Digital Commons Network^™

Glaciernet2: A Hybrid Multi-Model Learning Architecture For Alpine Glacier Mapping, Zhiyuan Xie, Umesh K. Haritashya, Vijayan K. Asari, Michael P. Bishop, Jeffrey S. Kargel, Theus Aspiras

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In recent decades, climate change has significantly affected glacier dynamics, resulting in mass loss and an increased risk of glacier-related hazards including supraglacial and proglacial lake development, as well as catastrophic outburst flooding. Rapidly changing conditions dictate the need for continuous and detailed ob-servations and analysis of climate-glacier dynamics. Thematic and quantitative information regarding glacier geometry is fundamental for understanding climate forcing and the sensitivity of glaciers to climate change, however, accurately mapping debris-cover glaciers (DCGs) is notoriously difficult based upon the use of spectral information and conventional machine-learning techniques. The objective of this research is to improve upon an …

Park Equity Modeling: A Case Study Of Asheville, North Carolina, Anisa Young

All Theses

Parks and greenspaces are publicly available entities that serve the vital purpose of promoting multiple aspects of human welfare. Unfortunately, the existence of park disparities is commonplace within the park setting. Specifically, marginalized individuals encounter limited park access, insufficient amenity provision, and poor maintenance. To remedy these disparities, we propose a process in which we select candidate park facilities and utilize facility location models to determine the optimal primary parks from both existing and candidate sites.

We note that platforms currently exist to identify the geographical areas where residents lack sufficient access to parks. However, these platforms do not yet …

Deep Learning Applications In Industrial And Systems Engineering, Winthrop Harvey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Deep learning - the use of large neural networks to perform machine learning - has transformed the world. As the capabilities of deep models continue to grow, deep learning is becoming an increasingly valuable and practical tool for industrial engineering. With its wide applicability, deep learning can be turned to many industrial engineering tasks, including optimization, heuristic search, and functional approximation. In this dissertation, the major concepts and paradigms of deep learning are reviewed, and three industrial engineering projects applying these methods are described. The first applies a deep convolutional network to the task of absolute aerial geolocalization - the …

Generating Sex Trafficking Networks From Text Documents, Maria Diaz

All Theses

Qualitative coding is a long and strenuous process that requires a well-skilled investigator. Natural language processing techniques have made leaps and bounds as far as usability and application domain, although it does not work for every task. In this work, we have created a natural language processing framework to help qualitative coders automatically obtain the nodes and node arcs from federal case files, dockets, and indictments within a sex trafficking network. The produced nodes and arcs allows us to perform network modeling by providing us with the information needed to create network structures that can then be used for interdiction …

Sustain Water Conservation Behaviors Using Nonparametric Ranking And Social Marketing, Mahmudur Rahman Aveek

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Circulation of water use feedback and conservation messaging are strategies implemented to reduce water demand on a short-term (seasonal) basis. Often considered a less impactful strategy than other tactics such as price increments and usage restrictions, authorities mostly use feedback in informational campaigns with a focus to apprise users about their water use. Such conservation programs have had limited success that has been attributed to the fact that the information provided with the feedback campaigns was generic and did not motivate users enough to sustain their water-saving behaviors. However, the advent of disaggregation technologies that can provide appliance-wise water use …

Optimization Of Solar-Coal Hybridization For Low Solar Augmentation, Aaron T. Bame, Joseph Furner, Ian Hoag, Kasra Mohammadi, Kody Powell, Brian D. Iverson

Faculty Publications

This work presents a process to determine the preliminary optimal configuration of a concentrating solar power-coal hybrid power plant with low solar augmentation, and is demonstrated on a regenerative steam Rankine cycle coal power plant in Castle Dale, UT, USA (average DNI of 542 W m⁻²). A representative plant model is developed and validated against published data for a coal power plant. The simplifications that lead to the representative model from a coal power plant model include combining multiple feedwater heaters, combining turbines, and using a mass-average calculation for extraction steam properties. Comparing net power generation and boiler …

Hydrochemistry Of High-Mountain Pamir Rivers: Formation, Changes And Influence On The Chemical Composition Of Irrigation Water, Parviz Inomovich Normatov, Inom Normatov, Akobir Karimzoda, Rano Eshankulova, Ayubdzon Normatov, Nurmakhmad Shermatov

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

The purpose of the research is to analyze the prospects for the agriculture development in the Central Asian region and Tajikistan in particular, in terms of identifying the main favorable and constraining factors for the further agriculture development. The Pyanj river is one of the main tributaries of the Transboundary Amu Darya River in the Central Asian region, whose waters are a source of drinking water supply for the population and 80% used for irrigation of agricultural land. The trend of deteriorating water quality of Central Asian River systems recently has been increasing, and monitoring water quality from the formation …

Flood Hazard Index Application In Arid Catchments: Case Of The Taguenit Wadi Watershed, Lakhssas, Morocco, Mustapha Ikirri, Farid Faik, Fatima Zahra Echogdali, Isabel Margarida Horta Ribeiro Antunes, Mohamed Abioui, Kamal Abdelrahman, Mohammed S. Fnais, Abderrahmane Wanaim, Mouna Id-Belqas, Said Boutaleb, Kochappi Sathyan Sajinkumar, Adolfo Quesada-Román

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

During the last decade, climate change has generated extreme rainfall events triggering flash floods in short periods worldwide. The delimitation of flood zones by detailed mapping generally makes it possible to avoid human and economic losses, especially in regions at high risk of flooding. The Taguenit basin, located in southern Morocco, is a particular case. The mapping of the flood zones of this basin by the method of the Flood Hazard Index (FHI) in a GIS geographic information systems environment was based on the multi-criteria analysis, taking into consideration the seven parameters influencing these extreme phenomena, namely rainfall, slope, flow …

Landscape Planning Model Design And Layout Of Loess Hills In Coal Mining Area Of Northern Shaanxi：A Study Of The Subsidence Area Of Ningtiaota Coal Mine, Shang Jianxuan, Gao Yakun, Yang Fan, Bi Yinli, Quan Wenzhi, Ma Shaopeng, Zhang Yanxu

Coal Geology & Exploration

The coal mining area of northern Shaanxi is an important coal base of China, and the large amount of coal mining will cause surface subsidence and landscape disturbance. Taking the subsidence area of Ningtiaota Mine in northern Shaanxi as an example, this paper comprehensively analyzes the landscape problems in loess hilly landform through the combination of indoor statistical analysis, field investigation, qualitative-quantitative methods. The landscape pattern planning, design and layout are carried out, which provides reference for the landscape planning of underground mine area in this landform types. It is found that there are four problems in the above ground …

Evaluation Of Resources And Environment Carrying Capacity Of Xilinhot Mining Area Based On Multi-Source Data, Sun Jundong, Song Renzhong, Li Feiyue, She Changchao, Guo Tianyu, Li Jun, Zhang Chengye

Coal Geology & Exploration

The mining and depletion of coal resources have a certain degree of impact on the environment and population of the coal mining area. Confronted with the resources and environment problems, China strongly advocates the construction of green mines, requiring that mine exploitation must be within resources and environment carrying capacity. With the support of multi-source data (Landsat 8, GF-2, etc.) and socio-economic statistics data, Analytic Hierarchy Process was used to construct an index system for evaluating resources and environment carrying capacity of the mining area in Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia from two aspects of the carrying background and the carrying statu. …

Critical Infrastructures For Developing Uavs’ Applications And Low-Altitude Public Air-Route Network Planning, Xiaohan Liao, Chenchen Xu, Huping Ye, Xiang Tan, Shifeng Fang, Yaohuan Huang, Jing Lin

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Contemporary unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are characterized by huge numbers, wide applications, frequent activities, and massive end-users. High standards of reliability and robustness of the software and hardware systems on board UAVs become imminent for safe operations. UAVs' operations are largely dependent on new technologies and external high-technology infrastructures. Among them, the low-altitude public air-route network is a key new type of infrastructure to ensure the safe and efficient operation of UAVs. A further research and promotion of the low-altitude "sky road" infrastructures as the core is conducive to the development of the urban air traffic network and the promotion …

Chemical Toxicants In Water: A Geohealth Perspective In The Context Of Climate Change, Naveen Joseph, Tate Libunao, Elizabeth Herrmann, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt, Catherine R. Propper, Jesse E. Bell, Alan S. Kolok

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

The editorial focuses on four major themes contextualized in a virtual GeoHealth workshop that occurred from June 14 to 16, 2021. Topics in that workshop included drinking water and chronic chemical exposure, environmental injustice, public health and drinking water policy, and the fate, transport, and human impact of aqueous contaminants in the context of climate change. The intent of the workshop was to further define the field of GeoHealth. This workshop emphasized on chemical toxicants that drive human health. The major calls for action emerged from the workshop include enhancing community engagement, advocating for equity and justice, and training …

The Message Design Of Raiders Of The Lost Ark On The Atari 2600 & A Fan’S Map, Quick Start, And Strategy Guide, Miguel Ramlatchan, William I. Ramlatchan

Distance Learning Faculty & Staff Books

The message design and human performance technology in video games, especially early video games have always been fascinating to me. From an instructional design perspective, the capabilities of the technology of the classic game consoles required a careful balance of achievable objectives, cognitive task analysis, guided problem solving, and message design. Raiders on the Atari is an excellent example of this balance. It is an epic adventure game, spanning 13+ distinct areas, with an inventory of items, where those hard to find items had to be used by the player to solve problems during their quest (and who would have …

Semantic Representation Of Road Infrastructure Information, Tianjiao Zhao

Dissertations (1934 -)

A multi-sectoral collaboration completes a successful transportation infrastructure project. The cooperation involves designers, contractors, operators, users, government agencies, and maintenance staffs. Throughout the project's life cycle, a huge amount of data is generated and stored in various sectors. Therefore, an efficient information cross-sector exchange approach is necessary. Additionally, the World Wide Web is ubiquitous and enmeshed with multiple business processes. Therefore, it is imperative to represent business information in a format that improves information exchange as well as automated processing of business data. Ideally, road data scattered across different information sources, such as design software, geographic information systems (GIS), cost …

Novel Mlr-Rf-Based Geospatial Techniques: A Comparison With Ok, Waqas Ahmad, Khan Muhammad, Hylke Jan Glass, Snehamoy Chatterjee, Asif Khan, Abid Hussain

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Geostatistical estimation methods rely on experimental variograms that are mostly erratic, leading to subjective model fitting and assuming normal distribution during conditional simula-tions. In contrast, Machine Learning Algorithms (MLA) are (1) free of such limitations, (2) can in-corporate information from multiple sources and therefore emerge with increasing interest in real-time resource estimation and automation. However, MLAs need to be explored for robust learning of phenomena, better accuracy, and computational efficiency. This paper compares MLAs, i.e., Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and Random Forest (RF), with Ordinary Kriging (OK). The techniques were applied to the publicly available Walkerlake dataset, while the exhaustive …

Dlr Covid-19 Mobility Review - Coastal Mobility Route (Ph1b): Mobility Update, Sarah Rock Dr, Dave O'Connor, Michael Banim

Reports

The Phase 1b study is a follow up to the evaluation and review of the Phase 1 'Covid-19 Mobility and Public Realm Works' undertaken by Dun Laoghaire- Rathdown County Council in 2020, which included the development of the Coastal Mobility Route (new cycle infrastructure). These works were part of the Council's response to some of the urban and transport planning challenges associated with Covid-19.

This study reports on ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the changing mobility patterns in the region of the Coastal Mobility Route throughout 2021 and 2022, as government and societal responses to the Covid-19 pandemic changed and …

Changes In Drought Characteristics Under Future Climate Projections, Diogo Stalin De Alcantara Araujo

Theses and Dissertations

Accumulating evidence on the impact of climate change on droughts, highlight the necessity for developing effective adaptation and mitigation strategies. Global Drought Layers were developed for historic and future runs of nine global climate models (GCM) of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Model 6th phase (CMIP6). Relative changes of drought characteristics were estimated, and hotspots were identified, especially in South America, Africa, Europe, Western USA, and Australia. Further, changes in future drought risk and severity in Australia are quantified. Historic conditions (1981-2014) and projections for mid-century (2015-2050) and end-century (2051-2100) from four shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5) are …

Modelling Monthly Rainfall Of Calabar, Nigeria Using Box-Jenkins (Arima) Method, Francis Ogbozige

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

Rainfall has both positive and negative effects on human activities hence, correct prediction of the period of occurrence is very essential. However, the traditional method of predicting months of heavy rainfall is gradually fading out as irregular rainfall pattern is been experienced in most regions of the world. The rainfall pattern in Calabar city in Southern Nigeria has been reported in past literatures of being irregular. Hence, this research applied the Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) also known as Box-Jenkins method to model the rainfall pattern of Calabar. This was achieved by subjecting 50years monthly rainfall (1971 – 2020) to …

Table Of Contents

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

A Convergent Approach To Aqueous Lead (Pb) Mitigation Of A Supplemental Self-Supply Shallow Groundwater Source Accessed By Handpumps In Madagascar, Adaline Marie Buerck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The World Health Organization (WHO) has consistently listed lead (Pb) as one of the ten chemicals of major public health concern. Though the toxic nature of lead has been known since the 20th century it is still utilized in a wide variety of products due to its favorable properties. Exposure to lead still accounts for approximately 900,000 deaths annually and disproportionately impacts those in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) due to a variety of reasons such as poverty, malnutrition, and lack of knowledge on the toxic nature of lead. Lead exposure routes include air, soil, dust, diet, and water. Though …

A Narrative Investigation Of Black Familial Capital That Supports Engineering Engagement Of Middle-School-Aged Youth, Delean Tolbert Smith, Tamecia Jones, Monica E. Cardella

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

A major concern in engineering education involves ensuring that youth belonging to minoritized groups have equitable access to engineering career pathways. Related research often highlights the effect of student and school characteristics on engineering success but few studies have investigated the engineering-related assets that Black families provide. This work aims to provide counterstories that highlight the presence of Black families along the pre-college engineering pathways of three Black youth from the Midwest region of the United States. The application of a counternarrative approach centers the familial capital of Black families and serves as the analytical frame for this work. The …

Development Of A Covid-19 Vulnerability Index (Cvi) For The Counties And Residents Of New Jersey, Remo Victor Disalvatore

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted countless aspects of everyday life since it was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March of 2020. From societal to economic impacts, COVID-19 and its variants will leave a lasting impact on our society and the world. Approximately $9 trillion has been spent on fighting the pandemic around the world. During the pandemic, it became increasingly evident that indices, such as the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), were extremely important for predicting vulnerabilities in a community. The CDC's SVI provides important estimates on which communities will be …

Fragmentation Of Chemically Herded Oil Slicks By Obstacles: Visualizations, Flow Measurements, And Spatial Distributions, Ali Alshamrani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chemical herders are a promising technique for treatment of oil spills in icy waters at high latitudes. However, obstacles on the water surface such as floating ice affects or interferes with all spill response countermeasures including chemical herder operations by fracturing the contracting oil slick and trapping small oil patches. Chemical herders are likely to be especially useful in containing oil spills in remote, ice-infested Arctic waters, where using booms to contain an oil slick is difficult. Much of the previous research into chemical herder has focused on the effectiveness of different types of chemical herder agents to thicken oil …

Typical Characteristics Of Geological Hazards And Ecological Environment Of Coal Base In The Bends Area Of The Yellow River, Shen Yanjun, Yang Bohan, Wang Shuangming, Kou Haibo, Chen Xing, Xu Yali, Han Senlei

Coal Geology & Exploration

“The ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin” has now been upgraded to a major national strategy. The bends area (the “几” shaped area, also known as the Jiziwan area) is an important part of the Yellow River Basin, and it is also an important gathering area of China’s coal energy. Now the region has six large modern coal bases, coal production accounts for about 40% of the country, in China’s energy security supply security occupies the “ballast” position. However, the region is located in the western arid-semi-arid region, with fragile ecological environment and poor anti-disturbance ability, …

Cross Wavelet Analysis Between Layered Monitoring Data Of Stratum Deformation And Groundwater Level Regime, Kong Xiangru

Coal Geology & Exploration

Land subsidence is usually caused by over-exploitation of groundwater, and its occurrence and development have a certain lag relative to the change in groundwater level. Obtaining the accurate lag time of land subsidence has always been an important topic in land subsidence research. Based on the layered monitoring data of the long-time series of land subsidence and groundwater level regime from 2008 to 2018 by Land Subsidence Monitoring Station in Pinggezhuang, Beijing, the lag effect between stratum deformation in layers at different depths and groundwater level regime is analyzed in this paper by adopting methods of Mann Kendall trend test, …

Research On Interpolation Error Analysis Of Geological Modeling Of Intelligent Working Face, An Lin, Han Baoshan, Li Peng, Dai Zhenhua, Wang Xinmiao

Coal Geology & Exploration

Working face modeling generally obtains the actual distribution of the working face through detection methods such as three-dimensional seismic, tunnel and borehole surveys, and then it establishes the corresponding model using interpolation algorithms. During the modeling process, sampling data are the foundation and interpolation is the necessary way to realize the working face model. The interpolation algorithm and the amount of sampled data affect the accuracy of the face model to varying degrees. Quantitative research on the factors affecting the accuracy of the face model will provide important reference value for the optimization of the interpolation algorithm and the amount …

Identifying Informative Coronavirus Tweets Using Recurrent Neural Network Document Embedding, Rami Yousuf

Palestine Technical University Research Journal

The coronavirus pandemic has led to the spread of tremendous fake news and misleading information through tweets. Hence, an interesting task of classifying tweets into informative and uninformative has motivated researchers to employ machine learning techniques. The state-of-the-art studies showed high dependency on transformers architecture. However, the transformers architecture suffers from the catastrophic forgetting problem where important contextual information is being forgotten by the gradients. Therefore, this paper proposes a document embedding using Recurrent Neural Network. Lastly, three classifiers of LR, SVM and MLP have been used to classify documents into Informative and Uninformative. Using the benchmark dataset of WNUT-2020 …

The Urban And Architectural Environment Of Galata And Pera Through The Descriptions Of Some Italian Travelers Between The 19th And 20th Centuries, Luca Orlandi

International Journal of Business and Technology

The aim of this paper is to present the urban and architectural environment in the cosmopolitan Istanbul’s districts of Galata and Pera throughout the impressions left by some Italians travelers who spent some period in the Ottoman capital throughout the 19th and the early years of the 20th century. This historical period has been chosen and analyzed in order to show the changes and development of Istanbul in those years through several Italian ‘eyes’ and ‘voices’ who witnessed at that time some important transformations in the Ottoman culture, highlining the coexistence of different world, such as the Turkish Muslim society …

تحسين الإنتاج الزراعي باعتبارات اجتماعية واقتصادية: دراسة حالة من فلسطين, Fathi Annaya

Palestine Technical University Research Journal

Agriculture is not only the main source of income to most Palestinian families; it is also the link to connect them to their valuable land and water resources. Farmers seek assistance from agronomists and decision makers to cultivatethe proper products. In this study, the best selection of agricultural crops is addressed in the multiple-objective context. The study deals with three conflicting objective functions: net benefit, agricultural production, and labor employment. Four-stageprocedure is adopted combining multiple-objective optimization, simple valuation methods, cluster analysis, and multiple criteria decisions making (MCDM) methods. Pareto optimal curves are used to evaluate the marginal prices of both …

B2b2: Lidar 2d Mapping Rover, Laurence Kim, Isaiah Youngblood, Quintion Turner

Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses

Autonomous machines are becoming more popular and useful with even self-driving cars being a thing of the present. Most of these machines navigate using cameras and LiDAR which does not detect glass, therefore the machines give misleading results when objects and obstacles are transparent to the wavelengths of the light used. This is problematic in modern building floor plans with glass walls. A solution is to build a ROS system that fuses ultrasonic sensors with LiDAR sensors in order for a robot to navigate in a building that has glass walls. Using both sensors, the final product is a robot …