a database, thatshare similar features with up to a 75% accuracy rate.

Transcriptomic Data Analysis Using Graph-Based Out-Of-Core Methods, Gary L Rogers

Doctoral Dissertations

Biological data derived from high-throughput microarrays can be transformed into finite, simple, undirected graphs and analyzed using tools first introduced by the Langston Lab at the University of Tennessee. Transforming raw data can be broken down into three main tasks: data normalization, generation of similarity metrics, and threshold selection. The choice of methods used in each of these steps effect the final outcome of the graph, with respect to size, density, and structure. A number of different algorithms are examined and analyzed to illustrate the magnitude of the effects.

Graph-based tools are then used to extract putative gene networks. These …

A Geospatial Based Decision Framework For Extending Marssim Regulatory Principles Into The Subsurface, Robert Nathan Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

The Multi-Agency Radiological Site Survey Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) is a regulatory guidance document regarding compliance evaluation of radiologically contaminated soils and buildings (USNRC, 2000). Compliance is determined by comparing radiological measurements to established limits using a combination of hypothesis testing and scanning measurements. Scanning allows investigators to identify localized pockets of contamination missed during sampling and allows investigators to assess radiological exposure at different spatial scales. Scale is important in radiological dose assessment as regulatory limits can vary with the size of the contaminated area and sites are often evaluated at more than one scale (USNRC, 2000). Unfortunately, scanning is …

Adaptive Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element Methods For A Diffuse Interface Model Of Biological Growth, Andreas C Aristotelous

Doctoral Dissertations

This PhD dissertation concentrates on the development and application of adaptive Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element (DG-FE) methods for the numerical solution of a Cahn-Hilliard-type diffuse interface model for biological growth. Models of this type have become popular for studying cancerous tumor progression in vivo. The work in this dissertation advances the state-of-the-art in the following ways: To our knowledge the work here contains the first primitive-variable, completely discontinuous numerical implementations of a 2D scheme for the Cahn-Hilliard equation as well as a diffuse interface model of cancer growth. We provide numerical evidence that the schemes above are convergent, with the …

A Time-And-Space Parallelized Algorithm For The Cable Equation, Chuan Li

Doctoral Dissertations

Electrical propagation in excitable tissue, such as nerve fibers and heart muscle, is described by a nonlinear diffusion-reaction parabolic partial differential equation for the transmembrane voltage $V(x,t)$, known as the cable equation. This equation involves a highly nonlinear source term, representing the total ionic current across the membrane, governed by a Hodgkin-Huxley type ionic model, and requires the solution of a system of ordinary differential equations. Thus, the model consists of a PDE (in 1-, 2- or 3-dimensions) coupled to a system of ODEs, and it is very expensive to solve, especially in 2 and 3 dimensions.

In order to …

Algorithms For Advection On Hybrid Parallel Computers, James Buford White Iii

Doctoral Dissertations

Current climate models have a limited ability to increase spatial resolution because numerical stability requires the time step to decrease. I describe initial experiments with two independent but complementary strategies for attacking this "time barrier". First I describe computational experiments exploring the performance improvements from overlapping computation and communication on hybrid parallel computers. My test case is explicit time integration of linear advection with constant uniform velocity in a three-dimensional periodic domain. I present results for Fortran implementations using various combinations of MPI, OpenMP, and CUDA, with and without overlap of computation and communication. Second I describe a semi-Lagrangian method …

Jerasure 2.0, Parth Deshmukh, Sean Maginnis, Josh Chandler

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.