Digital Commons Network^™

Computational Methods For Segmentation Of Multi-Modal Multi-Dimensional Cardiac Images, Shusil Dangi

Theses

Segmentation of the heart structures helps compute the cardiac contractile function quantified via the systolic and diastolic volumes, ejection fraction, and myocardial mass, representing a reliable diagnostic value. Similarly, quantification of the myocardial mechanics throughout the cardiac cycle, analysis of the activation patterns in the heart via electrocardiography (ECG) signals, serve as good cardiac diagnosis indicators. Furthermore, high quality anatomical models of the heart can be used in planning and guidance of minimally invasive interventions under the assistance of image guidance.

The most crucial step for the above mentioned applications is to segment the ventricles and myocardium from the acquired …

Word Importance Modeling To Enhance Captions Generated By Automatic Speech Recognition For Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Users, Sushant Kafle

Theses

People who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) benefit from sign-language interpreting or live-captioning (with a human transcriptionist), to access spoken information. However, such services are not legally required, affordable, nor available in many settings, e.g., impromptu small-group meetings in the workplace or online video content that has not been professionally captioned. As Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems improve in accuracy and speed, it is natural to investigate the use of these systems to assist DHH users in a variety of tasks. But, ASR systems are still not perfect, especially in realistic conversational settings, leading to the issue of trust and …

Deepcon-Pre: Improved Protein Contact Map Prediction Using Inverse Covariance And Deep Residual Networks, Nachammai Palaniappan

Theses

As with most domains where machine learning methods are applied, correct feature engineering is critical when developing deep learning algorithms for solving the protein folding problem. Unlike the domains such as computer vision and natural language processing, feature engineering is not rigorously studied towards solving the protein folding problem. A recent research has highlighted that input features known as precision matrix are most informative for predicting inter-residue contact map, the key for building three-dimensional models. In this work, we study the significance of the precision matrix feature when very deep residual networks are trained. Using a standard dataset of 3456 …

Characterization And Modeling Of A Plastic Film Transpired Solar Collector With And Without Perforated Glazing, Brandon Mark

Theses

Transpired solar collectors are an economical and highly efficient option for applications involving the heating of ambient air. A transpired solar collector is a type of solar air heater in which outside air is continuously pulled through a perforated absorber plate and subsequently warmed. These collectors can be used for numerous applications, including crop drying, building ventilation, and desiccant regeneration. Transpired solar collectors have minimal moving parts, typically resulting in low maintenance and operation costs. In this study, absorber plates consisting of low-cost plastic sheets are characterized through outdoor testing and are fitted to a theoretical model. Different design configurations …

Artifact, Jacob Martin

Theses

During the creation of this work, I identified and acquired various contemporary objects relating to branding, consumerism, and fads. Through a process of artificial aging, ranging from abrading, cutting, and sandblasting to burying them in soil and chemical treatments of bleach, salt and ammonia, I made the objects appear as if they had been removed from an archeological site after centuries under ground. I incorporated these apparently ancient contemporary consumer items into new compositions using mostly silver and aluminum. These new objects are created using traditional metal-smithing techniques and bearing a resemblance to classicism in form as well. The designs …

Study Of Human Hand-Eye Coordination Using Machine Learning Techniques In A Virtual Reality Setup, Kamran Binaee

Theses

Theories of visually guided action are characterized as closed-loop control in the presence of reliable sources of visual information, and predictive control to compensate for visuomotor delay and temporary occlusion. However, prediction is not well understood. To investigate, a series of studies was designed to characterize the role of predictive strategies in humans as they perform visually guided actions, and to guide the development of computational models that capture these strategies. During data collection, subjects were immersed in a virtual reality (VR) system and were tasked with using a paddle to intercept a virtual ball. To force subjects into a …

Fabrication Of Al:Hfo2 Gate Dielectric Mosfets, George Mcmurdy

Theses

Replacing the traditional SiO2 gate oxide in a MOSFET with ferroelectric HfO2 creates a 1T memory device referred to as a FeFET. The bi-stable polarization states cause a retained threshold voltage shift known as the memory window. Ferroelectric HfO2 offers a number of material and electrical advantages over perovskite based ferroelectrics such as PZT or SBT. Due to its use as a high-k dielectric, the ALD capability and etch characteristics of hafnium oxide are well documented. Ferroelectric HfO2 has been shown to be thermally stable up to 1000 C, making gate first FeFET processes feasible. Electrically, HfO2 is capable of …

The Legend Of Whales, Bingjie Xiao

Theses

The Legend of Whales is a 2D animated graduate thesis film. The entire film, including the credits, is 7 minutes 20 seconds long. The duration of the production went from September 2018 to May 2019.

This is a story about the cycle of destiny which takes place in an ancient Viking-inspired fishing village. The main character, Bion, is born with a special connection with the enemy of the village, a species of whale. One day he meets a beluga whale and is immediately drawn to the beautiful creature. After a friendly meeting, they build up a bonded relationship, even though …

Representing Mathematical Concepts Associated With Formulas Using Math Entity Cards, Abishai Dmello

Theses

We introduce Math Entity Cards, a modified version of existing Entity Cards specifically tailored for Math Information Retrieval. Math Entity Cards help connect formulas to titles and description and make the navigation between formulas and text related to formulas, seamless. These cards are populated from a new knowledge base, created by extracting and combining formulas, titles and descriptions from three different sources, Wikidata, Wiktionary & ProofWiki. We demonstrate a novel approach of using entity cards for auto-complete by integrating our cards into a Math-Aware Search Interface: MathSeer. This helps create a new ecosystem for consuming information during formula editing and …

Lvad Occlusion Condition Monitoring Using Boost Classification Trees, Steven Paul Reuter

Theses

Cardiac related diseases are a serious health risk for adults. Consequently, therapies exist to treat these aliments such as heart transplant and medication. Heart transplant remains the gold standard for treating severe heart failure, however left ventricular assistive devices, a cardiac blood pump, are become a viable long term treatment. Unfortunately, with the benefits of these devices come risks of clot formation. These occlusions can cause strokes, further cardiac damage, or even death. Therefore, it is critical that these occlusions be detected as early as possible. This work presents an expanded method to non-invasively monitor the condition of a Thoratec …

Kick Boxing Coaching System, Wentian Chen

Theses

There are three key considerations when training for kickboxing; correct body position, motivation, and how to achieve different training goals. Training gear available on the market does not provide enough relevant feedback to the user to validate the effectiveness of their training. I will design a coaching system for recreational and avid kick boxers that records user input while also providing an interactive experience that tracks training in a more meaningful way. This is a project focused on user experience and product testing. User Experience requires me to study the response of the human body when it is hit, and …

Community Participation In City Planning And Development: Towards Enhancing The Pedestrian Experience, Amro Anabtawi

Theses

This project is about developing a digital platform that facilitates collecting, processing, and utilizing input from community members to enhance the quality and experience of their own built environment based on their life pattern, preferences, or aspiration and in consideration of the urban requirements that are associated with their needs. As such, the platform is meant to enhance public participation in planning and urban development decisions and practices aiming to meet the needs of the community members. Focused on the pedestrian experience, the proposed platform is meant to complement the ordinary channels of communication between community members and city planning …

Rotor Current Control Design For Dfig-Based Wind Turbine Using Pi, Flc And Fuzzy Pi Controllers, Omar Al-Zabin

Theses

Due to the rising demand for electricity with increasing world population, maximizing renewable energy capture through efficient control systems is gaining attention in literature. Wind energy, in particular, is considered the world’s fastest-growing energy source it is one of the most efficient, reliable and affordable renewable energy sources. Subsequently, well-designed control systems are required to maximize the benefits, represented by power capture, of wind turbines.

In this thesis, a 2.0-MW Doubly-Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) wind turbine is presented along with new controllers designed to maximize the wind power capturer. The proposed designs mainly focus on controlling the DFIG rotor current …

App Review Analysis Via Active Learning: Reducing Supervision Effort Without Compromising Classification Accuracy, Venkatesh Thimma Dhinakaran

Theses

Automated app review analysis is an important avenue for extracting a variety of requirements-related information. Typically, a first step toward performing such analysis is preparing a training dataset, where developers(experts) identify a set of reviews and, manually, annotate them according to a given task. Having sufficiently large training data is important for both achieving a high prediction accuracy and avoiding over-fitting. Given millions of reviews, preparing a training set is laborious.We propose to incorporate active learning, a machine learning paradigm,in order to reduce the human effort involved in app review analysis. Our app review classification framework exploits three active learning …

Directional Notches As Microstructures To Promote Nucleation And Heat Transfer In Pool Boiling, Callum Mclaughlin

Theses

Heat generation in electronic hardware has become a major limiting factor in achieving maximum efficiency in modern computer parts. Classically forced flow convection systems are used to remove this heat at high rates but can be costly to implement and can take up space that may be needed for other critical components. In response to this, systems that use fewer parts scale in compact spaces are needed. In these situations, pool boiling as a heat transfer mechanism can excel. Pool boiling removes heat through the evaporation of fluid. On a flat surface pool boiling is chaotic and this random nature …

Tirs-2 And Future Thermal Instrument Band Study And Stray Light Study, Nicholas Bitten

Theses

Landsat thermal instruments have been a significant source of data for thermal remote sensing applications, and future Landsat missions will continue this tradition.

This work was designed to help inform the requirements for several parameters of future Landsat thermal instruments, and assess the impact that these parameters can have on the retrieved Land Surface Temperature (LST). Two main studies were conducted in this research. The first will investigate the impact that uncertainty in the spectral response of the bands will have on the LST product using the Split Window Algorithm. The main parameters that will be tested are the center …

Point Spread Function And Modulation Transfer Function Engineering, Jacob Wirth

Theses

A novel computational imaging approach to sensor protection based on point spread function (PSF) engineering is designed to suppress harmful laser irradiance without significant loss of image fidelity of a background scene. PSF engineering is accomplished by modifying a traditional imaging system with a lossless linear phase mask at the pupil which diffracts laser light over a large area of the imaging sensor. The approach provides the additional advantage of an instantaneous response time across a broad region of the electromagnetic spectrum. As the mask does not discriminate between the laser and desired scene, a post-processing image reconstruction step is …

Human Auditory Discrimination Of Bottlenose Dolphin Signature Whistles Masked By Noise: Investigating Perceptual Strategies For Anthropogenic Noise Pollution, Evan L. Morrison

Theses

Anthropogenic masking noise in the world’s oceans is known to impede many species’ ability to perceive acoustic signals, but little research has addressed how this noise pollution affects the detection of bioacoustic signals used for communication. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) use signature whistles which contain identification information. Past studies have shown that human participants can be used as models for dolphin hearing, but most previous research investigated echolocation. In Experiment 1, human participants were tested on their ability to auditorily discriminate among signature whistles from three dolphins. Participants’ performance was nearly errorless (M = 98.8%). In Experiment 2, participants identified …

The Influence Of A Growing Urban Tree Canopy On Municipalities And Urban Stormwater: A Cost Analysis, Lisa Rain

Theses

As many cities and local municipalities face the increasing problems associated with climate change, many are turning to trees to rebuild the natural environment and ecosystems within their urban cores. Many are choosing to increase their tree canopies in order to conserve energy, remove carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the air, provide habitat for animals, and much more. While urban tree canopies have countless benefits, and should be protected and expanded, they also have costs. These costs are often direct dollar values that fall onto the responsibility of the local municipalities. Costs include maintenance, debris cleanup, irrigation, infrastructure repair, …

Impact Of Education Policies On Stem Education For Deaf/Hard Of Hearing Students, Valerie Horn

Theses

The thesis is focused on STEM education and education policy for students who are deaf/hard of hearing. The research broadly examines the impacts of legislation such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on science education for deaf/hard of hearing students. Additionally, the thesis argues that the benefits of greater accessibility in STEM for deaf/hard of hearing students would be beneficial.

The findings considered STEM education in the deaf/hard of hearing community and how their perspectives and practices may improve science education. Deaf students’ personal experiences and available services in schools may spark …

A Performance Analysis Of The Meshed Tree Protocol And The Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol, Peter Willis

Theses

Loop avoidance is essential in switched networks to avoid broadcast storms. Logical Spanning Trees are constructed on the physical meshed topologies to overcome this issue and preserve the stability of the network. However, during topology changes as the result of a failure, frame forwarding latency or frame loss is introduced when re-converging and identifying new spanning tree paths. The Meshed Tree algorithm (MTA) offers a new approach. Meshed Trees support multiple tree branches from a single root to cut down on re-convergence latency on link failures. A Meshed Tree Protocol (MTP) based on MTA is currently under development as an …

3d Printing Support-Less Engineered Lattice Structures Via Jetting Of Molten Aluminum Droplets, Dinesh Krishna Kumar Jayabal

Theses

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) metal jetting is a novel additive manufacturing method where parts can be manufactured by precisely depositing molten metal droplets. This thesis work explores the possibility of using such a method to print engineered lattice structures without the aid of any support material. It was determined through experiments that by carefully controlling the droplet jetting frequency, the droplet step-over distance, and the stand-off distance between the print head and the substrate, pillars with varying angles to the substrate could be printed. Also presented is the parameter study which maps droplets jetting frequency, and droplet step-over distance with the angle …

Development Of A High Performance Resonant Photon-Pair Source In Silicon, Jeffrey A. Steidle

Theses

One of the key building blocks of quantum photonic systems is a source of indistinguishable photons. Silicon ring resonators can be used as photon pair sources by taking advantage of silicon's large third order nonlinearity with a process known as spontaneous four wave mixing. These sources are capable of producing pairs of indistinguishable photons but typically suffer from an effective 50% loss. By slightly decoupling the input waveguide from the ring, the desired photons generated in the ring can be directed to the drop port. Thus, the ratio between the coincidences from the drop port and the total number of …

Combining Hyperspectral Imaging And Small Unmanned Aerial Systems For Grapevine Moisture Stress Assessment, Rinaldo R. Izzo

Theses

It has been shown that mild water deficit in grapevine contributes to wine quality, in terms of especially grape and subsequent wine flavor. Water deficit irrigation and selective harvesting are implemented to optimize quality, but these approaches require rigorous measurement of vine water status. While traditional in-field physiological measurements have made operational implementation onerous, modern small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) have presented the unique opportunity for rigorous management across vast areas. This study sought to fuse hyperspectral remote sensing, sUAS, and sound multivariate analysis techniques for the purposes of assessing grapevine water status. High-spatial and -spectral resolution hyperspectral data were …

Water Quality And Algal Bloom Sensing From Multiple Imaging Platforms, Ryan Ford

Theses

Harmful cyanobacteria blooms have been increasing in frequency throughout the world resulting in a greater need for water quality monitoring. Traditional methods of monitoring water quality, such as point sampling, are often resource expensive and time consuming in comparison to remote sensing approaches, however the spatial resolution of established water remote sensing satellites is often too coarse (300 m) to resolve smaller inland waterbodies. The fine scale spatial resolution and improved radiometric sensitivity of Landsat satellites (30 m) can resolve these smaller waterbodies, enabling their capability for cyanobacteria bloom monitoring.

In this work, the utility of Landsat to retrieve concentrations …

Modeling Composite Cytoskeletal Networks Using Effective Medium Theory, Jacob Wales

Theses

The mechanical response of most living cells arises from their cytoskeleton, a polymeric scaffold made of different types of biopolymers and associated crosslinking proteins.

We used rigidity percolation theory to devise a set of models using an effective medium approach to study the mechanical properties of cytoskeleton-like networks. We first successfully recreated a model which obtains the mechanical response of a disordered network of a single filament type, given the constitutive material properties of individual filaments and the network geometry. In this model, wherever two filaments cross they are crosslinked together, and these crosslinkers allow for energy free rotation of …

Magnetoactive Elastomer Solenoid Development And Implementation In Underwater Jet Propulsion, Eric Damm

Theses

The objective of this research was to develop and implement an elastomer solenoid capable of generating underwater jet propulsion for soft robot actuation. This is significant in pushing forward the progress of soft robotics by proving the viability of a new soft actuation method in addition to proving the viability of using silicone and magnetic particles as the driving mechanism for a soft actuator.

The two primary aims were to effectively manufacture an elastomer solenoid core and to incorporate that core with a flexible diaphragm that actuates when a voltage is applied. This combination creates a pulse of water that …

The Characterization Of Earth Sediments Using Radiative Transfer Models From Directional Hyperspectral Reflectance, Rehman S. Eon

Theses

Remote sensing techniques are continuously being developed to extract physical information about the Earth’s surface. Over the years, space-borne and airborne sensors have been used for the characterization of surface sediments. Geophysical properties of a sediment surface such as its density, grain size, surface roughness, and moisture content can influence the angular dependence of spectral signatures, specifically the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF). Models based on radiative transfer equations can relate the angular dependence of the reflectance to these geophysical variables. Extraction of these parameters can provide a better understanding of the Earth’s surface, and play a vital role in …

Evaluation Of Pixel-Scale Tunable Fabry-Perot Filters For Optical Imaging, Daniel L. Edwards

Theses

The Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) is a well-developed and widely used tool to control and measure wavelengths of light. In optical imaging applications, there is often a need for systems with compact, integrated, and widely tunable spectral filtering capabilities. We evaluate the performance of a novel tunable MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System) Fabry-Perot (FP) filter device intended to be monolithically integrated over each pixel of a focal plane array. This array of individually tunable FPIs have been designed to operate across the visible light spec-trum from 400-750 nm. This design can give rise to a new line of compact spectrometers with fewer moving …

Tool For The Analysis Of Human Interaction With Two-Dimensional Printed Imagery, Anjali K. Jogeshwar

Theses

The study of human vision can include our interaction with objects. These studies include behavior modeling, understanding visual attention and motor guidance, and enhancing user experiences. But all these studies have one thing in common. To analyze the data in detail, researchers typically have to analyze video data frame by frame. Real world interaction data often comprises of data from both eye and hand. Analyzing such data frame by frame can get very tedious and time-consuming. A calibrated scene video from an eye-tracker captured at 120 Hz for 3 minutes has over 21,000 frames to be analyzed.

Automating the process …