Digital Commons Network^™

Noise Exposure Trends Among Violating Coal Mines, 2000 To 2021, Hanna Grace Davis

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Noise-induced hearing loss has continued to be a significant issue within the mining industry, even after the passing of the MSHA’s improved noise standard in 2000. NIOSH has recognized that the noise standard enacted by both MSHA and OSHA does not properly protect workers with the 5 dBA exchange rate (i.e., the increase in noise level leading to a doubling of energy) and the lack of emphasizing the use of engineering controls over administrative controls and overreliance on hearing protection device usage. The primary objective of this study is to investigate statistical sound relationships between MSHA noise-related violations and samples …

Calcite Depression In Bastnaesite-Calcite Flotation System Using Organic Acids, Emmy Muhoza

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Bastnaesite is the primary source of light REEs, namely cerium (Ce), lanthanum (La), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), to name a few. Bastnaesite is typically concentrated using the froth flotation beneficiation method. Flotation of bastnaesite suffers from high reagent consumption due to the similar surface characteristics of bastnaesite and associated gangue minerals, including calcite. Additionally, complex stages of high-temperature conditioning are often required to suppress the detrimental impact of dissolved calcium ions on the flotation of bastnaesite. This research seeks to investigate the capabilities of organic acids in the bastnaesite-calcite flotation systems to selectively depress calcite minerals and effectively chelate calcium …

Artificial Intelligence Based Approach For Rapid Material Discovery: From Chemical Synthesis To Quantum Materials, Robert Tempke

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

With the advent of machine learning (ML) in the field of Materials Science, it has become obvious that trained models are limited by the amount and quality of the data used for training. Where researchers do not have access to the breadth and depth of labeled data that fields like image processing and natural language processing enjoy. In the specific application of materials discovery, there is the issue of continuity in atomistic datasets. Often if one relies on experimental data mined from literature and patents this data is only available for the most favorable of atomistic data. This ultimately leads …

Aerodynamic Analysis Of Damage State Missiles Using Overset Meshing Techniques For Application To Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation, Jonathan A. D'Alessio

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Significant research over the years has aimed to redefine the flight capabilities of aircraft after sustaining structural damage to critical components. Flight survivability and controllability are key areas of concern when designing fault-tolerant flight control systems to handle a wide range of potential scenarios. However, there is a lack of research on the impact of physically damaged missile systems. Missile counter-defense and intercept capabilities have become more advanced as the United States has focused heavily on these areas over the years. Damaged missiles due to a kinetic intercept capability present an opportunity for analysis of the post-damage implications on flight …

Characterizing Locomotor Disturbance Perception In Young Adults, Daniel James Liss

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Falls during walking are a leading cause of injuries across aging. Many of these falls are due to slips and trips. The ability to perceive disturbances to ongoing motion may play an important role in the control of walking balance. However, disturbance perception has been investigated in standing balance, but its role in walking balance due to slip- and trip-like disturbances remains largely unknown. Characterizing locomotor disturbance perception in young adults may lead to a more comprehensive understanding of sensorimotor walking balance control.

This work defined locomotor disturbance perception in response to slip and trip-like disturbances in young adults. We …

Modeling Nonlinear Dynamic Systems Using Bss-Anova Gaussian Process, Kyle Matthew Hayes

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Nonlinear dynamic systems are some of the most common variety of systems encountered in the sciences, but are the potentially more onerous to model through system identification than static systems due to their added complexity, sensitivity to initial conditions, and the potential application of new dynamic and nonlinear behavior through any time dependent forcing functions. The BSS-ANOVA Gaussian Process is a Machine Learning method for dynamic system ID that possesses several attributes that make it a natural candidate for this variety of problem. BSS-ANOVA is fully Bayesian, works best for continuous tabular datasets, and fast training and inference times and …

Wetland Mitigation Performance Standards: The Intersection Of Science, Practice, And Policy, Jessica Anne Bryzek

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Wetland ecosystem spatial extent and integrity have declined due to conversion to anthropogenic land uses. Wetland mitigation offsets the impact on wetlands encountered during development by restoring a previously degraded wetland or creating new wetlands. This activity creates an ecosystem service market where wetland impacts (debits) are offset by wetland restoration/creation (credits). Mitigation aims to replace functions provided by aquatic resources lost during development. Post-restoration monitoring criteria known as performance standards are used to evaluate and verify restored wetland functionality and regulate mitigation credit release. Therefore, performance standards are vital in ascertaining wetland restoration techniques and mitigation processes. In Chapter …

An Action Research Evaluation Of An Online Inclusive Sport Peer Coach Training, Margaret Roberts Condon

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background: Trained peer tutors are a proven pedagogical technique that can help eliminate barriers to inclusion in physical education and extracurricular sport, including a reported lack of training and experience of professionals. When adequately trained, peer tutors can encourage social interactions, provide constant feedback, and increase active learning and engagement. While recommendations for training peer tutors have been provided, there are currently no known studies examining a peer tutor training in an online format for middle and high school-aged students participating in an inclusive sport program.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an …

Incentive Analysis Of Blockchain Technology, Rahul Reddy Annareddy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Blockchain technology was invented in the Bitcoin whitepaper released in 2008. Since then, several decentralized cryptocurrencies and applications have become mainstream. There has been an immense amount of engineering effort put into developing blockchain networks. Relatively few projects backed by blockchain technology have succeeded and maintained a large community of developers, users, and customers, while many popular projects with billions of dollars in funding and market capitalizations have turned out to be complete scams.

This thesis discusses the technological innovations introduced in the Bitcoin whitepaper and the following work of the last fifteen years that has enabled blockchain technology. A …

A Novel Computational Network Methodology For Discovery Of Biomarkers And Therapeutic Targets, Qing Ye

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Lung cancer has the second highest cancer incidence rate and the top cancer-related mortality worldwide. An estimate from the American Cancer Society shows that, in 2022, there will be about 236,740 lung cancer cases (117,910 men and 118,830 women) in the US. To date, there are no prognostic/predictive biomarkers to select chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiotherapy in individual non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. There is an unmet clinical need to identify patients with early-stage NSCLC who are likely to develop recurrence and to predict their therapeutic responses. This dissertation developed a novel computational methodology for modeling molecular gene association networks …

Bacterial Contamination In Public Atac-Seq Data And Alignment-Free Detection Methods, Drake Michael Aesoph

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

ATAC-seq is a new high-throughput sequencing technology for measuring chromatin accessibility within genomic samples. It can be used to discover new information about open regions, nucleosome positions, transcription factor binding sites, and DNA methylation. It is especially useful when combined with other next-generation sequencing techniques, such as RNA-seq. Unlike previous technologies, however, ATAC-seq is more sensitive to bacterial contamination, which is a well-known problem in cell cultures that can lead to incorrect experimental results. Previous studies have measured the contamination in public RNA-seq data and found that 5%- 10% of samples were contaminated. In this report, we investigate the prevalence …

Comparison Of Maintenance Cost Of Medium And Heavy-Duty Alternative Fuel And Diesel Vehicles, Isaac C. Boyce

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Abstract

Comparison of Maintenance Cost of Medium and Heavy-Duty Alternative Fuel and Diesel Vehicles

Isaac Boyce

This study was conducted to provide an in-depth analysis of the differences in maintenance cost with the use of alternative fuel and diesel in medium (MD) and heavy-duty (HD) vehicles. With the push toward lower emissions from transportation vehicles for a cleaner future, the United States of America (US) has incentivized the conversion from the use of conventional fossil fuel, diesel, to lower carbon alternatives. With the increased potential for the use of alternative fuels, an investigation is warranted to understand the differences. This …

Decentralized Cooperative Localization For Multi-Robot Systems In Challenging Environments, Eduardo Gutierrez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Multi-robot systems provide more adaptability and robustness than conventional single-robot systems. This is because they have the ability to achieve partial completion of a task in the presence of failures due to the intrinsic inclusion of non-single-point failure. In multi-robot systems, cooperative localization refers to the use of relative measurements to improve the group’s overall localization performance. While centralized architectures in the system may result in unfeasible cases due to the high cost of computation and communication, decentralized methods distribute the computation among the robots in the group, enhancing the performance and making the system more efficient. Achieving a reliable …

Developing Teaching Adaptability In Pre-Service Teachers Using Practice-Based Teacher Education, Kyuil Cho

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to examine how pre-service teachers (PSTs) develop their teaching adaptive competence through teaching rehearsal and repeated teaching, which is one of the focused teacher education strategies in practice-based teacher education (PBTE). This study was conducted in an introductory teaching methods course of a physical education teacher education (PETE) program. A total of 22 PSTs participated in the study. Fourteen were male, and eight were female. The PSTs had varied coaching experiences ranging from little to no coaching in limited recreational sports settings, and none had teaching or coaching experience in the school setting.

A …

Static Liquefaction In Tailing Dams, Jose Raul Zela Concha

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Fundao tailing dam in Brazil failed on November 5, 2015 causing loss in life, property and severe damage to the environment. The waste flow traveled at 11m/s and approximately 32 million m³ tailings was released into the downstream area. Investigations by regulators concluded that a series of poor designs and construction of the tailing were the causes of the failure. Further investigations also showed that surface failure occurred in the mid height of the slope with a safety factor of 0.52. Both investigations concluded that static liquefaction induced the failure of tailings dam. However, geology variation in the …

Modeling Of Inverter-Based Microgrid For Small-Signal And Large-Signal Stability Analysis, Vishal Verma

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Integration of inverter-based resources (IBRs) such as solar photovoltaic, wind, and battery storage, is both a boon and a bane for electric power systems. On one hand, IBRs have helped in making electrical energy a clean (carbon-free) source of energy. On other hand, the dynamics of IBRs have changed the way power system studies have been carried out. With the advantages IBRs offer over conventional resources, it is assumed that a small distribution power system (microgrid) will have a 100% IBRs penetration in the future. Such a microgrid can operate in grid-connected mode or in an islanded mode. Both modes …

Evaluating Remote Economic Benefits Of Watershed-Scale Acid Mine Drainage Restoration, Rachel E. Pell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In 2011, the West Virginia Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation Program (WVAML) implemented a watershed-scale restoration project in Three Fork Creek, a 103 square-mile watershed in rural West Virginia impaired by acid mine drainage (AMD). This was accomplished through the installation of four in-stream lime dosers in 2011. Due to the great capital investment in the restoration of Three Fork Creek and an interest in applying this watershed-scale approach to other watersheds throughout West Virginia, it is of great interest to demonstrate the successes of this remediation. It has already been demonstrated that the watershed has visibly improved and is …

Implementation Of An Amiodarone Infusion Nurse Practice Guideline To Reduce The Incidence Of Phlebitis: A Quality Improvement Project, Kristen N. Cottrill

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background: Patients have an increased risk of developing phlebitis when amiodarone is delivered through a peripheral intravenous catheter. In a 32-bed cardiac surgery step-down unit, patients experienced phlebitis at a rate of 28.57% despite following manufacturer recommendations. Individual interventions targeted at amiodarone-related phlebitis have presented mixed results, however, when an amiodarone infusion practice guideline was established, the rate and severity of phlebitis consistently decreased across studies. Purpose: This project aimed to implement an evidence-based amiodarone infusion guideline to reduce phlebitis development or severity in cardiac-surgery step-down patients without a central venous catheter who received a peripheral intravenous infusion of amiodarone. …

Network Slicing In 5g: Admission, Scheduling, And Security, Raneem Jassim Alghawi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In the past few decades, there was an increase in the number of devices that have wireless capabilities such as phones, televisions, and home appliances. With the high demand for wireless networking, the fifth generation (5G) of mobile networks was designed to support the different services of new applications. In addition, one of the technical issues that 5G would evolve is the increase in traffic and the need to satisfy the user’s experience. With the evolution of wireless networking and 5G, Network Slicing has been introduced to accommodate the diverse requirements of the applications. Thus, network slicing is the concept …

Air-Assisted Communications Using Line-Of-Sight Links, Shaikha A. Alkandari

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Recently, there has been a rapid increase in the use of air-assisted communications involv-
ing the use of airborne platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In air-assisted
networks, the UAVs can act like base stations in a traditional cellular network as long as an
appropriate backhaul is available. Alternatively, the UAVs could serve as relays, for instance,
connecting two ground-based users who are within range of the UAV. UAVs have the benefit
of being deployed and reconfigured rapidly and on demand.
Meanwhile, there has been a trend towards the use of higher and higher frequencies,
including those in millimeter-wave …

Development Of Oxide Dispersion Strengthening (Ods) Alloys Powder For Additive Manufacturing, Changyu Ma

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Additive manufacturing (AM) fabricated oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloys are given high expectations for critical structural components such as the first stage turbine blade for their excellent creep strength and oxidation resistance compared to superalloys. However, the powder feedstock processing is still an open question since current state-of-the-art processes are not capable of achieving ultrafine strengthening elements such as Y₂O₃ in powder which leads to agglomeration issues in as-consolidated alloys. In this research, the oxidation behavior and stability of ultrafine oxide in AM-printed alloys using mechanically alloyed powders were evaluated at 1100 ^oC. In addition, a …

Development And Testing Of A Biochar Combustor For A Stirling Engine, Kyle Bryant Vickery

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Nonrenewable resources persist as a necessity for perpetuating the current technology and standards of living maintained throughout the world. Biochar is an alternative and renewable fuel source that constitutes the potential to provide energy comparable to coal. Designing and fabricating components that can efficiently harness biochar’s energy to power machinery would demonstrate a successful renewable energy source. The scope of this research is to explain the feasible design, fabrication, and results of technology involving the burning of biochar and transference of hot combustion products for the purpose of powering a Stirling Engine. This design consists of a solid fuel burner, …

Combinatorial Approaches For Effective Design, Synthesis, And Optimization Of Enzyme-Based Conjugates, Jordan Scott Chapman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The specificity and efficiency with which enzymes catalyze selective chemical reactions far exceeds the performance of traditional heterogeneous catalysts that are predominant in industrial applications such as conversion of commodity chemicals to value-added products, fuel cells, and petroleum refinement. Moreover, biocatalysts exhibit exceptionally high product turnover at ambient conditions with little health and environmental burden. These advantageous qualities have led to the prolific use of enzyme catalysis in pharmaceutical, detergents, and food preservation industries wherein their use has greatly reduced waste generation, Unfortunately, the full slate of benefits that enzymes can impart to a broader range of chemical processes is …

A Domain Adaptation Approach For Segmenting Cell Instances In Microscopy Data, Matthew R. Keaton

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Automated cellular instance segmentation is a process that has been utilized for accelerating biological research since before the deep learning era, and recent advancements have produced higher quality results with less effort from the biologist. Most current endeavors focus on completely cutting the researcher out of the picture by generating highly generalized models. However, these models invariably fail when faced with novel data and effectively opt to miss out on the full capabilities of deep learning in pursuit of this goal. In our work, we demonstrate how, with even a minimal amount of annotated data, dominant approaches in this space …

Investigating The Marketing Language Among Online Retailers Of Violin Strings To Determine The Implied Aesthetic, Kira Kay Browning

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The aim of this research is to determine if language in the advertising of violin strings is acting as an exclusionary tool in favor of a Western art music “sound” produced by “classical” violinists. It posits that the marketing of strings to violinists is a topic laden with unacknowledged biases and values of musicians within Western art music. The aesthetic values attached to playing Western art music for the violin in the United States are passed on through pedagogic practice and acculturation of language. Product descriptions for strings in the United States employ language which adheres to these cultural values …

Theoretical Investigation Of Sofc/Soec Degradation Mechanisms And Mitigations, Fuming Jiang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

America has a rapid growth in the development of renewable power generation in the twenty-first century. Hydrogen energy especially is the major topic in development of renewable power generation because it has the ability to provide for energy in transportation, combined heat and power generation and energy storage systems with little or no impact on the global ecosystem. Electrolysis and fuel cell technology for hydrogen energy storage has brought interest to the researchers worldwide.

Solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) and Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are promising hydrogen energy technologies that can utilize chemical energy to produce and store electricity. …

Development Of An Entry-Scale Modeling Methodology To Provide Ground Reaction Curves For Longwall Gateroad Support Evaluation, Haochen Zhao

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Longwall gateroad entries are generally subjected to severe mining-induced stress changes and deformations; they are prone to large roof falls, floor heaves, and rib sloughing. The standing support system in underground mines needs to be carefully designed to compensate for the mining-induced deformation of the surrounding rock mass and consecutively protect the integrity of gateroad entries. Local geology, together with mining-induced stress redistribution, influences the ground response and plays a major role in the performance of a standing support design. In the US, Support Technology Optimization Program (STOP) and its Ground Reaction Curve (GRC) design criteria have been applied to …

Development Of An Innovative Co-Treatment Technology For Produced Water And Blowdown Water: A Regional Approach Of Water Management For Energy Production, Golnoosh Khajouei

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Freshwater use for power generation represents the second-largest water use globally. In the United States, freshwater withdrawals for thermoelectric power accounted for 38% of the total freshwater withdrawals for all uses in 2010. Cooling systems are the most water-intensive part of the thermoelectric generation process. For instance, one 300 MW power generator required about 20,000 m³/h circulating cooling water. The cooling operation discharges a large volume of wastewater in the form of blowdown water (10-20% of the consumed water) that requires treatment for reuse or surface discharge. Produced water (PW), the fluid which returns to the surface from …

Development And Verification Of Flight Data Informed Performance Estimation And Prediction Simulation Tool For Small Electrical Multi-Rotor Uav, Nicholas Scott Borelle

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

While small scale multi-rotor aircraft are becoming an increasingly large market with applications emerging every day, their ability to have both a high endurance/long range and a high speed/performance flight is severely limited. This leads to uncertainty in mission planning and aircraft design, specifically when deciding mission length and available on-board energy. Uncertainty like this leads to an increased chance of failure to complete the mission, and a failure to recover the aircraft. Considering that these aircraft are used by everyone from hobbyists to commercial companies to military personnel, the applications and missions being flown carry importance and a serious …

Face Recognition With Attention Mechanisms, Qiangchang Wang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Face recognition has been widely used in people’s daily lives due to its contactless process and high accuracy. Existing works can be divided into two categories: global and local approaches. The mainstream global approaches usually extract features on whole faces. However, global faces tend to suffer from dramatic appearance changes under the scenarios of large pose variations, heavy occlusions, and so on. On the other hand, since some local patches may remain similar, they can play an important role in such scenarios. Existing local approaches mainly rely on cropping local patches around facial landmarks and then extracting corresponding local representations. …