Digital Commons Network^™

Regional 3d Stability Analyses Of The Egkremnoi Coastline And Comparison With Landslides Caused By The 2015 Lefkada Earthquake, Weibing Gong, Dimitrios Zekkos, Marin Clark, John Manousakis, Dalia Kirshbaum

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Regional three-dimensional (3D) forward modeling stability analyses are presented for the Egkremnoi coastline of Lefkada Island in Greece. The pre-earthquake 5-m resolution DEM of the region was used as input for the regional 3D model and the modeling results were evaluated for five large landslides that occurred in the area during a Mw 6.5 earthquake that occurred in 2015. The area ratio and the overlap area ratio were defined to quantitatively assess the geospatial "match" between predicted and mapped landslides. Parametric analyses using variable material strength and DEM resolution were subsequently conducted to assess the influence of the input on …

Identifying Consumer Preferences From User-Generated Content On Amazon.Com By Leveraging Machine Learning, Jikhan Jeong

Economics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Inexperienced consumers may have high uncertainty about experience goods that require technical knowledge and skills to operate effectively; therefore, experienced consumers' prior reviews can be useful for inexperienced consumers. However, one-sided review systems (e.g., Amazon) only provide the opportunity for consumers to write a review as a buyer and contain no feedback from the seller's side, so the information displayed about individual buyers is limited. Therefore, this study analyzes consumers' digital footprints (DFs) for programmable thermostats to identify and predict unobserved consumer preferences, using a dataset of 141 million Amazon reviews. This paper proposes novel approaches (1) to identify unobserved …

Count Data Time Series Models And Their Applications, Yi Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

“Due to fast developments of advanced sensors, count data sets have become ubiquitous in many fields. Modeling and forecasting such time series have generated great interest. Modeling can shed light on the behavior of the count series and to see how they are related to other factors such as the environmental conditions under which the data are generated. In this research, three approaches to modeling such count data are proposed.

First, a periodic autoregressive conditional Poisson (PACP) model is proposed as a natural generalization of the autoregressive conditional Poisson (ACP) model. By allowing for cyclical variations in the parameters of …

Revised: Etymology Of “Ragtime”: Role Of “Tag, Rag, And “Bobtail” (The Rabble) And The 19th Century “Fancy Rag Balls”, Fred Hoeptner

Arts, Languages and Philosophy Faculty Research & Creative Works

Despite abundant speculation about the etymology of “rag” in “ragtime” since the emergence of ragtime music into popular consciousness in 1896, a convincing solution has remained elusive. As OED3 sums up the situation (rag, n. meaning #5): “Origin uncertain and disputed.”

But at least some new insight may now be possible. The present study is the first to use digitized newspaper archives to track “rag” and “ragtime” from their sources to full maturity, and the following picture emerges:

1. The starting point is tag, rag, and bobtail “the common herd, the rabble”; the word appears in OED3 under bob-tail.
2. Rag as …

Prediction Of Equivalent Liquid Permeability From Gas Permeability Measurements: A Recurrent Neural Network Approach, Husam Alkinani, Abo Taleb Al-Hameedi, Shari Dunn-Norman

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

One of the most vital reservoir properties is permeability. It is usually measured using core samples with two major measurement methods: using gas or using liquid. The purpose of this work is to use a data-driven recurrent neural network model to estimate the equivalent liquid permeability based on gas permeability. By using this model, the equivalent liquid permeability can be predicted for the permeability of core samples with rich clay minerals measured using gas (or any core sample that is measured using gas). This will give an alternative way to the currently used method (Klinkenberg method). Core sample data measurements …

Minimizing Lost Circulation Non-Productive Time Using Expected Monetary Value And Decision Tree Analysis, Husam Hasan Alkinani, Abo Taleb Tuama Al-Hameedi, Shari Dunn-Norman

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Lost circulation and problems related to drilling present a major challenge for the drilling industry. Each year, billions are spent to treat these problems. There is not a single solution to lost circulation because of the complexity and kind of formations susceptible to this issue. Lost circulation treatment data for the Shuaiba formation (induced fractured formation) were gathered from drilled wells in Southern Iraq (over 2000). Treatments have been grouped according to the volume of mud loss as complete, severe, and partial loss remedies. Detailed costs and probabilities calculations were conducted. The costs of three types of loss treatments (partial, …

Exploiting Semantic Embedding And Visual Feature For Facial Action Unit Detection, Huiyuan Yang, Lijun Yin, Yi Zhou, Jiuxiang Gu

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Recent study on detecting facial action units (AU) has utilized auxiliary information (i.e., facial landmarks, relationship among AUs and expressions, web facial images, etc.), in order to improve the AU detection performance. As of now, no semantic information of AUs has yet been explored for such a task. As a matter of fact, AU semantic descriptions provide much more information than the binary AU labels alone, thus we propose to exploit the Semantic Embedding and Visual feature (SEV-Net) for AU detection. More specifically, AU semantic embeddings are obtained through both Intra-AU and Inter-AU attention modules, where the Intra-AU attention module …

Preface, Zhe Liu, Fan Wu, Sajal K. Das

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Optimizing Error-Bounded Lossy Compression For Scientific Data On Gpus, Jiannan Tian, Sheng Di, Xiaodong Yu, Cody Rivera, Kai Zhao, Sian Jin, Yunhe Feng, Xin Liang, Dingwen Tao, Franck Cappello

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Error-bounded lossy compression is a critical technique for significantly reducing scientific data volumes. With ever-emerging heterogeneous high-performance computing (HPC) architecture, GPU-accelerated error-bounded compressors (such as CUSZ and cuZFP) have been developed. However, they suffer from either low performance or low compression ratios. To this end, we propose CUSZ+ to target both high compression ratios and throughputs. We identify that data sparsity and data smoothness are key factors for high compression throughputs. Our key contributions in this work are fourfold: (1) We propose an efficient compression workflow to adaptively perform run-length encoding and/or variable-length encoding. (2) We derive Lorenzo reconstruction in …

Preclassic Cultural Eutrophication Of Lake Petén Itzá, Lowland Guatemala, By The Early Maya Of Nixtun-Ch'ich', Brooke A. Birkett

Masters Theses

"Paleolimnological evidence indicates the ancient Maya transformed lowland terrestrial ecosystems by felling forest vegetation to construct large civic-ceremonial centers and expand agriculture. The effects of prehistoric Maya land alterations on lake trophic status, however, remain poorly understood. We analyzed a 515-cm-long sediment core from Lake Petén Itzá, lowland Guatemala, to infer paleoenvironmental changes resulting from Maya occupation of the riparian archaeological site of Nixtun-Ch'ich'. Substantial increases in charcoal and fecal stanol concentrations indicate Maya occupation of the Candelaria Peninsula by the late Early Preclassic period beginning ca. 1400 cal yr Before the Common Era (hereafter BCE), despite scant archaeological evidence …

Variational Inference For Morphological Modification To 3d Geometry : An Application To The Support Generation For Metal Additive Manufacturing, Mugdha Swanand Joshi

Masters Theses

"A key issue in metal additive manufacturing (AM) processes is the optimization of support geometry. Correct selection of support strategy can reduce build time, improve surface finish, reduce support removal time, and maximize build success. Strategies used to design support structure are time consuming and need skilled personnel. In this research we have deployed a deep generative model capable of making morphological modifications to the part. However, it is not similar to topology optimization where the aim is to reduce or eliminate support structure. The proposed model can make necessary changes to the part in order to transform it into …

The Validation Of Predicted Biological Age Of Drosophila Melanogaster From Combined Statistical Modeling, Lauren Francis

Masters Theses

"Sleep is essential for maintaining a healthy body and mind and is associated with aging and aging related diseases. There are individual differences in fly as well as human sleep behavior and lifespan. Between and within individuals, sleep varies in characteristics including consolidation, rhythmicity, continuity, duration, and more. Various evidence in the literature suggests there are many molecular pathways involved with aging and they may be different for individuals. Our research is interested in a possible restorative mechanism of sleep and the ramifications of that mechanism to aging. We have developed two predictive models of aging using the fruit fly …

Design And Development Of A Variable Resistance Hand Exerciser Using A Compliant Mechanism, Jyothi Komatireddy

Masters Theses

"Rehabilitation exercise plays a vital role in recovering from an injury or illness condition by improving flexibility and restoring muscle strength. If not done correctly, exercising can cause more damage to the health condition than in healing. Understanding the muscle’s resistance level while performing an exercise helps design the exercising equipment not to overstrain the muscle during operation. This research presents a methodology to develop a variable-resistance hand exerciser by using a compliant cam-follower mechanism. The proposed design comprised a compliant follower and a rigid cam. The rigid cam is synthesized using the human hand force-deflection profile as an input …

A Fuzzy Clustering Methodology To Analyze Interfaces And Assess Integration Risks In Large-Scale Systems, Josh Henry Goldschmid

Doctoral Dissertations

“Interface analysis and integration risk assessment for a large-scale, complex system is a difficult systems engineering task, but critical to the success of engineering systems with extraordinary capabilities. When dealing with large-scale systems there is little time for data gathering and often the analysis can be overwhelmed by unknowns and sometimes important factors are not measurable because of the complexities of the interconnections within the system. This research examines the significance of interface analysis and management, identifies weaknesses in literature on risk assessment for a complex system, and exploits the benefits of soft computing approaches in the interface analysis in …

Mantle Flow Systems Associated With Slab Subduction And Absolute Plate Motion In Alaska Constrained By Shear Wave Splitting Analyses, Yuchen Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Alaska has long been recognized as a geologically complex region with a sharp contrast in tectonic activity between southern and northern Alaska. While the former is characterized by the subduction of the geometrically varying Pacific-Yakutat plate beneath the North American plate, the latter has a mostly stable cratonic setting. To investigate the mantle flow fields beneath Alaska and understand the influence of the subduction process on regional mantle dynamics, a total of 2790 pairs of well-defined teleseismic shear wave splitting (SWS) measurements recorded from 379 stations are obtained and analyzed. In addition, 247 pairs of SWS results from local earthquake …

Phase Formation And Thermal Conductivity Of Zirconium Carbide, Yue Zhou

Doctoral Dissertations

“This research focused on the synthesis and phase formation of zirconium carbide with different carbon contents, and lattice thermal conductivity of zirconium carbide with different carbon vacancy, hafnium, and oxygen contents.

Nominally pure phase ZrC_x was synthesized by solid-state reaction of zirconium hydride (ZrHs) and carbon black at a temperature as low as 1300°C. The powder synthesized at 1300C was carbon deficient ZrC_x . Carbon stoichiometry of the as- synthesized powders increased as the synthesis temperature increased. As the synthesis temperature increase, the oxygen content of ZrC_x decreased due to the increasing C site occupancy. Low stoichiometry …

What Are The Dominant Flow Regimes During Carbon Dioxide Propagation In Shale Reservoirs’ Matrix, Natural Fractures And Hydraulic Fractures?, Sherif Fakher, Youssef Elgahawy, Hesham Abdelaal, Abdulmohsin Imqam

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) injection in low permeability shale reservoirs has recently gained much attention due to the claims that it has a large recovery factor and can also be used in CO₂ storage operations. This research investigates the different flow regimes that the CO₂ will exhibit during its propagation through the fractures, micropores, and the nanopores in unconventional shale reservoirs to accurately evaluate the mechanism by which CO₂ recovers oil from these reservoirs. One of the most widely used tools to distinguish between different flow regimes is the Knudsen Number. Initially, a mathematical analysis of …

Layer-To-Layer Feedback Control For Direct Energy Deposition Additive Manufacturing, Michelle Gegel

Doctoral Dissertations

"Additive manufacturing (AM) has garnered much attention in recent years, some calling it the fourth industrial revolution. It was first used to create rapid prototypes, although recent efforts have been made to advance the technology towards production of functional parts. This requires advancement in the materials used in AM, as well as the ability to produce quality parts repeatably. More specifically, direct energy deposition (DED) of metal powders is a process capable of producing and repairing parts with complex geometries; however, it is not widely used in industry due to challenges with quality control. In this process, metal powder is …

Smart And Emerging Technologies: Shaping The Future Of The Industry And Offsite Construction, Rayan H. Assaad, Islam H. El-Adaway, Makarand Hastak, Kim La Scola Needy

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The interest in smart, emerging technologies and offsite construction methods continues to grow. While previous studies investigated different offsite construction aspects, there is still lack of research work that explored the current and future use of smart and emerging technologies, especially those used in offsite construction. This study addresses this knowledge gap through a multi-step research methodology. First, a list of 24 technologies was identified. Second, a survey was distributed to study the current use and the experts' future perceptions of the identified technologies in offsite construction. Third, descriptive statistics and computational clustering analysis were used to quantify and classify …

A Simulation Model For Optimal Bidding Decisions, Rayan H. Assaad, Muaz O. Ahmed, Islam H. El-Adaway, Amr Elsayegh

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The lowest bid approach is the most used technique in the US construction procurement environment since competitive bidding is a legal requirement in the public sector. Despite that many research studies were directed to help contractors in taking different bidding decisions, there is still insufficient research efforts that equipped contractors with decision-support tools to decide on optimal bid values. Hence, this paper takes previous research works a step further by developing a simulation model that can be adopted to determine the bid decision that would result in winning more projects. To this end, a methodology composed of multiple steps was …

Nodesense2vec: Spatiotemporal Context-Aware Network Embedding For Heterogeneous Urban Mobility Data, Dakshak Keerthi Chandra, Jennifer Leopold, Yanjie Fu

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The problem of learning latent representations of heterogeneous networks with spatial and temporal attributes has been gaining traction in recent years, given its myriad of real-world applications. Most systems with applications in the field of transportation, urban economics, medical information, online e-commerce, etc., handle big data that can be structured into Spatiotemporal Heterogeneous Networks (SHNs), thereby making efficient analysis of these networks extremely vital. In this paper, we propose a spatiotemporal context-aware network embedding framework that jointly captures the spatial regularities between objects and the sequential transition patterns of human mobility. First, we model the heterogeneous urban mobility data collected …

Visualization As A Service For Scientific Data, David Pugmire, James Kress, Jieyang Chen, Hank Childs, Jong Choi, Dmitry Ganyushin, Berk Geveci, Mark Kim, Scott Klasky, Xin Liang, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

One of the primary challenges facing scientists is extracting understanding from the large amounts of data produced by simulations, experiments, and observational facilities. The use of data across the entire lifetime ranging from real-time to post-hoc analysis is complex and varied, typically requiring a collaborative effort across multiple teams of scientists. Over time, three sets of tools have emerged: One set for analysis, another for visualization, and a final set for orchestrating the tasks. This trifurcated tool set often results in the manual assembly of analysis and visualization workflows, which are one-off solutions that are often fragile and difficult to …

Nnbmss: A Novel And Fast Method For Model Structure Selection, Amaury Lendasse, Kallin Khan, Edward Ratner

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In This Paper, We Present a New Method to Perform Model Structure Selection. This Proposed Method Can Be Used to Select the Complexity of Any Continuous Regression Method. We Also Present an Asymptotic Mathematical Proof of the Proposed Method and the New Method is Illustrated on a Benchmark. Compared to the Well-Known 10-Fold Cross-Validation, the Computational Time Associated to Our New Method is Approximately Divided by a Factor 8 as Illustrated on the Benchmark.

Machine Learning For Measuring And Analyzing Online Social Communications, Chris Bronk, Amaury Lendasse, Peggy Lindner, Dan S. Wallach, Barbara Hammer

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In This Paper, We Propose a Framework for Application of a Novel Machine Learning-Based System for Analyzing Online Social Communications. as an Example, We Are Targeting Anti-Semitic Graphical Memes Posted to Social Media. We Presented Very Promising Preliminary Results on a Facebook Dataset that Consists of a Total of 10000 Labeled Memes. We Can Conclude that Machine Learning Will Soon Be Able to Successfully Analyze and Monitor Complex Social Communications.

First Ever Polymer Flood Field Pilot To Enhance The Recovery Of Heavy Oils On Alaska's North Slope Pushing Ahead One Year Later, Abhijit Dandekar, Baojun Bai, John Barnes, Dave Cercone, Jared Ciferno, Reid Edwards, Samson Ning, Walbert Schulpen, Randy Seright, Brent Sheets, Dongmei Wang, Yin Zhang

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In June 2018 the team embarked on an ambitious project to address the slow development pace of Alaska's 20+ billion barrels heavy oil resource via the first ever polymer flood pilot. Following the successful commencement of the pilot in August 2018, the field demonstration, supporting laboratory experiments and numerical simulation have steadily progressed. A significant amount of valuable data and lessons learned have been collected and are reported in this paper. The ongoing pilot and the research activities is making headway toward the primary objective of validating the use of polymer flooding for extracting heavy oil in Alaska's challenging environment. …

Impact Of Rheology Models On Horizontal Well Polymer Flooding In A Heavy Oil Reservoir On Alaska North Slope: A Simulation Study, Jianqiao Leng, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai, Randall S. Seright, Yin Zhang, David Cercone, Samson Ning

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Polymer rheology can have either a positive or a negative effect on polymer flooding performance under varied circumstances. Many researchers have studied the effect of polymer rheology in a vertical well, but no field scale studies have been conducted to investigate whether polymer rheology is beneficial to polymer flooding in heavy oil reservoirs developed by horizontal wells. In this paper, we conducted a numerical simulation study to examine the effect of HPAM polymer rheology on a polymer flooding pilot, which is the first-ever project conducted on a heavy oil reservoir from Alaska North Slope (ANS) developed by horizontal wells. Three …

An Interleaved Quadratic High Step-Up Dc-Dc Converter With Coupled Inductor, Ramin Rahimi, Saeed Habibi, Mehdi Ferdowsi, Pourya Shamsi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new high step-up DC-DC converter for renewable energy applications is proposed in this paper. Employing an interleaved quadratic structure, two two-winding coupled inductors (CIs), and voltage multiplier cells (VMCs), the proposed converter can provide high-voltage gains, continuous input current with low ripple, reduced voltage stresses on semiconductors, common ground between input and output sides, and low numbers of components. In addition, diode-capacitor lossless clamp circuits are utilized to limit the voltage stresses of the power switches and further extend the voltage gain. The operating and steady-state analyses, design considerations, and a comparison with other previously published high step-up converters …

Celestite Upgrading By Jigs In Presence Of Steel Balls As Ragging Material, Ahmed Sobhy, Ayman A. El-Midany, Suzan S. Ibrahim

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Gravity separation using jigs is widely used for coarse particle sizes separation. However, fine sizes reduce jig performance. In this study, the upgrading of celestite ore by jig was investigated at different size fractions in the presence of ragging material. Three size fractions, i.e., -15+2 mm, - 2.0 + 0.50 mm and - 0.50 + 0.08 mm were used. The steel balls were used, as ragging material, to improve the separation of fines as well as to improve the concentrate quality. The statistical design was used to correlate celestite grade and recovery with studied operating variables, i.e., the ragging number …

Water Absorption Enhancement Of Sodium Poly Acrylate And Poly(2-Acrylamido-2-Methylpropane Sulphonic Acid) Based Hydrogel Mixtures, Sohair A. Darwish, Ibrahim M. Ibrahim, Nasser Y. Mostafa, Mostafa A. Radwan, Mohamed A. Sadek, Hany A. Elazab

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Introduction: Hydrogels are hydrophilic polymers which are cross-linked to form three-dimensional structures, which can absorb, swell and retain huge amounts of water or aqueous fluids. Objective: This paper reports the preparation and characterization of Poly (2-Acrylamido-2-Methylpropane Sulphonic Acid) (PAMPS) hydrogel with different crosslinking intensities. Methodology: 2-Acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS) monomer was purchased from Alfa Aesar Company as reagent grade. It was used as received (>98% purity) without any further purification. PAMPS hydrogel was prepared by free radical crosslinking solution polymerization of AMPS in water at room temperature under a nitrogen blanket in cylindrical glass tubes. The characteristics of the …

Better Heat And Power Integration Of An Existing Gas-Oil Plant In Egypt Through Revamping The Design And Organic Rankine Cycle, Mamdouh A. Gadalla, Alaa Elmasry, Ibrahim Alhajri, Fatma H. Ashour, Hany A. Elazab

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Objective: The current study aims mainly to Maximize Condensate Recovery (NGLs), focusing on a gas processing train of Gas-Oil Separation Plant (GOSP) located in Egypt with a capacity of 4,230 kmole/h. Methods: The research study accounts for the constraint of Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) specification, which makes the storage in floating roof tanks is of a great risk. The study proposes the installation of the cryogenic train that recovers condensates (C4+). This train comprises of compression unit, expansion unit, three-phase separators and a re-boiled absorber. The problem of RVP will no longer exist because of the re-boiled absorber achieving RVP …