Digital Commons Network^™

La Vida: Towards A Motivated Goal Reasoning Agent, Ursula Addison

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

An autonomous agent deployed to operate over extended horizons in uncertain environments will encounter situations for which it was not designed. A class of these situations involves an invalidation of agent goals and limited guidance in establishing a new set of goals to pursue. An agent will benefit from some mechanism that will allow it to pursue new goals under these circumstances such that the goals are broadly useful in its environment and take advantage of its existing skills while aligning with societal norms. We propose augmenting a goal reasoning agent, i.e., an agent that can deliberate on and self-select …

Diabetes Technology Meeting 2023, Tiffany Tian, Rachel E Aaron, Ashley Y Dunova, Johan H Jendle, David Kerr, Eda Cengiz, Andjela Drincic, John C Pickup, Kong Y Chen, Naomi Schwartz, Douglas B Muchmore, Halis K Akturk, Carol J Levy, Signe Schmidt, Riccardo Bellazzi, Alan H B Wu, Elias K Spanakis, Bijan Najafi, James Geoffrey Chase, Jane Jeffrie Seley, David C Klonoff

Center on Aging Staff Publications

Diabetes Technology Society hosted its annual Diabetes Technology Meeting from November 1 to November 4, 2023. Meeting topics included digital health; metrics of glycemia; the integration of glucose and insulin data into the electronic health record; technologies for insulin pumps, blood glucose monitors, and continuous glucose monitors; diabetes drugs and analytes; skin physiology; regulation of diabetes devices and drugs; and data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. A live demonstration of a personalized carbohydrate dispenser for people with diabetes was presented.

Enhancing Community Flood Resilience By Incorporating Landscape Hydrological Sensitivity And Connectivity, Wenlong Feng

Dissertations

Rapid urban expansion and dramatic climate change have significantly increased the intensity and frequency of floods worldwide. With rising flood risks, conventional flood defense strategies that rely on structural measures become ineffective. The present designations for flood-prone areas, such as FEMA's flood maps, are becoming unreliable. Flood risk management is shifting toward enhancing community flood resilience, highlighting the importance of non-structural approaches. Landscape resilience has become a foundation of community flood resilience. However, past urban development typically undermined natural hydro-ecological functions and landscape resilience because of poor recognition of landscapes' ecological role, hydrological sensitivity, and hydrological connections. This study aims …

Federated Learning Systems For Mobile Sensing Data, Xiaopeng Jiang

Dissertations

Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a new distributed Deep Learning (DL) paradigm that enables privacy-aware training and inference on mobile devices with help from the cloud. This dissertation presents a comprehensive exploration of FL with mobile sensing data, covering systems, applications, and optimizations.

First, a mobile-cloud FL system, FLSys, is designed to balance model performance with resource consumption, tolerate communication failures, and achieve scalability. In FLSys, different DL models with different FL aggregation methods can be trained and accessed concurrently by different apps. In addition, FLSys provides advanced privacy-preserving mechanisms and a common API for third-party app developers to …

Data Driven Decision Making For Sustainable Planning And Operations Of Large Scale Networks, Bahareh Kargar

Dissertations

This dissertation explores data-driven decision-making networks, focusing on sustainable planning and operations for large-scale systems such as healthcare supply chains and power systems. One significant application in healthcare is the optimization of vaccine supply chains. An agent-based simulation-optimization modeling framework is developed to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of vaccine distribution. First, an agent-based epidemiological model of COVID-19 is extended to capture disease transmission dynamics and forecast the number of susceptible individuals and infections. Then, a sustainable vaccine supply chain considering the impacts of greenhouse gases is developed and integrated with the simulation model to minimize total costs and environmental …

Electrified Membrane For Water Treatment And Resource Recovery: Advancing Multiscale Strategies In Gas-Involving Reactions, Jianan Gao

Dissertations

Multifunctional, modular, and scalable water treatment technologies that operate without chemical additives are crucial for addressing global water pollution challenges. While traditional membrane-based separation processes are crucial for ensuring clean water supplies, they primarily focus on pollutant removal rather than on the upcycling of pollutants into valuable resources. Electrified membrane filtration presents a robust alternative, utilizing minimal or no chemical additives and harnessing electrical power to directly reduce contaminants or produce reactive oxidants or reductants on-site.

This dissertation is dedicated to the development of innovative electrochemically reactive membranes designed to address three major challenges: (1) the engineering of electrocatalysts with …

A Methodological Framework For Ontology Development, Enrichment, And Application In Natural Language Processing Tasks, Navya Martin Kollapally

Dissertations

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have been widely used in healthcare to record demographics, vital signs, test results, immunizations, medical imaging reports, differential diagnoses, etc. It is now accepted that non-clinical (e.g., social) factors have a substantial influence on health outcomes. Hence, it is desirable to record these Social and Commercial Determinants of Health (SDoH & CDoH) in an EHR. The "non-text parts" of EHR notes (e.g., data tables) rely on coded terms from underlying ontologies or terminologies to facilitate semantic interoperability. Ontologies help define concepts, the relationships between them, and instances that can be utilized in research.

The first accomplishment …

Microwave Catalysis-Enabled Membrane Processes For Microbial Inactivation, Fangzhou Liu

Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need for advanced technologies to combat virus transmission. Traditional membrane filtration technologies primarily serve as physical barriers, capturing pollutants but failing to inactivate microbial agents such as bacteria and viruses. These membranes typically target larger particles but are ineffective against sub-micrometer viral particles. Thus, there's a critical demand for membrane filtration processes that combine robust filtration with antifouling and reaction -enabled functions for efficient pathogen disinfection. This research explores a novel microwave-assisted membrane filtration process incorporating catalytic reactions to enhance microbial disinfection and prevent membrane fouling, offering a groundbreaking solution to global challenges …

Large Deviation Theory In Stochastic Processes: Applications To Biological Modeling, Moshe C. Silverstein

Dissertations

This dissertation delves into developing and applying stochastic models to analyze complex biological systems. It leverages Large Deviation Theory (LDT) to gain insights into these systems, focusing on two key examples: neural networks and calcium signaling dynamics. Traditional deterministic methods frequently fail to capture biological processes' randomness and inherent variability. Meanwhile, many stochastic approaches struggle to be mathematically tractable or provide accessible insights. The approach introduced in this study provides rigorous mathematical frameworks to enhance understanding of these stochastic behaviors while remaining tractable and insightful.

A stochastic model for a random biological neural network is constructed that addresses the dependencies …

Monitoring Marine Animal Interactions With Open Ocean Aquaculture And The Potential For Measuring Impacts, Ryan Richard Yont

Theses

Aquaculture, the farming of water-based organisms, is one of the fastest growing industries in the food production sector globally. Aquaculture farms, regardless of type, are categorized as either coastal or offshore marine aquaculture and are generalized into three categories: fed (e.g., finfish), unfed (e.g., filter-feeding bivalves), and autotrophic (e.g. kelp). Viewed as an agricultural industry, marine aquaculture is tightly regulated, particularly in the U.S. Despite this, an area of concern for the public and management alike is the potential for marine life interactions with aquaculture gear. Even the best-run farms represent a change in the physical and biological characteristics of …

Temporal Dynamics Of Coastal Sediment Characteristics: A Comparative Study On Pre- And Post-2004 Tsunami Event Along The Nagoor - Poompuhar Stretch, Tamil Nadu, Yamini S

Theses and Dissertations

Tsunamis represent some of the most devastating natural events for coastal regions, as exemplified by the 26th December 2004 Great Indonesian Earthquake triggered a massive tsunami across the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean, causing extensive destruction in various countries, including India. This study addresses a significant gap in the literature by focusing on the detailed sedimentological aspects of coastal dynamics. Specifically, it examines the pre-tsunami (December 2004), post-tsunami (January 2005), and recent (December 2022) sediment characteristics along a 35 km stretch of the Coromandel coast from Poompuhar to Nagoor.

Eight stations were selected for sampling: Poompuhar, Chinnankudi, Kuttyandiyur, Chandrapadi, …

Investigations On V2o5 And Its Derivative Nanocomposites For Photocatalytic Textile Organic Dye Degradation, Jenifer A

Theses and Dissertations

In recent times, organic dyes from industrial sludge become one of the significant causes of water contamination due to their utility in textile and paper manufacturing industries. These organic dyes are highly toxic and carcinogenic. Fortunately, the photocatalytic degradation process is a practical tool for decomposing toxic organic matter in wastewater by utilizing light. The photodegradation process can be performed using semiconductor materials to purify wastewater. Thus, semiconductor photocatalysis is a desirable alternative technique for decolorizing various organic pollutants.

In this context, the present work reports the preparation and characterization of V2O5 nanocomposites by facile methods and tests them against …

Antioxidant, Photoprotective, And Cytotoxic Activities Of Tristaniopsis Merguensis Leaf Fractions With Molecular Docking Study Of Potential Fraction, Boima Situmeang, Respati Tri Swasono, Tri Joko Raharjo

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Through experimental along with molecular docking techniques of potential fraction, this study intended to evaluate the essential phytochemical elements of Tristaniopsis merguensis leaflets as well as potential antioxidant, photoprotective, along with cytotoxic activities. The DPPH and ABTS tests were used to evaluate the antioxidant efficacy of the n-hexane (HPF), ethyl acetate (EPF), and methanol (MPF) fractions. Using an in-vitro solar protection factor (SPF) assessment, the photoprotective ability of T. merguensis components against UV damage was examined. Subsequently, invitro cytotoxic research were carried out against MCF-7 cell line (breast cancer line) assay. This was followed by molecular docking stimulation testing against …

Utilization Of Solar And Wind Power-Generation Systems In The Mining Industry: Recent Trends And Future Prospects, Elaheh Mohammadi Valikandi, Yosoon Choi

Journal of Sustainable Mining

In recent years, the mining industry has faced many challenges, such as rising demand, fluctuating energy prices, increasing energy consumption due to declining ore grades, and environmental concerns. According to the Paris Agreement, countries worldwide must focus on decarbonizing their economies to mitigate the global average surface temperature growth. This paper reviews how renewable energy, specifically photovoltaic and wind power systems, can be used to tackle some of these challenges. Operating mines globally, like the South Deep gold mine in South Africa and the MA'ADEN Alumina Refinery in Saudi Arabia, and abandoned mines, such as former coal mines in the …

Special Supplement Issue On Quality Assurance And Enrichment Of Biological And Biomedical Ontologies And Terminologies, Licong Cui, Ankur Agrawal

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Ontologies and terminologies serve as the backbone of knowledge representation in biomedical domains, facilitating data integration, interoperability, and semantic understanding across diverse applications. However, the quality assurance and enrichment of these resources remain an ongoing challenge due to the dynamic nature of biomedical knowledge. In this editorial, we provide an introductory summary of seven articles included in this special supplement issue for quality assurance and enrichment of biological and biomedical ontologies and terminologies. These articles span a spectrum of topics, such as development of automated quality assessment frameworks for Resource Description Framework (RDF) resources, identification of missing concepts in SNOMED …

Pilot Project 2024 Annual Update, Loren Burmeister, Mark Thompson

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Comment Letter For The Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Residential Metals Abatement Program (Rmap) Yard Submittals Round 2 (Dated July 25, 2024), Brandon Warner

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Re: Conditional Approval Letter For The Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Silver Bow Creek Conservation Area Repository Data Gap Quality Assurance Project Plan Request For Change To Install Additional Test Pits And Perform Material Characterization (Dated August 28, 2024), Emma Rott

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Butte Reduction Works (Brw) Phase Iii Quality Assurance Project Plan (Qapp) Request For Change Brw-2024-01, Josh Bryson

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Unveiling Environmental Justice In Two Us Cities Through Greenspace Accessibility And Visible Greenness Exposure, Md Shahinoor Rahman, Mahbubur Meenar, S. M. Labib, Ted Howell, Deepti Adlakha, Ben Woodward

School of Public Health Faculty Publications

Uneven access to greenspaces or visible greenness is an environmental justice (EJ) issue. In this paper, we use a social equity lens to develop geospatial models that measure convenient walking access to urban greenspaces such as parks and street-level green exposure en route to greenspaces. We utilized earth science, geospatial, and demographic datasets to develop two models—Greenspace Accessibility and Visible Greenness Exposure—and applied them in Camden and Jersey City, USA, two communities experiencing environmental injustices. Modeling results show that greenspace accessibility is a concern in both cities, with Jersey City experiencing more prominent disparities. We observed significant positive relationships in …

Health Benefits And Adverse Effects Of Kratom: A Social Media Text-Mining Approach, Abdullah Wahbeh, Mohammad A. Al-Ramahi, Omar El-Gayar, Tareq Nasralah, Ahmed El Noshokaty

All Faculty Scholarship (Archived)

Background: Kratom is a substance that alters one’s mental state and is used for pain relief, mood enhancement, and opioid withdrawal, despite potential health risks. In this study, we aim to analyze the social media discourse about kratom to provide more insights about kratom’s benefits and adverse effects. Also, we aim to demonstrate how algorithmic machine learning approaches, qualitative methods, and data visualization techniques can complement each other to discern diverse reactions to kratom’s effects, thereby complementing traditional quantitative and qualitative methods. Methods: Social media data were analyzed using the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) algorithm, PyLDAVis, and t-distributed stochastic neighbor …

How Much Green To Keep The Garden Clean? An Analysis Of The Willingness To Pay (Wtp) Of Home Gardeners For Biowrap Technology, Gengchen Cai, Kanij Fatema, Karina A. Schoengold

Cornhusker Economics

A research team from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Kansas State University, and South Dakota School of Mines are working on creating an alternative product that would use locally available materials to create a spray-on, biodegradable polymer that can suppress weeds and will biodegrade in a timeframe that is amenable to crop production. We broadly refer to this technology as BioWRAP (Bioplastics with Regenerative Agricultural Properties).

Our results show that the home garden market is potentially a significant one for a BioWRAP product. Continued work in the development of the BioWRAP technology is necessary to determine what the cost of a …

Comment Letter For The Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Residential Metals Abatement Program (Rmap) Yard Submittals Round 2 (Dated July 25, 2024), Molly Roby

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Silver Bow Creek Conservation Area Repository Data Gap Quality Assurance Project Plan Request For Change To Install Additional Test Pits And Perform Material Characterization, Josh Bryson

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

2024 Spring Migration Seasonal Report For Berkeley Pit Waterfowl Protection Plan, Mark Thompson, Loren Burmeister

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Understanding Associations Between Disasters And Sustainability, Resilience, And Poverty: An Empirical Study Of The Last Two Decades, Dean Kyne, Dominic Kyei

Sociology Faculty Publications

This study investigates the impact of disasters on sustainability, resilience, and poverty, using data from the “Sustainable Development Report” and the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) from 2000 to 2023. Regression models assessed the effects of disasters, deaths, injuries, affected individuals, and economic damage on normalized values of the dependent variables with lag periods of one, two, and three years of independent variables. The results reveal that disasters consistently negatively impact sustainability and resilience, highlighting the need for robust disaster risk reduction strategies and resilient infrastructure. Higher mortality rates significantly hindered development, emphasizing the importance of improving early warning systems, emergency …

Weather Risks, Crop Losses, And Risk Proneness: An Examination Of Evolving Risk Preferences Of Rice Farmers In Bangladesh, W. Parker Wheatley, Taznoore Khanam, Valerien O. Pede, Takashi Yamano

Economics Faculty Publications

Changing climate poses significant challenges for smallholder rice farmers. Weather-related deviations from longer-term patterns and crop losses due to abiotic hazards can affect farmer risk preferences and drive adaptive responses. In addition, farmers’ proneness to and past experiences with crop risks such as drought, submergence, and excess soil salinity can impact their baseline risk preferences and their response to changing risks. Using data for Bangladesh from two waves of the Rice Monitoring Survey, climate-related data (precipitation and temperature), farmer reports of crop losses, and measures of proneness to abiotic risks, this article estimates how weather deviations from longer-term trends, crop …

Butte Mine Flooding Operable Unit Berkeley Pit And Discharge Pilot Project - July 2024 Monthly Discharge Monitoring Report, Mark Thompson, Dave Griffis

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Re: Conditional Approval Letter For The Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit (Bpsou) Butte Reduction Works (Brw) Phase Iii Quality Assurance Project Plan (Qapp) Request Of Change Brw-2024-01 (Dated August 9, 2024)., Emma Rott

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Advancing Endovascular Neurosurgery Training With Extended Reality: Opportunities And Obstacles For The Next Decade, Shray Patel, Michael Covell, Saarang Patel, Sandeep Kandregula, Sai Krishna Palepu, Avi Gajjar, Oleg Shekhtman, Georgios Sioutas, Ali Dhanaliwala, Terence Gade, Jan-Karl Burkhardt, Visish Srinivasan

SKMC Student Presentations and Publications

Background: Extended reality (XR) includes augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR). Endovascular neurosurgery is uniquely positioned to benefit from XR due to the complexity of cerebrovascular imaging. Given the different XR modalities available, as well as unclear clinical utility and technical capabilities, we clarify opportunities and obstacles for XR in training vascular neurosurgeons. Methods: A systematic review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was conducted. Studies were critically appraised using ROBINS-I. Results: 19 studies were identified. 13 studies used VR, while 3 studies used MR, and 3 studies used AR. …