Digital Commons Network^™

Dubai Taxi Demand Hotspots Prediction, Samer Kamal Abu Taleb

Theses

Public transportation mode like taxi service consider as an essential service in every city that can serve all gender, age, and level of people, used for to move at any time and everywhere inside or outside the city. with the new entrance of technology for transportation, the taxi industry is undergoing a rapid digital transition like many other fields, that include new inventory like Uber and Careem for taxi sharing used by smartphones. Most of the time, taxi vehicles' distribution is imbalanced due to passengers and taxi drivers' unorganized demand. The plan is always left to the driver to estimate …

Metarec: Meta-Learning Meets Recommendation Systems, James Le

Theses

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have recently received increasing attention as powerful modeling tools to improve the performance of recommendation systems. Meta-learning, on the other hand, is a paradigm that has re-surged in popularity within the broader machine learning community over the past several years. In this thesis, we will explore the intersection of these two domains and work on developing methods for integrating meta-learning to design more accurate and flexible recommendation systems.

In the present work, we propose a meta-learning framework for the design of collaborative filtering methods in recommendation systems, drawing from ideas, models, and solutions from modern approaches …

Secure Outsourced Computation On Encrypted Data, Asma Aloufi

Theses

Homomorphic encryption (HE) is a promising cryptographic technique that supports computations on encrypted data without requiring decryption first. This ability allows sensitive data, such as genomic, financial, or location data, to be outsourced for evaluation in a resourceful third-party such as the cloud without compromising data privacy. Basic homomorphic primitives support addition and multiplication on ciphertexts. These primitives can be utilized to represent essential computations, such as logic gates, which subsequently can support more complex functions. We propose the construction of efficient cryptographic protocols as building blocks (e.g., equality, comparison, and counting) that are commonly used in data analytics and …

Video-Based Iris Feature Extraction And Matching Using Deep Learning, Anisia Jabin

Theses

This research is initiated to enhance the video-based eye tracker’s performance to detect small eye movements.[1] Chaudhary and Pelz, 2019, created an excellent foundation on their motion tracking of iris features to detect small eye movements[1], where they successfully used the classical handcrafted feature extraction methods like Scale InvariantFeature Transform (SIFT) to match the features on iris image frames. They extracted features from the eye-tracking videos and then used patent [2] an approach of tracking the geometric median of the distribution. This patent [2] excludes outliers, and the velocity is approximated by scaling by the sampling rate. To detect the …

A Model-Free Control System Based On The Sliding Mode Control With Automatic Tuning Using As On-Line Parameter Estimation Approach, Md Sariful Islam

Theses

The sliding mode control algorithm and Lyapunov-based methods, have received much attention recently due to their ability to directly handle nonlinear systems while guaranteeing closed-loop tracking stability. In this work, a unique model-free sliding mode control technique has developed solely based on previous control inputs. The new method requires only knowledge of the system order and state measurements and does not require a theoretical model of the dynamic system. Lyapunov’s stability theorem is used in the controller formulation process to ensure closed-loop asymptotic stability. High frequency chattering of the control effort is reduced by using a smoothing boundary layer into …

Analyzing The Streamflow For Future Flooding And Risk Assessment Under Cmip6 Climate Projection, Indira Pokhrel

Theses

Hydrological extremes associated with climate change are becoming an increasing concern all over the world. Frequent flooding, one of the extremes, needs to be analyzed while considering climate change to mitigate flood risk. This study forecasted streamflow and evaluated the risk of flooding in the Neuse River, North Carolina considering future climatic scenarios, and comparing them with an existing Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood insurance study (FIS) report. The cumulative distribution function transformation (CDF-t) method was adopted for bias correction to reduce the uncertainty present in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) streamflow data. To calculate 100-year …

A Best Practices Guide For The Web Designer Utilizing Search Engine Optimization And Social Media Optimization, Kimberlie Ann Nash

Theses

Today, searching on the Internet is a common everyday occurrence, and behind the scenes, search engines go to work finding websites based on keywords. This project focuses on the different methods applied within Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) and how they can benefit a web designer. The purpose of this study is to identify the best practices for a web designer utilizing SEO and SMO. This research is a blend of qualitative and quantitative methods, with the primary focus as a customized survey questionnaire designed to extract a list of best practices from the various SEO …

Proof Of Existence And Uniqueness Of Simple Root Systems, Clarified, William Ian Holt

Theses

Humphreys (1990) defines a simple root system for a finite reflection group which is an important concept fundamental to the understanding of reflection groups as well as Coxeter complexes and Coxeter groups. The proof that Humphreys uses to establish the existence and uniqueness of these systems follows an indirect method that left portions of the proof as exercises to the reader. I present a more complete and direct proof using different organization and methods.

Rethinking Resource Allocation: Fairness And Computability, Andrew Searns

Theses

In the field of multiagent systems, one important problem is fairly allocating items among a set of agents. The gold standard fairness property is envy-freeness whereby each agent prefers the bundle allocated to them over any other bundle. For indivisible goods, envy-freeness cannot be guaranteed: consider two agents and one item. In the context of indivisible goods, one key fairness notion which has gained significant attention in recent years is the maximin share guarantee (MMS). MMS extends the cut-and-choose protocol to multiple agents by guaranteeing each agent as much value as if they divided items into bundles but chose last. …

Application Of Machine Learning Models: Stock Price Forecasting Of The Philippines' Top Six Conglomerates, Anthony Rey Llanos

Theses

The advent of digital age dramatically changed the way all aspects of commerce is conducted. From the largest multi-national conglomerates to the least small-and-medium enterprises and to the unassuming business-savvy individuals have adapted to take advantage of the benefits afforded by the resulting digital technology. Investing in, and profiting from, shares of stocks of companies listed in an organized stock exchange is one such instance. Gone are the days wherein stock investors and brokers are inseparable from their telephones to handle trades. Online platforms, powered by machine learning algorithms, have made investing in stocks not only accessible and convenient but …

Evaluating Appearance Differences Of Color 3d Printed Objects, Matt Ronnenberg

Theses

Color 3D printing is a relatively young technology with several exciting applications and challenges yet to be explored. One of those challenges is the effect that three dimensional surface geometries have on appearance. The appearance of 3D objects is complex and can be affected by the interaction between several visual appearance parameters such as color, gloss and surface texture. Since traditional printing is only 2D, several of these challenges have either been solved or never needed to be addressed. Complicating matters further, different color 3D printing technologies and materials come with their own inherent material appearance properties, necessitating the study …

Electrical Identification Of Innate Immune Cells, Rasha Ayman Nasser

Theses

This thesis is concerned with the electrical characterization of the key players of the innate immune cells. Innate immunity is basically the nonspecific immune response that is triggered by any foreign body that attacks the human system. The key players of the innate immune system are mainly dendritic cells and macrophages. Accurately classifying these cell types helps us understand the mechanism of the immune system thereby enabling the development of models to improve new prospects for therapeutics and diagnostics. The characterization described in this thesis is based on extracting the capacitance for each biological cell using I-V curves. The main …

Exploring The Instructional Emergent Writing Strategies Of The Emirati Kindergarteners: A Mixed Method Study, Warda Suliman Al Azri

Theses

This mixed-method study aimed at exploring the nature and the types of instructional emergent writing strategies applied by UAE kindergarten teachers in their classrooms. The study also fathomed the teachers’ views toward the practicality of the instructional emergent writing strategies and the challenges they encountered when teaching emergent writing using these strategies. The study used an exploratory sequential mixed method design. In the first phase of the study, a qualitative mean was used by carrying out semi-structured interviews with a purposive-selected sampling of kindergarten English teachers (n=5). The second phase of the study featured a collection of quantitative data using …

Establishing A Kpis And Initiatives Classifying Model Based On Performance Datasets For A Supply Chain Health System, Jamal Alshanableh

Theses

With the increasing demand for advanced analytics in health care, the digital health department at PwC needs to have an automated process for automating and quantifying the current state of the client on a performance management level in a more effective and quantitative manner in order to generate for the client a common type of deliverables which are usually (KPIs and initiatives). The following research was done and evolved for the purpose of providing a quantitative, smart and analytical solution for current state assessment phase of a project engagement, which is a commonly required phase in most of the management …

Backplane System Design Considerations For Micro Led Displays, Kush Benara

Theses

Display technologies have evolved from the bulky Cathode Ray Tube based displays to the latest lightweight and low power micro-Led (uLED) based flat panel displays. A display system consists of a device technology that either manipulates the incoming light or emits its own light and a controller circuit to control the behavior of these devices. This system makes up the backplane of a display technology. uLEDs due to their small size provide higher resolution and better contrast than all the previous display technologies like the LCDs and the OLEDs. Backplane system design considerations for a uLED flat panel display is …

Constraint Satisfaction Techniques For Combinatorial Problems, David E. Narvaez

Theses

The last two decades have seen extraordinary advances in tools and techniques for constraint satisfaction. These advances have in turn created great interest in their industrial applications. As a result, tools and techniques are often tailored to meet the needs of industrial applications out of the box. We claim that in the case of abstract combinatorial problems in discrete mathematics, the standard tools and techniques require special considerations in order to be applied effectively. The main objective of this thesis is to help researchers in discrete mathematics weave through the landscape of constraint satisfaction techniques in order to pick the …

New Methods For Deep Learning Based Real-Valued Inter-Residue Distance Prediction, Jacob Barger

Theses

Background: Much of the recent success in protein structure prediction has been a result of accurate protein contact prediction--a binary classification problem. Dozens of methods, built from various types of machine learning and deep learning algorithms, have been published over the last two decades for predicting contacts. Recently, many groups, including Google DeepMind, have demonstrated that reformulating the problem as a multi-class classification problem is a more promising direction to pursue. As an alternative approach, we recently proposed real-valued distance predictions, formulating the problem as a regression problem. The nuances of protein 3D structures make this formulation appropriate, allowing predictions …

Wait., Kayla Cantu

Theses

Wait explores concepts of discomfort and acceptance through the use of the human body, glass, and honey. The artwork and this thesis both use personal experience of physical insecurities and scholarly investigations into psychology related to unruly bodies. The work and research allude to the material qualities of glass such as its malleability, susceptibility, and softness to draw a parallel between the materials and the human identity. Parallels between glass and body create conversations investigating acceptance of identity and questions ideas about resistance of unruly bodies.

Estimation Of The Removal Of Chiral Pharmaceutical Drugs From Domestic Wastewater Using Uplc-Ms/Ms, Mohammed Khaled Al Tabaji

Theses

This thesis is concerned with the estimation of the removal of chiral pharmaceutical compounds (PCs) from domestic wastewater in Al Ain using UPLC-MS/MS. PCs are classified into many classes such as hormones, antibiotics, analgesics, cosmetic products, ꞵ blockers, and anti-inflammatory drugs. PCs do not have a guideline to describe their concentrations in treated domestic wastewater. Additionally, there is a very high demand for using PCs around the world, which results in their discharge to wastewater at relatively high masses, which could be harmful to the environment. Furthermore, very limited work has been done to estimate the removal of chiral PCs. …

Determination Of Vitamin D Metabolites And Their Epimers In Obese Emirati Population, Bashar Hiatham Alzohily

Theses

Vitamin D deficiency is a global issue, and despite all-year-round sunshine, it is a big problem in the UAE. Obesity or overweight refers to an accumulation of excessive fat that may harm health so, it is considered a worldwide health concern. The accurate measurement of vitamin D active forms is a problematic issue. This study aimed to develop and validate a UHPLC-MS/MS method for the new method for determining vitamin D levels in the obese Emirati population. The vitamin D epimers and other metabolites were determined by UHPLC-MS/MS system, model 8060. The methods include the collection of blood samples from …

Establishing Blockchain-Related Security Controls, Maitha Ali Al Ketbi

Theses

Blockchain technology is a secure and relatively new technology of distributed digital ledgers which is based on interlinked blocks of transactions. There is a rapid growth in the adoption of the blockchain technology in different solutions and applications and within different industries throughout the world, such as but not limited to, finance, supply chain, digital identity, energy, healthcare, real estate and government. Blockchain technology has great benefits such as decentralization, transparency, immutability and automation. Like any other emerging technology, the blockchain technology has also several risks and threats associated with its expected benefits which in turns could have a negative …

One-Pot O-Alkylation And C-C Cross-Coupling Reactions Involving Stabilized Phosphoranes, Areej Hashim Mohamed

Theses

This thesis is concerned with the one-pot reactions that are considered to be beneficial to preserve resources, save time, and are deemed a green chemistry strategy. To plan such one-pot reactions, it is important to combine two or more reactions that are compatible with each other and can be run under the same reaction conditions. In this work, possibilities of a combination of Wittig-olefination and Suzuki C-C-cross coupling reactions are explored further. Reaction sequences involve the combination of a Suzuki-reaction / Wittig olefination, a Suzuki reaction / Wittig olefination/hydrolysis, and a Suzuki-reaction / double Wittig olefination. In all cases, stabilized …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of Using Guided Reading Approach On Promoting Arab Eighth Graders’ English Reading Fluency, Rasha Moustafa Afandy

Theses

This study aimed at exploring the effect of the guided reading approach on promoting reading fluency skills for middle school students. An explanatory mixed-method design was employed to achieve the purpose of this study. The quantitative phase of the study featured a pre and post-test after the implementation of a guided reading program for six weeks. The qualitative phase of the study featured by a collection of documents of evaluations which were conducted biweekly during the implementation of the program. These evaluative checklists were used to measure the students’ progress in reading fluency skills. The participants of this study were …

Development Of Supramolecular Multicomponent Chromophores Towards Photoluminescence Switches, Rukayat Shola Bojesomo

Theses

A new fluorescent dye (4PBZC) comprises of coumarin (C), piperazine (P), and benzimidazole (BZ) was designed, prepared, and complexed to cucurbit[7]uril (CB7) to detect carnosol (CAR), an anti-breast cancer drug, in sub-nanomolar concentrations utilizing the supramolecular indicator displacement assay (IDA) strategy, the CB7-assisted pK_a shift and the CB7-retarded photoinduced electron transfer (PET) process. The host−guest complexation was confirmed by UV−visible absorption, fluorescence, and proton NMR spectroscopy, which confirm binding to 4PBZC via the BZ moiety. Also, CB7 preferentially binds the indicator dye via the protonated BZ residue compared to the neutral BZ one, demonstrated by a higher binding …

2d Audio Magnetotelluric (Amt) Data Inversion Of Al-Jaww Plain Area (Al-Ain, Uae) For Groundwater Aquifer Investigations, Ahmad Esam Saeed Alfashti Alaran

Theses

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is considered within the arid climate zone having low rates of annual rainfall. The freshwater is mainly located in shallow groundwater aquifers. Understanding the depth and extent of such aquifers is an important issue for UAE local governments and environmental agencies. Hydrogeological conditions in the UAE are strongly related to the topographic features and are dominated by a mountain range in Oman at the eastern margin of the Arabian Platform. The alluvial plains such as Al-Jaww plain (eastern Al-Ain city) is considered as an important potential source of groundwater for the Al-Ain region. Al-Jaww plain …

Mass Spectrometric Determination Of Retinol In Emirati Population, Israa Samir Mohamed Shawky El-Konaissi

Theses

This thesis is concerned with analyzing vitamin A deficiency. Vitamin A is crucial for several functions, including vision, growth, and cell differentiation. the main aim is to develop and validate an LC-MS/MS method for the determination of vitamin A in plasma matrix and use the new method for the determination of vitamin A levels in the obese Emirati population. Methods: A positive ion electrospray ionisation (ESI) LC-MS/MS method was used in the Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) mode for quantification. It involved i) LC-MS/MS, ii) a guard column together with C18 Ascentis Express F5 column iii) Internal standard, 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 (6, …

Synthesis, Characterization, Electronic Structure Of Biocl/Biobr/Rgo Ternary Heterojunction And Its Photocatalytic Activities, Salama Yousef Alismaail

Theses

Solar energy is free, most abundant among all renewable energy sources. Energy from the sun reaches the earth surface at a rate of 1.2 X 10⁵ TW by far, exceeding the current world energy consumption of 17 TW (1TW = 10¹² J/s). Accordingly, development of visible light driven photocatalysts is of considerable interest in clean and renewable energy, as well as in wastewater treatment.

In that context, BiOCl and BiOBr and three different mole ratio composites were prepared, characterized using UV-vis DRS, PXRD, BET, SEM, and EDX and their photocatalytic activity for the photoreduction of 4-NA was evaluated. …

Techno-Economic Optimization Of Food Waste Diversion To Treatment Facilities To Determine Cost Effectiveness Of Policy Incentives, Kanwal Shahid

Theses

New York state recently passed a food waste (FW) disposal ban, which will prohibit land-filling of FW produced by commercial entities generating more than 2 tons/week by the year 2022. This will redirect 370,000 tons/year of FW from landfills. In this work, we investigate three questions about the landfill ban: 1) How can this waste be diverted to treatment facilities at lowest system cost? 2) To what degree can an expanded anaerobic digestion portfolio help with the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standards? 3) What policies can help with the transition of waste-to-energy technologies? We develop a mixed-integer linear programming model that …

The Role Of Sonification As A Code Navigation Aid: Improving Programming Structure Readability And Understandability For Non-Visual Users, Khaled L. Albusays

Theses

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) play an important role in the workflow of many software developers, e.g. providing syntactic highlighting or other navigation aids to support the creation of lengthy codebases. Unfortunately, such complex visual information is difficult to convey with current screen-reader technologies, thereby creating barriers for programmers who are blind, who are nevertheless using IDEs.

This dissertation is focused on utilizing audio-based techniques to assist non-visual programmers when navigating through large amounts of code. Recently, audio generation techniques have seen major improvements in their capabilities to covey visually-based information to both sighted and non-visual users – making them a …

On Learning And Generalization To Solve Inverse Problem Of Electrophysiological Imaging, Sandesh Ghimire

Theses

In this dissertation, we are interested in solving a linear inverse problem: inverse electrophysiological (EP) imaging, where our objective is to computationally reconstruct personalized cardiac electrical signals based on body surface electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. EP imaging has shown promise in the diagnosis and treatment planning of cardiac dysfunctions such as atrial flutter, atrial fibrillation, ischemia, infarction and ventricular arrhythmia.

Towards this goal, we frame it as a problem of learning a function from the domain of measurements to signals. Depending upon the assumptions, we present two classes of solutions: 1) Bayesian inference in a probabilistic graphical model, 2) Learning from …