Digital Commons Network^™

Development Of A Pzt Fiber Sensor Rosette For Structural Health Monitoring Using Lamb Wave Responses, Bao Chi Ha

Theses

Because of their electro-mechanical coupling property, Lead-Zirconate-Titanate (PZT) materials have been widely used for ultrasonic wave sensing and actuation in structural health monitoring applications. In this thesis, a PZT rosette sensor concept is proposed to conduct Lamb wave based damage detection in panel-like structures by exploring its best directional sensing capability. First, a directivity study was conducted to investigate sensing of flexural Lamb wave propagation using the d33 effect in a PZT fiber. Then, commercial off-the-shelf PZT fibers were polarized in-house in order to construct the PZT rosette in a rectangular configuration, in which three PZT fibers were oriented at …

Influences Of Operator Characteristics On Monitoring Behavior And Performance In A Supervisory Control Task, Jacob R. Davis

Theses

This study examined the influences of trust in automation and working memory capacity (WMC) on inattentional blindness (IB) in a supervisory control task. Participants completed 160 trials of a simulated X-ray screening task. Participants visually searched images of baggage for hazardous items and chose whether to clear or search the baggage. Participants were assisted by an 80% reliable automated aid. Participants’ performance was worse on unreliable recommendation trials, indicating participants were biased to agree with the automation. When participants (58.33%) chose to clear the trial which featured the IB stimulus (a bomb), it was interpreted as IB. Results indicated WMC …

Development Of A Composite Sustainability Index For Roadway Intersecttion Design Alternatives In The Uae, Maryam Juma Al-Kaabi

Theses

Many studies had been carried out to evaluate the sustainability of transportation systems, but little attention was given in these studies to the design of roadway intersections. The objective of this study was to define a framework to assess intersection sustainability from a road-user perspective and to develop a visual tool that helps decision-makers to support a more sustainable design of roadway intersections. Suitable sustainability indicators that would serve as elements in the built framework at the strategic and early planning level were extracted from the literature. The extracted indicators were utilized with relative weights to develop basic dimensional indices …

Magnetic Field Effects On Lithium Ion Batteries, Kevin Mahon

Theses

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019 was just recently awarded to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino for the development of lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries have seen use in many different industries and applications such as in portable devices, power grids, and electric vehicles. As lithium-ion batteries become more commonplace they will need to be modeled more extensively. The magnetic field effect on lithium-ion batteries has not been studied significantly since they were first discovered.

Modeling these batteries is still difficult because of the many complexities of the operation of a battery. Lithium-ion batteries are commonly modeled …

Impact Of Stirrer Speed And Media Type-Loading On The Breakage Kinetics During Wet Stirred Media Milling Of Griseofulvin, Nathaniel Parker

Theses

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of stirrer speed (2000-4000 rpm) and bead loading (~20-60%) on the breakage kinetics-energy consumption during milling of griseofulvin, a poorly soluble drug, and compare the performance of crosslinked polystyrene (CPS) beads with that of yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) beads. Laser diffraction, SEM, viscometry, and XRPD were used for characterization. A microhydrodynamic model was used to interpret the breakage kinetics. An increase in stirrer speed led to faster breakage due to more frequent and forceful CPS bead-bead collisions. Despite causing slight decrease in maximum contact pressure, an increase in CPS bead loading …

Micro Pipes – A Portable Integrated Platform For Electrochemical Sensing Using Essence Architecture, Hansin Kim

Theses

The field of microfluidics and lab-on-chip (LOC) technology has the potential to have a truly transformative effect in biological engineering. This includes areas such as single-cell analysis, environmental monitoring, regenerative medicine, and point-of-care diagnostics. Yet despite being the subject of intense research over the past two decades, LOC devices have not been widely adopted. It is increasingly evident that there is a need for an effective and adaptable integration strategy to realize the potential of this technology.

Presented in this thesis is a design for a chip-to-world interface that aims to improve integration while maintaining cost-efficiency and ease of fabrication. …

Dental Professionals Occupational Noise Exposure And Its Auditory And Non-Auditory Effects, Alexis Frees

Theses

The purpose of this study was to assess noise exposure and its auditory and non-auditory effects on workers in five clinical departments in the School of Dental Medicine at Rutgers Biomedical Health Sciences Campus in Newark, New Jersey. The study included environmental noise level measurement, dental instrument sound level measurement, personal noise dosimetry and a questionnaire survey to assess non-auditory effects. Octave band analysis of environmental noise levels showed that they are slightly above the standard noise criteria for clinics, and measurements from six dental instruments confirm that they contribute higher sound pressure levels at the frequencies of 1000, 2000, …

Exploration Of Variable Importance And Variable Selection Techniques In Presence Of Correlated Variables, Sailee Rumao

Theses

Variable selection is of utmost importance in aviation safety where the data contains a large number of highly correlated predictors and flight safety has to be accurately predicted. Variable selection methods were not encouraged in medical research where the subject-matter knowledge is limited. For this reason, Genell, Anna Nemes, Szilard Steineck, Gunnar Dickman, Paul W. (2010) conducted simulated study to compare Bayesian Model Averaging and stepwise regression to motivate medical researchers to conduct automatic variable selection on their regression models and encourage them to take advantage of it. In this era of data science and Machine Learning, we have extended …

Smartphone-Based Human Fatigue Detection In An Industrial Environment Using Gait Analysis, Swapnali Babasaheb Karvekar

Theses

Human fatigue due to repetitive and physically challenging jobs may result in poor performance and a Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorder (WMSD). Thus, the importance of being able to monitor fatigue to implement preventative interventions cannot be overstated. This study was designed to monitor fatigue through the development of a methodology that objectively classifies an individual’s level of fatigue in the workplace by utilizing the motion sensors embedded in smartphones. An experiment consisting of squatting tasks, primarily involving the lower extremity musculature, was conducted with 24 participants using a smartphone attached to their right shank. Using Borg’s Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) …

Low-Rank Multivariate General Linear Model With Relationship Between Brain Regions And Time Points, Ge Song

Theses

The human brain is hard to study and analysis, not because of the complexity of the brain structure, such as neurons and neurons connections, but also because of the complexity of the brain activities. Since in different scales, for example, different time series, different physical senses, the measurements of the human brain activities can be varied. Tring to measure the brain regions relationships in person, the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is one of the methods. The focus of this paper is on analyzing human brain regions relationships in different time domains and different scans of fMRI by using low-rank …

Testing And Modeling Of The Indirect Solar Drying Of Thin Film Mangos, Olivier Montmayeur

Theses

In Haiti, 80% of rural people live in dire poverty living on less than a dollar a day. Cultivated and wild grown foods such as mangos and breadfruit could be used to reduce the economic and nutritional disparity for rural communities. Unfortunately in these areas there is a high amount of spoilage due to short harvesting seasons with high yields and lack of preservation options. 80% of breadfruit and 60% of mangoes are lost annually according to a local farmer’s co-op in Borgne, Haiti [1]. Based on a 2018 three-week collaborative design session with Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and …

Object Detection In High Resolution Aerial Images And Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Images, Yilong Liang

Theses

With rapid developments in satellite and sensor technologies, there has been a dramatic increase in the availability of remotely sensed images. However, the exploration of these images still involves a tremendous amount of human interventions, which are tedious, time-consuming, and inefficient. To help imaging experts gain a complete understanding of the images and locate the objects of interest in a more accurate and efficient way, there is always an urgent need for developing automatic detection algorithms. In this work, we delve into the object detection problems in remote sensing applications, exploring the detection algorithms for both hyperspectral images (HSIs) and …

Vertical, Thermal, And Geographic Habitats Of Whale Sharks (Rhincodon Typus) Tagged Along Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, Rachel Steinberg

Theses

Though whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are the largest fish in the ocean there is little known about the species’ life history. Juvenile males are often observed at a number of locations world-wide but adult females, adult males, and neonates are rarely seen. Consequently, important issues like where whale sharks mate and give birth are unknown. Similarly, what geographic and vertical habitats whale sharks use to forage in are similarly poorly known. Seventeen juvenile whale sharks (10 female, 7 male) were outfitted with satellite tags off Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia between 2003 and 2009, and subsequently monitored for 1920 …

Multi-Objective Optimal Capacity And Placement Of Distributed Generators In The Power System Networks Using Atom Search Optimization Method, Ashwaq Faisal Alkhatib

Theses

Nowadays, renewable energy sources become a significant source of energy in the new millennium. The continuous penetration of dispersed resources of the reactive power into power systems is predicted to introduce new challenges. Power loss mitigation and voltage profile development are the major investigation challenges

that recently attracted the attention of researchers in the field of power systems. Distributed generation (DG) is widely preferred because it is a highly effective solution that strengthens the performance of power system networks. This multiobjective function study aims to minimise power losses in the feeders, sustain voltage levels and reduce the application cost of …

Machine Learning For Robust Understanding Of Scene Materials In Hyperspectral Images, Utsav B. Gewali

Theses

The major challenges in hyperspectral (HS) imaging and data analysis are expensive sensors, high dimensionality of the signal, limited ground truth, and spectral variability. This dissertation develops and analyzes machine learning based methods to address these problems. In the first part, we examine one of the most important HS data analysis tasks-vegetation parameter estimation. We present two Gaussian processes based approaches for improving the accuracy of vegetation parameter retrieval when ground truth is limited and/or spectral variability is high. The first is the adoption of covariance functions based on well-established metrics, such as, spectral angle and spectral correlation, which are …

Methods And Algorithms For Cardiovascular Hemodynamics With Applications To Noninvasive Monitoring Of Proximal Blood Pressure And Cardiac Output Using Pulse Transit Time, Yashar Seyed Vahedein

Theses

Advanced health monitoring and diagnostics technology are essential to reduce the unrivaled number of human fatalities due to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Traditionally, gold standard CVD diagnosis involves direct measurements of the aortic blood pressure (central BP) and flow by cardiac catheterization, which can lead to certain complications. Understanding the inner-workings of the cardiovascular system through patient-specific cardiovascular modeling can provide new means to CVD diagnosis and relating treatment. BP and flow waves propagate back and forth from heart to the peripheral sites, while carrying information about the properties of the arterial network. Their speed of propagation, magnitude and shape are …

On Unifying Declarative Memory, Thomas Ames

Theses

The distinction between episodic and semantic declarative memory systems, as introduced by Tulving (1972, updated in 1984, 1991), was a revolutionary approach to human memory. While the distinction is now widely endorsed in the study of memory, there are debates about what constitutes each system’s domain, how each system is used, how each system functions, and the phenomenal experiences associated with the functioning of each system. On the basis of clinical studies and insights from conditions affecting memory, this paper argues that the episodic/semantic distinction can be reframed as a result of a unified declarative memory system. In this view, …

Assessment Of Conventional Wastewater Treatment Plants In Removing Pharmaceutical Compounds: A Case Study Of Al Ain City, Uae, Ahmad Mohammad I Hassan Alhalab

Theses

This thesis is concerned with the assessment of conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in removing pharmaceutical compounds (PCs). PCs have classes like analgesics, antibiotics, antiseptics, hormones, cosmetic products, personal care products. They are used extensively by humans and they don’t have actual guidelines describing their concentration in domestic wastewater discharge. Thus, they may still be present in treated sewage effluent (TSE) or sludge and could consequently pose adverse environmental effects. Limited work has been done to assess the removal of PCs at WWTPs in arid and semi-arid countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As such, this study aimed at …

Home Energy Management System For Demand Response Purposes, Isra Adam Hussein Haroun

Theses

The growing demand for electricity has led to increasing efforts to generate and satisfy the rising demand. This led to suppliers attempting to reduce consumption with the help of the users. Requests to shift unnecessary loads off the peak hours, using other sources of generators to supply the grid while offering incentives to the users have made a significant effect. Furthermore, automated solutions were implemented with the help of Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) where the user can remotely manage household loads to reduce consumption or cost. Demand Response (DR) is the process of reducing power consumption in a response …

The Impact Of Biotic Characteristics Of Uae Coastal Area On Movements Of Socotra Cormorant, Nouf Sameer Abdullah Saeed Al Qadi

Theses

Monitoring Socotra Cormorant population and conducting research on their breeding biology and feeding habits are considered the top priorities for ensuring the long-term protection of their breeding colonies and feeding grounds. The research was conducted by using ArcMap Software (10.5) to map Socotra cormorant migratory movements in the Arabian Gulf Region during the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 breeding seasons.; and to determine environmental variables that affect migratory movements using a GIS approach, which helps to identify areas of conservation value. The study provided needed information on the current distribution of Socotra Cormorant along with the distribution of marine ecosystems (mangroves and …

Development Of Novel Peroxidase-Tio2/Zno Hybrid Catalysts For The Degradation Of Emerging Pollutants, Rana Fawzi Mohamed

Theses

Water pollution by different organic compounds is one of the most important environmental issues that is attracting the attention of many scientists due to its direct potential bad effect on human health. These organic pollutants include pesticides, pharmaceuticals, industrial wastes, and personal care products that are released in water bodies from domestic and industrial discharge. Various chemical, physical and biological approaches have been proposed to degrade these contaminants from the polluted water. In the present study, we immobilized versatile thermostable enzymes, Soybean peroxidase (SBP) and Horseradish peroxidase on functionalized photocatalysts—TiO₂ and ZnO to create novel bio-composite catalysts (SBP-TiO₂, SBP-ZnO, HRP-TiO₂, …

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 …

Contribution Of Contact Line Heat Transfer In An Evaporating Meniscus And Characteristics Of Microlayer In Contact Line Region Of An Oscillating Meniscus, Ishan Dabri

Theses

In nucleate pool boiling, a thin film is formed under the nucleating bubble in the region where the solid, liquid and vapor phases meet. This is called the three-phase contact line region. High rates of heat transfer have been observed in this region. Researchers have developed a pool boiling apparatus with laser interferometry and artificial nucleation sites to observe the changes in thickness, frequency, velocity and the dynamic contact angle of the microlayer. Similarly, multiple meniscus studies have been conducted to observe the characteristics of microlayer in pool boiling and various other applications such as ink jet printing, miniature heat …

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 …

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 …

Protein Inter-Residue Distance Prediction Using Residual And Capsule Networks, Andrew Dillon

Theses

The protein folding problem, also known as protein structure prediction, is the task of building three-dimensional protein models given their one-dimensional amino acid sequence. New methods that have been successfully used in the most recent CASP challenge have demonstrated that predicting a protein's inter-residue distances is key to solving this problem. Various deep learning algorithms including fully convolutional neural networks and residual networks have been developed to solve the distance prediction problem. In this work, we develop a hybrid method based on residual networks and capsule networks. We demonstrate that our method can predict distances more accurately than the algorithms …

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 …

Evaluation Of A New Approach For Qualitative Gas Analysis Based On Diffusion Properties, Abdalla Jamal Abunamous

Theses

The design and construction of a 6-channel parallel gas diffusion system and its application to evaluating the proposed novel approach for gas fingerprinting are described. The present gas diffusion system allows the simultaneous recording of the pressure accumulation of the permeating test gas behind six different gas permeable membranes, respectively. The obtained simultaneous diffusion rates through different membranes demonstrated clear potential as a new technique for qualitative gas identification of the ten test gases used in the present work. The test gases were helium, neon, argon hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, methane, ethane, propane, and ethylene, which are representative examples of …