Digital Commons Network^™

Arid: Agglomerative Regionalization Via Information Divergence, A Novel Clustering Algorithm For Geo-Spatial Data, Joshua David Sills

Dissertations and Theses

Regionalization is a clustering problem that seeks to partition geospatial data into geographically contiguous regions while remaining internally homogeneous in their attributes. It has been successfully applied towards the development of urban planning, natural resource discovery, and ecological analysis. Existing popular approaches optimize homogeneity using Euclidean or variance-based criteria, which ignore distributional differences such as variance shifts, multimodality, and higher-order dependence. This thesis introduces ARID (Agglomerative Regionalization via Information Divergence), a spatially constrained agglomerative clustering framework that replaces distance-based merging with an information-theoretic, Ward-like criterion that utilizes the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence. ARID constructs a neighborhood graph from coordinate space and …

How Do Water Utilities Meet Growing Demand And Maintain Resilience Through Water Reuse? A Systems Thinking Approach, Elizabeth F. Vicario

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water and wastewater utility management is becoming increasingly complex due to factors like urbanization, climate change, new regulations, and rising costs. Utility leaders must balance competing political and financial pressures while managing aging infrastructure, rising demand, climate resilience planning, and customer concerns about affordability. Reuse of treated wastewater has emerged as a promising solution to address scarcity, declining source water quality, and new regulations on wastewater discharge in the United States. However, water reuse is not one-size-fits-all, and bespoke solutions are needed to optimize economic, environmental, and social returns from this finite resource. Despite growing interest, little is known about …

What Holds High-Speed Rail Back: Lessons From Global Systems And California’S Experience, Deepak K. Sharma, Rajnish Lekhi, Scott Parr

Mineta Transportation Institute

This report examines benefits and challenges of integrating California High-Speed Rail (CHSR) with other rail systems and reviews California legislation impacting HSR’s contracting and financing alternatives. The research compares CHSR with high-speed rail systems around the world to identify similarities and differences in costs, speeds, ridership, and operating conditions. It also reviews Japan’s Land Readjustment Act as a model for value capture and land assembly and explores international experiences on rail integration, along with U.S. cases from the East Coast and Los Angeles. A review of California’s transportation legislation highlights how laws for highways and bridges differ from those for …

Critical Heavy Metal Contamination In The Tigris River, Baghdad: A Comprehensive Assessment Using The Metal Index (Mi), Talib Kamil Abed, Abass J. Kadhem, Muwafaq Hussein Al-Lami

AUIQ Technical Engineering Science

One of the most important rivers in Iraq is the Tigris River, which serves as the primary source of drinking water and irrigation for agricultural purposes. In recent events, researchers have identified growing concerns about heavy metal contamination in the river. To decide the status of the Tigris River, the metal index (MI) was used in this study. To conduct this study, three locations were chosen along the river, and eight likely harmful heavy metals were examined: iron (Fe), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), manganese (Mn), and copper (Cu). The results were worrying. The metal …

Equity Evaluation Of Residents’ Transit+Walk Accessibility To Sacramento Healthcare Facilities, Masoud Ghodrat Abadi, Ahoura Zandiatashbar, Aaron Pickett, Stephanie Nemet, Soheil Sharifi

Mineta Transportation Institute

Access to healthcare is a key component of public health equity, yet many U.S. communities remain dependent on private vehicles for medical travel. This study introduces an integrated framework, the Transit+Walk Score (TWS), to evaluate how effectively residents of Sacramento, California, can reach healthcare facilities via public transit and how safely, comfortably, and conveniently they can walk from transit stops to those facilities. The research aims to inform planners, transit agencies, and policy makers in designing equitable and multimodal transportation systems. The research team combined geospatial network modeling and field-based walkability audits to assess 123 healthcare facilities across Sacramento, with …

Analogy2kg: An Automatic Pipeline For Deriving Knowledge Graphs From Long-Text Analogies, Kara Combs, Lance E. Champagne, Bruce A. Cox, Christine M. Schubert Kabban, Trevor Bihl, Grace Lemming

Faculty Publications

Analogical reasoning is an increasingly popular, lightweight solution to enable large language model (LLM)-level reasoning without computational complexity. Still, it has yet to be adopted due to its reliance on strictly hand-formatted data. Therefore, we propose Analogy2KG (“Analogy to Knowledge Graph”), as an automatic pipeline that transforms text into a KG format via a fine-tuned version of information extraction (IE) algorithms for long-text analogies. The need to verify that the complex underlying analogical structure of the data is maintained was done via paired samples tests in the creation and validation of this pipeline. Graph density was used to evaluate the …

Sustainable Cement-Blast Furnace Slag Mortar, Richa Jain, Harshit Jain, Ashish Nim

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

New building materials that required and produced less energy are need of today's infrastructure development. The ability of such building materials to promote sustainable development always puts its demand in active mode. With huge consumption of naturally occurring materials in building construction, the problem related to environment degradation is now common for world. Along with this, world is also facing the problem of reuse, recover and scientifically approved disposal of non-biodegradable wastes. Blast furnace slag (BFS) is one of those steel industry wastes that are abundantly available and their disposal arises as prime challenge for industries. This research work makes …

Information Manager (Bim) Role Profiles, Davitt Lamon, Robert Moore, Stephen Lynam

Reports

This document, Information Manager (BIM) Role Profiles, has been prepared in support of the Irish Government’s Building Information Modelling (BIM) Mandate. It is the result of a collaborative effort between Build Digital, the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation (DPER), the Infrastructure Division, and the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI). Its primary purpose is to define the competencies, responsibilities, and experience required for Information Management (BIM) roles to facilitate the successful digital delivery of public works projects. It is important to recognise that under the ISO 19650 series of standards, Information Management is defined as …

Identification Of Thruster Faults In Underwater Vehicles By Using Custom Encodings In Spiking Neural Networks, Donovan Gegg

LSU Master's Theses

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are untethered robotic platforms used for tasks such as seafloor mapping, infrastructure inspection, and environmental monitoring. Recent technological advances have produced smaller, more affordable platforms, broadening access to research teams and small companies alike. This miniaturization comes at the cost of them handling drawbacks associated with a more compact machine such as reduced battery capacity as well as limited processing and sensing capabilities. These constraints make small-sized marine vehicle’s reliability critical as they can cause malfunctions, making the loss of a vehicle more likely. Actuator faults are particularly consequential as unintended and unstable control in an …

Multi-Objective Optimization Of Waste Incineration For Minimal Carbon Monoxide And Sulfur Dioxide Emission And Rate Maximization: A Case Study Of Mbezi, Mkuranga-Pwani, Tanzania, Grangay M. Nyanghura, Enock W. Nshama

Tanzania Journal of Science

Incineration is widely employed for hazardous waste disposal, but results in harmful flue gas emissions. This study optimizes a double-chamber incineration process to reduce sulfur dioxide (SO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions while maximizing the incineration rate. The effects of waste mass, primary chamber temperature (PT), and secondary chamber temperature (ST) were analyzed using a full factorial design of 27 experiments. ANOVA revealed that mass had the greatest impact on emissions and incineration time, ST had a moderate effect, and PT had little influence. Regression analysis provided models for incineration time, CO, and SO2 emissions. Single-objective optimization using sequential quadratic …

A Novel Optuna-Vmd-Ml Framework For Enhanced Settlement Prediction Of Buildings Around Foundation Pits, Jing Zhang, Zhenlin Wang, Shiyu Sheng, Sifan Shen, Chuang He, Huafeng Shan, Haijie He, Li Ai

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The prediction of building settlement around foundation pit is of vital importance to ensure the safety and stability of urban construction projects. However, current predictions of buildings surrounding foundation pit face numerous challenges. Therefore, this study proposes a framework that integrates Optuna-based hyperparameter optimization, variational mode decomposition (VMD), and machine learning (ML) for accurate and timely settlement prediction in practical engineering scenarios, referred to as the Optuna–VMD–ML framework. Optuna is employed to tune the hyperparameters of both VMD and the ML models; the Optuna-tuned VMD decomposes the settlement time series into mode components, which are then used to train the …

Building A Vitalizing Team Culture, Iris Bull, Andrew Cibor

Purdue Road School

Leaders in the public sector face unique challenges in the recruitment and retainage of productive employees. Administrative staff from the City of Bloomington Engineering Department present an analysis of the strategies they employ to shape a high performing team. They examine mutable and designed aspects of their processes for advertising, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, and exit interviewing. Session participants will be provided tested strategies for stimulating professional growth, fostering intradepartmental collaboration, and building resilient culture.

The New 11th Edition Of The Indiana Mutcd, Joseph Bruno, David Boruff

Purdue Road School

The updated 11th edition of the Indiana MUTCD released in January of 2026 has many significant changes from the 2011 edition. This presentation provides an overview of the changes from the previous edition and significant variations between the federal MUTCD and the Indiana MUTCD.

History Of The Interstate System In Indiana, Steven Wuertz

Purdue Road School

A brief history of the Interstate System in Indiana and across the Nation— 1956–2026: 70 years of the Interstate System

Iconic Henry Street Bridge In Indianapolis, Marshall Lachecki, Keith Echternach, Mary Appel

Purdue Road School

The iconic new Henry Street bridge over the White River in Indianapolis is a connection to the west side of downtown Indy.  From the challenging hydraulics requirements to the bridge concepts, design, procurement and through construction and archaeology work, the City has worked with many stakeholders and the public to make this new crossing a success.  This presentation will focus on design elements of the bridge while touching upon other project elements.

Early In Career Panel: The Value Of Industry Involvement, Stephanie Ferzli, Calvin Rizzo, David Musoke

Purdue Road School

A panel of early-career professionals shares the importance and benefits of participating in industry organizations. Learn how involvement can shape careers and foster professional growth.

Draining Fountain Square With Alternate Delivery, Jason Koch, Mark St. John, Natalie Stephen

Purdue Road School

Indianapolis DPW has started construction on major drainage improvements in one of its oldest neighborhoods, Fountain Square. Building on lessons learned from similar projects in built-up, commercial areas, DPW decided to use an alternate delivery method to procure construction services. This session will provide a high level review of Indiana’s Public-Private Agreement statue (I.C. 5-23), how DPW applied it to the Fountain Square project, lessons learned, and how DPW plans to use this innovative delivery method for future projects.

Let’S Walk And Talk: Building Trust (And Better Projects) Using Community Walk Audits, Ashlyn Devine, Taylor Firestine

Purdue Road School

This session introduces participants to the benefits gained from engaging in community-centered walking audits as practical tools for advancing quality active transportation projects and building trust with the public. Drawing from Health by Design’s Indiana Road to Zero Academy, participants will join a facilitated walking audit near the Purdue campus to discuss common concerns and questions that these exercises address while demonstrating how collaborative notetaking can translate into better planning, engineering, and policy decisions that reflect the unique needs of the community.

Pel Stories, Tim Miller, Cameron Schuh, Sandra Flum, Blake Dollier

Purdue Road School

PEL Stories: Bridging Planning and Environmental Review: This presentation will highlight stories from planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) projects, demonstrating how early planning can streamline environmental review and improve project outcomes.

IndyPEL: Advancing Planning through Environmental Linkages: This session explores the IndyPEL project, highlighting how Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) studies are shaping transportation decisions in Indiana. Attendees will learn about stakeholder engagement, data-driven planning, and lessons learned.

Sustainable Guiding Framework Of The Egyptian Rural Development Initiative (Hayah Karima), Eman Badawy Ahmed

Mansoura Engineering Journal

The Hayah Karima initiative launches to improve the standard of living for the most needy community groups across the Egyptian countryside, and it also contributes to improving the quality of services provided to the neediest villages. The research aims to propose a guiding framework for sustainability in villages of the Hayah Karima Initiative to achieve Egypt’s Sustainable Vision 2030. To achieve the goal, the research will study the goals, strategies, and principles of the Hayah Karima Initiative, the Egypt Vision 2030, COP 27, the sustainability evaluation criteria, and the Green Villages Initiative. Consequentially, in addition to A questionnaire to measure …

Research On Visual Place Recognition Algorithms For Complex Urban Environments, Peijin Liu, Minxin Zhang, Lin He, Yige Sun, Tingqi Su

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: Dynamic factors such as traffic flow and crowd density in complex urban environments reduce the accuracy of visual place recognition (VPR) algorithms. To solve these problems, a semantic-guided visual place recognition (SG-VPR) algorithm was proposed. A semantic-guided feature suppression module was designed. A semantic-guided module and feature suppression layer were constructed to reduce the dynamic object interference and more accurately extract the key static features. An adaptive triplet margin loss function (ATML) was proposed by improving the traditional triplet margin loss. The margins were adaptively adjusted according to the sample distribution, solving the problem of suboptimal solution convergence …

Sustainability Tool Inventory, Robert Moore, James O'Donnell

Tools

The purpose of this inventory is to inform Irish organisations, including the private sector, public agencies and semi-states, about Sustainability Tool

Diverging Diamond Interchanges Lessons Learned: Design Refinements And Performance, Nathaniel Shellhamer, Daniel Mccoy, Jack Gallagher

Purdue Road School

This presentation will share an overview of INDOT’s experience with the design of diverging diamond interchanges (DDIs). Specific discussion will focus on design refinements being made in the most recent DDIs in Indiana, as well as lessons learned from existing DDIs in the areas of geometrics, operations and performance, and human factors/driver behavior. We will also review case studies and before-and-after analyses of existing DDIs.

Ai-Enhanced Citation Mapping: Tools & Strategies For Graduate Instruction, Corinne Bishop Edd, Rachel Trnka Phd, Ven Basco

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

AI-enhanced citation mapping tools offer the potential to streamline the discovery process when conducting academic literature searches. Among the wide range of AI-enhanced tools now available, tools like Citation Gecko, Connected Papers, LitMaps, and Research Rabbit are designed to identify, visualize, and uncover relevant connections between sources. While these tools offer the potential to streamline the discovery process, many graduate students may be unaware of how to use AI tools effectively or how to evaluate the relevancy of search results. Graduate students may also mistakenly view the use of an AI-enhanced citation mapping tool as a “one-stop solution” to search …

Generalizing Networks To Address Data Imbalance For Facial Action Unit Recognition, Andrew W. Sumsion

Theses and Dissertations

Facial action unit (AU) recognition is used in a variety of downstream applications, including sign language translation, dementia detection, pain detection, and other high-impact tasks that require understanding facial motion. Although AU recognition is a well-established field, a number of unresolved issues remain. An initial problem is the need to improve overall performance on the benchmark datasets, as measured by the average F1 score. Also, the performance across all individual AUs, not just the average F1 score, needs to be increased. Recently, the field has shifted its attention towards ensuring that AU recognition models generalize beyond the distributions represented in …

Transport And Aging Pathways Of Microplastics In Urban Aquatic Systems, Jessica J. Boyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Microplastics are pervasive in urban aquatic systems, which serve as both conduits of particle flow and incubators of microplastics. These aquatic systems transport microplastic particles while simultaneously altering their physical, chemical, and biological properties. Despite their growing environmental relevance, constructed wetlands and riverine systems remain underrepresented in studies of microplastic fate and transport. This dissertation aims to assess the patterns influencing microplastic transport and aging across urban aquatic environments through a combination of field experiments and mechanistic modeling.

Four interconnected studies were conducted to address this objective. The first investigated the horizontal and vertical transport of microplastics within the Se7en …

Development And Preliminary Pressure Control Validation Of Woundwatch: Npwt System With Remote Monitoring Capabilities, Swetha Senthil Nathan

The Cardinal Edge

Chronic wounds, including diabetic foot ulcers, pressure sores, and venous leg ulcers, affect over 40 million individuals worldwide and are often complicated by delayed healing due to limited access to continuous monitoring. Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) is an established treatment that promotes wound healing through controlled sub-atmospheric pressure. However, conventional NPWT systems lack real-time physiological feedback and require frequent in-person follow-ups, limiting their effectiveness in remote or low-resource settings. This study presents WoundWatch, a portable, low-cost NPWT device that integrates real-time temperature, humidity, and pressure sensing with wireless data transmission via an IoT platform. The system includes a vacuum …

Latex: Overleaf, Anette Moreno-Lozano Phd, John Connolly Phd

Day Family Research Lab Workshop Series

This workshop introduces participants to LaTeX for scientific writing. Attendees will learn to create and compile documents in Overleaf, insert and format equations, figures, tables, and references, use collaboration and version control tools, and find discipline-specific resources and templates.

Experimental Study Of Dimpled Serpentine Reactors For Hydrogen Production Via Methanol Steam Reforming, Mohamed I. Zeid, Mahmoud A. Shouman, Osama Abdelrehim, Ahmed M. Hamed

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Hydrogen is widely regarded as a clean energy carrier, with methanol steam reforming (MSR) emerging as a promising route for portable and on-board applications due to its favorable operating conditions and high hydrogen yield. Reactor geometry plays a decisive role in hydrogen productivity, pressure drop, and energy efficiency, yet the balance among these factors remains insufficiently addressed. In this study, three serpentine aluminum microreactors: a plain serpentine reactor (PSR), a rhombusdimple reactor (RDR), and a hemispherical-dimple reactor (HDR) were fabricated and coated with a copper (II) oxide, zinc oxide, aluminum oxide (CuO/ZnO/Al₂O₃) catalyst to experimentally investigate the effect of dimple …

Impact Of Urban Roadway Work Zones On Road Users And Other Stakeholders, Lyndsey Renee Harris

Lyles School of Civil Engineering Graduate Student Reports

As urban populations continue to rise at an unprecedented rate, the need for highly maintained infrastructure in cities -- buildings, utilities, and transportation networks -- has become increasingly critical. An urban work zone refers to a designated area within a city where roadway construction, maintenance, or rehabilitation activities are taking place. These zones are typically characterized by high traffic volumes, complex roadway networks, and proximity to residential, institutional, and commercial land uses. Urban work zones often involve lane closures, detours, reduced speed limits, and temporary traffic control measures to ensure safety for road workers and road users. Due to the …