Digital Commons Network^™

Improving And Integrating Quantitative Single Cell Spatial Biology For Theranostic Medicine, Peng Lu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Disease states are the result of a complex interplay of many different cell types interacting in close proximity in the context of often heterogeneous tissues. Alpha particles are drawing intense research and clinical interest because of their potent cytotoxic effects and their short path lengths. Analyzing the dose distribution and tissue micro-environment for alpha therapy plays a key role in predicting the efficacy of this targeted radiotherapy. However, to date there have been no direct on-tissue analytical methods for alpha dose distributions and the corresponding tissue microenvironments.

Therefore, we have developed a pipeline to overcome this limitation by utilizing quantitative …

Construing Children’S Perceptions Of Ideal Learning Spaces Based On Personal Construct Theory, Rawan Natheer Abdel Rahman

Theses

Learning is an intrinsic aspect of human experience, predominantly shaped by interactions within the socio-physical environment, including engagements with educators, peers, and the built surroundings. The design and character of these learning spaces influence children's cognitive, perceptual, and motor development while also embodying different pedagogical philosophies. Therefore, designing these spaces to align with educational shifts and enhance learning experiences requires a deep understanding of learner’s needs and perceptions. With the COVID-19 pandemic necessitating a shift to home-learning, there arose a unique opportunity to explore children’s perception of ideal learning spaces as they experienced both home and school settings. This research …

Wastewater Treatment Plants: The Missing Link In Global One-Health Surveillance And Management Of Antibiotic Resistance, Abdolmajid Gholizadeh, Mehdi Khiadani, Maryam Foroughi, Hadi Alizade Siuki, Hadi Mehrfar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Introduction: As a global public health crisis, antibiotic resistance (AR) should be monitored and managed under the One-Health concept according to the World Health Organization (WHO), considering the interconnection between humans, animals, and the environment. But this approach often remains focused on human health and rarely on the environment and its compartments, especially wastewater as the main AR receptor. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) not only are not designed for reliving AR but also provide appropriate conditions for enhancing AR through different mechanisms. Methods: By reviewing the research-based statistics on the inclusion of WWTPs in the One-Health/AR program crisis, this paper …

Vehicle-Bridge Interaction Simulation And Damage Identification Of A Bridge Using Responses Measured In A Passing Vehicle By Empirical Mode Decomposition Method, Shohel Rana, Md. Rifat Zaman, Md. Ibrahim Islam Ifty, Seyedali Mirmotalebi, Tahsin Tareque

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

To prevent early bridge failures, effective Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is vital. Vibration-based damage assessment is a powerful tool in this regard, as it relies on changes in a structure’s dynamic characteristics as it degrades. By measuring the vibration response of a bridge due to passing vehicles, this approach can identify potential structural damage. This dissertation introduces a novel technique grounded in Vehicle-Bridge Interaction (VBI) to evaluate bridge health. It aims to detect damage by analyzing the response of passing vehicles, taking into account VBI. The theoretical foundation of this method begins with representing the bridge’s superstructure using a Finite …

Real-Time Analysis Of Aerosol Size Distributions With The Fast Integrated Mobility Spectrometer (Fims), Daisy Wang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The Fast Integrated Mobility Spectrometer (FIMS) has emerged as an innovative instrument in the aerosol science domain. It employs a spatially varying electric field to separate charged aerosol particles by their electrical mobilities. These separated particles are then enlarged through vapor condensation and imaged in real time by a high-speed CCD camera. FIMS achieves near 100% detection efficiency for particles ranging from 10 nm to 600 nm with a temporal resolution of one second. However, FIMS’ real-time capabilities are limited by an offline data analysis process. Deferring analysis until hours or days after measurement makes FIMS' capabilities less valuable for …

Investigating A Passive Treatment System For The Removal Of Nutrients From Urban Runoff, Jasminn Gray

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Environmental Protection Agency recognizes urban runoff as a major contributor of surface water pollution with nutrients as the second largest cause of surface water impairment in the United States. While a water quality standard of 100 lbs/day total phosphorus load allocation for all nonpoint sources is permitted for the Las Vegas Valley (LVV) under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, currently there is not a counterpart standard for nitrogen. With the continued development of the LVV and the depletion of the quantity of water in Lake Mead due to the ongoing drought, the concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen species …

Optimized Indoor Temperature In Office Buildings Through Personalized Thermal Comfort Modeling, Raviteja Patchava

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Building occupants experience varying thermal comforts at static indoor set-point temperatures due to variances in preferences, needs, and activities, both within and among individuals. Despite advancement in smart building control systems, many building occupants remain dissatisfied with indoor temperatures. This study developed and created an optimization model to predict the optimized indoor temperature preferences in multiple-occupancy settings. To achieve this, personalized thermal comfort models for each occupant in a multiple occupancy space were developed. The personal comfort models serve as the foundation for predicting their individual thermal preference and developing indoor temperature optimization model. When predicting the individual thermal preference, …

Engineered Biomass-Derived Carbon Adsorbents For Targeted Contaminant Remediation From Aqueous Environments, Suraj Venkat Pochampally

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Porous carbon adsorbents like biochar (BC) are produced from waste biomasses like wood chips, animal litter, nut shells, dried grass, etc. to be used in a multitude of applications like gas capture, soil amendment, water treatment, electrode materials, etc. In water treatment, carbon-based adsorbents have been mainly used to physically or chemically adsorb contaminants depending on the adsorption mechanism. However, BCs in their raw state do not have the capability of absorbing high amounts of contaminants and need to be activated/ modified for the pore network to broaden and adsorb the contaminants with better efficiency.

The scope of this dissertation …

Implementation Of Adas And Autonomy On Unlv Campus, Zillur Rahman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The integration of Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving functionalities into contemporary vehicles has notably surged, driven by the remarkable progress in artificial intelligence (AI). These AI systems, capable of learning from real-world data, now exhibit the capability to perceive their surroundings via a suite of sensors, create optimal routes from source to destination, and execute vehicle control akin to a human driver.

Within the context of this thesis, we undertake a comprehensive exploration of three distinct yet interrelated ADAS and Autonomy projects. Our central objective is the implementation of autonomous driving(AD) technology at UNLV campus, culminating in …

Treatment Of Oxyanion Contaminants From Waste Brine Streams Using Halophilic/Halotolerant Microorganisms, Yasaman Saedi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Brine waste streams are a current environmental issue given their high concentrations of contaminants and total dissolved solids (TDS), specifically sodium and chloride. Developing technologies that address brine treatment challenges is an essential need for water and wastewater industries. In addition to high salinity industrial wastes, there are several water treatment technologies producing brine waste streams in high volumes including reverse osmosis (RO), membranes, and Ion-exchange. With rising water demands and decreasing water supply, RO membranes will be extensively employed for potable water reuse and water desalination. Reusable ion exchange resins are also widely used to remove oxyanions contaminants from …

Performance Comparison Of Design-Bid-Build (Dbb), Design-Build (Db) And Construction Management-At-Risk (Cmar) Methods, And Identification Of Critical Success Factors For Db And Cmar In Water And Wastewater Projects, Shrijan Shrestha

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The United States encounters numerous challenges within the water and wastewater sectors. The American Water Works Association mandates a capital investment of $1.3 trillion over the next 25 years for the restoration and renewal of water infrastructures throughout the United States. (AWWA). To design and construct cost-effective and time-efficient water and wastewater facilities without compromising the infrastructure quality, owners are adopting alternative approaches to project delivery like Construction Management-at-Risk (CMAR) and Design-Build (DB). These approaches introduce innovation and integration into project delivery, addressing specific limitations inherent in the traditional Design-Bid-Build (DBB) method. The rise in utilization of alternative delivery methodologies …

Transitions Metal Health Association Youth Treatment Program Facility Upgrades, Nicolas Fregulia

Construction Management

The Transitions Mental Health Association (TMHA) Youth Treatment Program in San Luis Obispo is a vital resource dedicated to supporting the mental health and well-being of young individuals in the community. TMHA recently purchased a new property that requires several updates before opening. Three California Polytechnic State University Construction Management students collaborated an estimate, schedule, design and construction of a parking lot, walking path, and a new tortoise enclosure. The team split up the roles evenly into two phases preconstruction and construction, where preconstruction includes estimate, schedule, design, and logistics. The purpose of this is to review phase one of …

The Impact Of Language And Culture On Productivity: A Recommendation To Implement An Innovative Spanish Language Track, Jordan J. Price

Construction Management

Productivity is a popular focus of construction research because of its efforts to overcome a multitude of project related challenges. This research explores the intersection of language barriers, cultural differences, and productivity in the construction industry with a focus on the impact of bilingual management. It evaluates the impact of these factors on productivity and its beneficial relationship to multilingual management on diverse construction crews. The impending retirement of 40% of the construction labor force calls for proactive initiatives to manage the demographic shift shown by the growing composition of Hispanics in the workforce. The influence of language barriers on …

A Study Of Group Effectiveness In A Virtual Reality Environment., Dalton Clay Sparks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Virtual Reality (VR) technology has revolutionized the study of team effectiveness, yet many studies in this domain lack a comprehensive approach, focusing narrowly on performance metrics. This thesis investigates VR team effectiveness by integrating traditional Team Effectiveness frameworks with VR-specific dynamics. Utilizing Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Group Style Inventory (GSI), this study assesses teams within a VR environment, specifically a multiplayer submarine simulation game, IronWolfVR. Fifteen groups, totaling 45 participants, were observed for their collaborative gameplay, incorporating physiological measures (Heart Rate and Electrodermal Activity), team coordination dynamics, and various survey-based assessments (demographics, System Usability Scale, Simulator Sickness Questionnaire, and …

Design, Fabrication, And Integration Of Robotic Skin Sensors For Human Robot Interaction., Olalekan Olakitan Olowo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Enhancing physical human-robot interaction in modern robotics relies on refining the tactile perception of robot skin sensors. This research focuses on crucial aspects of the development process, including fabrication techniques, miniaturization, and integration for a more efficient collaborative human-robot interface. The fabrication process of robot skin sensors, designed to mimic human skin, is explored both within and outside cleanroom environments. An enhanced technique is presented to increase fabrication yield and create more miniaturized sensor designs with feature sizes in the tens of microns. These sensors function as piezoresistive arrays using organic polymers like PEDOT: PSS as the pressure-sensing medium. Various …

Drinking-Water Fluoridation As An Example Of The Nurse + Engineer Fostering Informed Decisions And Actions, Daniel B. Oerther, Sarah Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Area-Wide Air Pollution On Multimodal Traffic: Comparing Pedestrian, Motor Vehicle, And Transit Volumes In Utah, Prachanda Tiwari

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The impact of area-wide air pollution on multimodal traffic volumes has been underexplored. Thus, this research investigates the effect of area-wide air pollution on pedestrian volumes, motor volumes, and transit ridership across two urban areas in Utah for two years (2018 and 2019). The research employed multilevel modeling to study this effect. The model results showed an overall decrease in pedestrian volumes in both study areas, while driving volumes saw both increases and decreases in different locations. Transit ridership saw an increase during days with moderate air quality in one particular study area. Median income, vehicle ownership, and higher street …

Subjective Wellbeing Of Undergraduate Engineering Students: A Mixed Methods Study, Muhammad Asghar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

In higher education, the prevalence of mental health issues among students has raised concerns regarding their overall success and wellbeing. While existing research often focuses on identifying and addressing mental health problems, there is a lack of emphasis on understanding the positive contributors to students' mental health. In this study, I expand the concept of mental health beyond the absence of negative mental health states to include the presence of positive mental health aspects through the concept of Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) (feeling that your life is going well, not badly), of engineering undergraduate participants. Both qualitative and quantitative data were …

Cost Minimizing Energy Management Control Scheme For Microgrids Considering Dynamic Electricity Prices, Levi T. Miller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

As countries develop and technology improves, the world is using more energy than ever before. This fact along with several other political, social, and economic factors has resulted in simultaneous energy and climate crises. A partial solution to both problems is bringing clean energy sources of electricity closer to the customers who use that energy. A microgrid is a smaller version of the national electric grid where smaller electricity generators are networked with local consumers and controlled independently of the main grid. Because control of electricity sources and loads are transferred to local controllers, the flexibility with which they can …

Surface Water Hydrology Within The Great Salt Lake Basin, Madeline F. Merck

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The Great Salt Lake (GSL) and its tributaries are ecologically and economically important resources for Utah. It is a highly saline lake, with salinity that is several times saltier than the ocean. Lake uses are heavily influenced by its salinity and lake level and, similarly, river uses by its streamflow quantity. Currently, the GSL Basin is experiencing changes that affect tributary inflows, lake level, and salinity. For my dissertation and in support of better lake management, I addressed important gaps in our understanding of the lake and the changes it is undergoing.

Chapter 2 is an examination of the distribution …

An Integrated Neutrosophic Approach For The Urban Energy Internet Assessment Under Sustainability Dimensions, Walaa M. Sabry

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

The urgent issue of climate change has resulted in an increasing preoccupation with the transition to low-carbon energy. The urban energy internet (UEI) enables the efficient utilization of renewable energy via the integration of contemporary energy grids, smart energy services, and cyber-physical systems. Consequently, the assessment of urban energy is vital for the construction of low-carbon cities. This study intends to provide an integrated decision-making approach for addressing assessment challenges related to UEI, with a focus on sustainability. The introduced approach adopts the opinions of three experts to express their opinions through semantic terms in evaluating sustainability factors and evaluating …

An Exhaustive Review Of Neutrosophic Logic In Addressing Image Processing Issues, Samia Mandour

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

Since the importance of images in our lives and the advancements in computer data gathering methods, anyone can collect a large number of images, but most of them cannot be processed manually. Image processing therefore becomes appealing since various types of data may be represented and processed digitally. Image processing has become the most popular processing method, employed in security camera films, healthcare images, images from remote sensors, and naturalistic image/videos because of fast computers and processors. In order to raise cognitive function and speed up decision-making, image processing is crucial to many information access systems. Since ambiguity now permeates …

Multivariate Analysis Approach To Factor-Affected Tuberculosis Disease, Zuli Agustina Gultom, Farid Akbar Siregar, Mahardika Abdi Prawira Tanjung, Al-Hamidy Hazidar

Knowledge Engineering and Data Science

Tuberculosis is a disease caused by infection with the mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. Tuberculosis attack organ besides the lung, such as the pleura, lining of the brain, lining of the heart, lymph gland, bones, joint, skin, intestines, kidney, urinary tract, and genital. This disease is found in densely populated settlements with poor sanitation, lack of ventilation and sunlight and lack of rest. Moreover, the factors that will be analyzed in this research are Population Density (X1), Number of HIV/AIDS (X2), number of toddlers who experience nutrition (X3), Number of toddlers who experience BCG immunization (X4), number of toddlers who get exclusive …

Evidence Of Students’ Academic Performance At The Federal College Of Education Asaba Nigeria: Mining Education Data, Arnold Adimabua Ojugo, Christopher Chukwufunaya Odiakaose, Frances Emordi, Rita Erhovwo Ako, Winifred Adigwe, Kizito Eluemonor Anazia, Victor Geteloma

Knowledge Engineering and Data Science

One main objective of higher education is to provide quality education to its students. One way to achieve the highest level of quality in the higher education system is by discovering knowledge for prediction regarding enrolment of students in a particular course, alienation of traditional classroom teaching model, detection of unfair means used in online examination, detection of abnormal values in the result sheets of the students, and prediction about students’ performance. The knowledge is hidden among the educational data set and is extractable through data mining techniques. The present paper is designed to justify the capabilities of data mining …

Eeg Classification While Listening To Murottal Al-Quran And Classical Music Using Random Forest Method, Heni Sumarti, Fahira Septiani, Agus Sudarmanto, Wahyu Caesarendra, Rizki Edmi Edison

Knowledge Engineering and Data Science

This study is aimed to classify the brain activity of adolescents associated with audio stimuli; murottal Al-Quran and classical music. The raw data were filtered using Independent Component Analisys (ICA) and followed by band-pass filter in Python on the Google Colab Extraction was processed with Power Spectral Density (PSD) and the Random Forest Method in Weka Machine Learning was used for classification. The research results showed the same results between the two types of stimulation, namely the order of brain waves from highest to lowest were delta, alpha, theta and beta. The average brain waves of teenagers when given murottal …

Recurrent Session Approach To Generative Association Rule Based Recommendation, Tubagus Arief Armanda, Ire Puspa Wardhani, Tubagus M. Akhriza, Tubagus M. Adrie Admira

Knowledge Engineering and Data Science

This article introduces a generative association rule (AR)-based recommendation system (RS) using a recurrent neural network approach implemented when a user searches for an item in a browsing session. It is proposed to overcome the limitations of the traditional AR-based RS which implements query-based sessions that are not adaptive to input series, thus failing to generate recommendations. The dataset used is accurate retail transaction data from online stores in Europe. The contribution of the proposed method is a next-item prediction model using LSTM, but what is trained to develop the model is an associative rule string, not a string of …

Development Of A Physics-Informed Neural Network For Prediction Of Blood Flow, Marcello Vittorio Mattei Di Eugenio

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract—Objective: We propose a new neural network architecture that accepts point clouds and outputs 3D velocity profiles for aneurysm geometries. Methods: We generated a synthetic aneurysm 3D flow dataset using CFD and used it to train our model architecture and compare it with other popular architectures like U-net and PointNet. We incorporate tools for improving model performance such as incorporating a distance function, a physics-informed loss to enforce the law of mass conservation, and the Huber loss to learn patterns across heterogeneous velocity components of multiple dimensions. Results: The tools implemented together with our architecture achieved the best performance on …

A Framework Of Flow Models For The Development And Testing Of Cardiovascular Devices, Megan Laughlin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide and its treatment continues to improve due to the advancement of innovative cardiovascular medical devices. In vitro and in silico models serve to replicate the in vivo environment for the development and testing of these devices prior to using animals for testing, and eventually humans in clinical trials. However, limitations related to these models exist in multiple areas including general, cardiac, and venous applications. Specifically, current gaps have been identified with customizable, tissue-mimicking phantoms (general), 2D Blood Speckle Imaging (BSI) (cardiac) and a bioprosthetic venous valve (venous). This dissertation focuses …

3d Printed Microdialysis-Based Microsampling Probes, Patrick Pysz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work will show the development of a fully 3D printed device platform in which a complex microsampling probe geometry is fabricated in a simple two-step process. This process includes the combination of 2-photon polymerization (2PP) and masked-stereolithography (MSLA). The cutting edge neurotechnology needed to monitor brain internal communication and will require multiple sensing modalities including temperature, pressure, electrophysiological, and optogenetics. Microsampling is an integrally important function for any future biosensing device platform as it allows for chemical delivery and unparalleled specificity through offline analysis of collection samples. Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing has emerged as a powerful fabrication method capable …

An Investigation Of Match For Lossless Video Compression, Brittany Sullivan-Reicks

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

A new lossless video compression technique, Match, is investigated. Match uses the similarity between the frames of a video or the slices of medical images to find a prediction for the current pixel. A portion of the previous frame is searched to find a matching context, which is the pixels surrounding the current pixel, within some distance centered on the current location. The best distance to use for each dataset is found experimentally. The matching context refers to the neighborhood of w, nw, n, and ne, where the pixel in the previous frame with the closest matching context becomes the …