Digital Commons Network^™

Three-Dimensional Image Processing Of Identifying Toner Particle Centroids, Di Bai

Theses

Powder-based 3D printed products are composed of fine particles. The structure formed by the particles in the powder is expected to affect the performance of the final products constructed from them (Finney, 1970; Dinsmore, 2001; Chang, 2015; Patil, 2015). A prior study done by Patil (2015) demonstrated a method for determining the centroids and radii of spherical particles and consequently reconstructed the structure formed by the particles. Patil’s method used a Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope to capture a stack of cross-sections of fluorescent toner particles and Matlab image analysis tools to determine the particle centroid positions and radii. Patil identified …

Pase : Parallel Speedup Estimation Framework For Network-On-Chip Based Multi-Core Systems, Ghassan Bachay Dharb

Theses

The massive integration of cores in multi-core system has enabled chip designer to design systems while meeting the power-performance demands of the applications. However, full-system simulations traditionally used to evaluate the speedup with these systems are computationally expensive and time consuming. On the other hand, analytical speedup models such as Amdahl’s law are powerful and fast ways to calculate the achievable speedup of these systems. However, Amdahl’s Law disregards the communication among the cores that play a vital role in defining the achievable speedup with the multi-core systems. To bridge this gap, in this work, we present PaSE a parallel …

Scientific Imaging Of Cultural Heritage For Computer Graphics Rendering, Brittany D. Cox

Theses

Viewing paintings and drawings is a dynamic experience where observers can move about the object discerning surface structure such as brushwork and gloss in addition to color and composition. Conventional studio photography reduces the experience to a single viewpoint where the photographer uses experiential learning and aesthetic judgments. This dissertation had several research goals: improving the quality of estimated surface normal maps using only four studio strobe lights, evaluating the viability of a virtual viewing experience using computer graphics rendering software, understanding how gloss and texture are perceived through psychophysical experiments, and using this understanding to inform image rendering using …

Manner Of Death And Willingness To Nullify In A Euthanasia Case, Daniel Bell

Theses

Jurors are subject to many biases that hinder their ability to make objective decisions and nullification may occur when the jury believes the law is unfair or immoral. In a case involving euthanasia, a defendant may not be viewed as having committed a crime if it was done out of mercy and a jury may be more likely to choose to nullify as a result. However, nullification can encourage jurors to make decisions based on their attitudes and subjective interpretations of events. One unexplored potential influence on euthanasia attitudes and the decision to nullify may be the manner of death. …

Efficient Error Detection Architectures For Low-Energy Block Ciphers With The Case Study Of Midori Benchmarked On Fpga, Anita Aghaie

Theses

Achieving secure, high performance implementations for constrained applications such as implantable and wearable medical devices is a priority in efficient block ciphers. However, security of these algorithms is not guaranteed in presence of malicious and natural faults. Recently, a new lightweight block cipher, Midori, has been proposed which optimizes the energy consumption besides having low latency and hardware complexity. This algorithm is proposed in two energy-efficient varients, i.e., Midori64 and Midori128, with block sizes equal to 64 and 128 bits. In this thesis, fault diagnosis schemes for variants of Midori are proposed. To the best of the our knowledge, there …

Application Of Audible Signals In Tool Condition Monitoring Using Machine Learning Techniques, Achyuth Kothuru

Theses

Machining is always accompanied by many difficulties like tool wear, tool breakage, improper machining conditions, non-uniform workpiece properties and some other irregularities, which are some of major barriers to highly-automated operations. Effective tool condition monitoring (TCM) system provides a best solution to monitor those irregular machining processes and suggest operators to take appropriate actions. Even though a wide variety of monitoring techniques have been developed for the online detection of tool condition, it remains an unsolved problem to look for a reliable, simple and cheap solution. This research work mainly focuses on developing a real-time tool condition monitoring model to …

Rational Drug Design Directed At Blocking The Initial Signaling Events In Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Sepsis., Christopher A. Tipton

Theses

Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) is classified as an immune system response to an infectious state. If left untreated, SIRS leads to sepsis, septic shock, end-organ dysfunction, and death. As a patient progresses through these stages, associations of acute respiratory distress, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and acute renal failure persist, resulting in millions of deaths annually. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a bacterial endotoxin, is released into the blood stream, triggering SIRS. LPS is found in the outer cell-wall of Gram-negative bacteria and is responsible for initiation of a devastating cytokine storm. One of the regions of LPS, lipid A, is a polyacylated glucosamine …

Effect Of Aggregation On Squaraine Fullerene Bulk-Heterojunction Organic Photovoltaic Devices, Ishita Jalan

Theses

Organic photovoltaics (OPV) offer great promise as a low-cost renewable energy source, the relative low efficiency still challenges its commercialization potential. Small conjugated molecules like Squaraine (SQ) molecules show promising advancement in organic photovoltaics (OPV). Advantages of SQ over other materials is that it has a high extinction coefficient (>10^5), decent photo-stability, good synthetic reproducibility, and tunable molecular structure. With small chemical modifications, the squaraines can have substantial impact on photophysical properties and aggregation pattern, and thus on operational OPV efficiency. The squaraine molecule that will be studied in this work is a symmetric aniline-based squaraine with n-hexyl chain …

Minimization Of Energy Costs Considering Demand Charge Under Time Of Use And Real Time Pricing Policies, Jose Carlos Batista Abikarram

Theses

Industries are aware of the costs of high electricity consumption and its impact on the environment. Therefore, significant focus is given on how to reduce the consumption of electricity to lower both the carbon footprint and the cost of electricity. There are two ways of reducing manufacturing electricity costs. One consists of reducing the total demand by having more efficient machines, and the other focuses on minimizing costs in response to pricing structures set by energy companies. These pricing structures change depending on several factors including geographic location. In parts of the United States these structures consist of both a …

Comparing Economic, Environmental, And Social Effects Of Central Air Conditioner Size And Thermostat Schedule Interactions, Briana Elizabeth Amoroso

Theses

Selecting the capacity of a central air conditioning (AC) system is based on a long list of structural factors within a home, but is normally chosen without considering effects on stakeholders outside of the home. Energy use by residential air conditioners is relevant to consumers as an expense, but also to utilities as a contributor to peak demand and to society by the resultant carbon dioxide and other emissions. In this article, we investigate how size and operational patterns of central residential air conditioners interact with stakeholder benefits and costs. The case study analyzes energy use for systems sized from …

Production Quality For Process Capability With Multiple Characteristics On The Chip Resistor Production, Sujeong Seo

Theses

There are many journal papers about process capability indices with multiple characteristics in certain manufacturing assemblies including Cp, Cpk, Cpu, and Cpl. However, all of them assume the data is normal distribution and there is no product level process capability with an example chip resistor. This paper will discuss the affection of sample mean and standard deviations on process capability indices for multiple quality characteristics and its product assembly instead of assuming as normal distributions with the data from simulation. Furthermore, it will present several methodologies to calculate the product process capability with weighted arithmetic mean technique so that we …

Symbolic And Visual Retrieval Of Mathematical Notation Using Formula Graph Symbol Pair Matching And Structural Alignment, Kenny Davila Castellanos

Theses

Large data collections containing millions of math formulae in different formats are available on-line. Retrieving math expressions from these collections is challenging. We propose a framework for retrieval of mathematical notation using symbol pairs extracted from visual and semantic representations of mathematical expressions on the symbolic domain for retrieval of text documents. We further adapt our model for retrieval of mathematical notation on images and lecture videos. Graph-based representations are used on each modality to describe math formulas. For symbolic formula retrieval, where the structure is known, we use symbol layout trees and operator trees. For image-based formula retrieval, since …

Bayesian Analysis For Photolithographic Models, Andrew M. Burbine

Theses

The use of optical proximity correction (OPC) as a resolution enhancement technique (RET) in microelectronic photolithographic manufacturing demands increasingly accurate models of the systems in use. Model building and inference techniques in the data science community have seen great strides in the past two decades in the field of Bayesian statistics. This work aims to demonstrate the predictive power of using Bayesian analysis as a method for parameter selection in lithographic models by probabilistically considering the uncertainty in physical model parameters and the wafer data used to calibrate them. We will consider the error between simulated and measured critical dimensions …

Smart Grid Privacy Through Distributed Trust, Benjamin Lipton

Theses

Though the smart electrical grid promises many advantages in efficiency and reliability, the risks to consumer privacy have impeded its deployment. Researchers have proposed protecting privacy by aggregating user data before it reaches the utility, using techniques of homomorphic encryption to prevent exposure of unaggregated values. However, such schemes generally require users to trust in the correct operation of a single aggregation server. We propose two alternative systems based on secret sharing techniques that distribute this trust among multiple service providers, protecting user privacy against a misbehaving server. We also provide an extensive evaluation of the systems considered, comparing their …

Election-Attack Complexity For More Natural Models, Zack Fitzsimmons

Theses

Elections are arguably the best way that a group of agents with preferences over a set of choices can reach a decision. This can include political domains, as well as multiagent systems in artificial-intelligence settings. It is well-known that every reasonable election system is manipulable, but determining whether such a manipulation exists may be computationally infeasible. We build on an exciting line of research that considers the complexity of election-attack problems, which include voters misrepresenting their preferences (manipulation) and attacks on the structure of the election itself (control). We must properly model such attacks and the preferences of the electorate …

Towards Automated Analysis Of Urban Infrastructure After Natural Disasters Using Remote Sensing, Colin Axel

Theses

Natural disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes, are an unpreventable component of the complex and changing environment we live in. Continued research and advancement in disaster mitigation through prediction of and preparation for impacts have undoubtedly saved many lives and prevented significant amounts of damage, but it is inevitable that some events will cause destruction and loss of life due to their sheer magnitude and proximity to built-up areas. Consequently, development of effective and efficient disaster response methodologies is a research topic of great interest.

A successful emergency response is dependent on a comprehensive understanding of the scenario at hand. …

Optimizing The Operation Of Bulk Energy Storage Devices To Find The Trade-Offs Between Revenue And Co2 Emissions., Laura M. Arciniegas

Theses

The purpose of this research is to encourage policy makers to craft policies that support environmentally sound design practices while integrating bulk energy storage into the electricity grid. Bulk energy storage technology can regulate electricity coming into the grid from different energy sources. Grid flexibility is a powerful tool to empower the clean energy movement because it enables the integration of renewable energy into the electrical grid. However, storage technology has the potential to become another one of the many “tragedy of commons”, considering that there are no regulations forcing storage companies to pursue environmental-friendly operation. Bulk energy storage devices …

Pipelined Implementation Of A Fixed-Point Square Root Core Using Non-Restoring And Restoring Algorithm, Vyoma Sharma

Theses

Arithmetic Square Root is one of the most complex but nevertheless widely used operations in modern computing. A primary reason for the complexity is the irrational nature of the square root for non-perfect numbers and the iterative behavior required for square root computation. A typical RISC implementation of Square Root Computation can take anywhere from 200 - 300 cycles. If significant usage is encountered, this could result in an impact in run-time cost which would justify a direct hardware implementation that achieves the same result in as little as 20 clock cycles. Additionally, the implementation is pipelined to achieve even …

Sensor Fusion And Deep Learning For Indoor Agent Localization, Jacob F. Lauzon

Theses

Autonomous, self-navigating agents have been rising in popularity due to a push for a more technologically aided future. From cars to vacuum cleaners, the applications of self-navigating agents are vast and span many different fields and aspects of life. As the demand for these autonomous robotic agents has been increasing, so has the demand for innovative features, robust behavior, and lower cost hardware. One particular area with a constant demand for improvement is localization, or an agent's ability to determine where it is located within its environment. Whether the agent's environment is primarily indoor or outdoor, dense or sparse, static …

Experimental Study Of Bubble Rupture During Shock-Fluid Interaction, Subhalakshmi Chandrasekaran

Theses

Head injuries are associated with exposure to high energy explosive detonation. There are four distinct types of blast induced neurotrauma (BINT): 1) these caused by supersonic shock waves propagating in the atmosphere (primary), 2) high velocity impact of shrapnel and debris (secondary) 3) acceleration and deceleration of the body and collision with the solid objects in the field (tertiary) and 4) exposure to high temperature and toxic gases (quaternary). One of the mechanisms implicated in non-impact primary blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) is cavitation. It is hypothesized that cavitation can occur in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) layer, brain interstitial fluid, …

Multi-Population-Based Differential Evolution Algorithm For Optimization Problems, Ishani Chatterjee

Theses

A differential evolution (DE) algorithm is an evolutionary algorithm for optimization problems over a continuous domain. To solve high dimensional global optimization problems, this work investigates the performance of differential evolution algorithms under a multi-population strategy. The original DE algorithm generates an initial set of suitable solutions. The multi-population strategy divides the set into several subsets. These subsets evolve independently and connect with each other according to the DE algorithm. This helps in preserving the diversity of the initial set. Furthermore, a comparison of combination of different mutation techniques on several optimization algorithms is studied to verify their performance. Finally, …

Iii-Nitride Nanowire Light-Emitting Diodes: Design And Characterization, Dipayan Datta Choudhary

Theses

III-nitride semiconductors have been intensively studied for optoelectronic devices, due to the superb advantages offered by this materials system. The direct energy bandgap III-nitride semiconductors can absorb or emit light efficiently over a broad spectrum, ranging from 0.65 eV (InN) to 6.4 eV (AlN), which encompasses from deep ultraviolet to near infrared spectrum. However, due to the lack of native substrates, conventional III-nitride planar heterostructures generally exhibit very high dislocation densities that severely limit the device performance and reliability. On the other hand, nanowire heterostructures can be grown on lattice mismatched substrates with drastically reduced dislocation densities, due to highly …

Undersampling Ga-Svm For Network Intrusion Detection, Zhenyu He

Theses

Network intrusion detection is one of the hottest issues in the world. An increasing number of researchers and engineers deal with this problem by using machine learning methods. However, how to improve the identification accuracy of all the attack classes remains unsolved since the dataset is an imbalanced one with high imbalance ratio. This thesis work intends to build a classifier to achieve high classification accuracy. It proposes an undersampling Genetic Algorithm-Support Vector Machine (GA-SVM) method to handle this problem. It applies an undersampling method in GA-SVM. To solve the multiclassification problem with a binary classifier, this work proposes to …

Field Oriented Control Of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor With Third-Harmonic Injection Pulse Width Modulation To Reduce Quadrotors’ Speed Ripples, Yuxi Shi

Theses

The world’s commercial unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry has witnessed unprecedented boom in recent years. Delighted with an ample supply of this excellent high-tech product, global consumers are paying more attention on UAVs. Civilian UAVs now vastly outnumber military ones, with the estimate of over a million sold by 2016. An UAV has various degrees of autonomy as enabled by the use and precise control of motors. Traditional Direct Current (DC) motors are replaced by permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) associated with the new power electronic inverters. Because of a PMSM’s higher power density than a DC motor, it reduces …

A Fuzzy Logic-Based Text Classification Method For Social Media, Keyuan Wu

Theses

Social media offer abundant information for studying people’s behaviors, emotions and opinions during the evolution of various rare events such as natural disasters. It is useful to analyze the correlation between social media and human-affected events. This study uses Hurricane Sandy 2012 related Twitter text data to conduct information extraction and text classification. Considering that the original data contains different topics, we need to find the data related to Hurricane Sandy. A fuzzy logic-based approach is introduced to solve the problem of text classification. Inputs used in the proposed fuzzy logic-based model are multiple useful features extracted from each Twitter’s …

Applying Multi-Resolution Stochastic Modeling To Individual Tennis Points, Calvin Michael Floyd

Theses

Individual tennis points evolve over time and space, as each of the two opposing players are constantly reacting and positioning themselves in response to strikes of the ball. However, these reactions are diminished into simple tally statistics such as the amount of winners or unforced errors a player has. In this thesis, a new way is proposed to evaluate how an individual tennis point is evolving, by measuring how much a player can expect each shot to contribute to a won point, given who struck the shot and where both players are located. This measurement, named ``Expected Shot Win Rate" …

The Effect Of Watershed Runoff And Sediment Resuspension On Turbidity And Sediment Deposition In St. John, Us Virgin Islands: Implications For Watershed And Marine Development And Restoration In Bays With Coral Reefs, Stephen E. Campbell

Theses

In the US Virgin Islands (USVI), land-based (terrigenous) sedimentation has been identified as a major cause of coral stress. Development, such as the building of unpaved roads in steep coastal watersheds, has increased sediment yields and marine terrigenous sedimentation by up to an order of magnitude above background levels. When activated during storm events, ephemeral streams transport sediment from the watershed to coastal waters. Once deposited on the seafloor, resuspension of benthic sediments can further increase turbidity and deposition. However, isolating the relative contributions of runoff and resuspension to turbidity and deposition using conventional sediment trap monitoring has been challenging. …

High-Dimensional Linear And Functional Analysis Of Multivariate Grapevine Data, Uday Kant Jha

Theses

Variable selection plays a major role in multivariate high-dimensional statistical modeling. Hence, we need to select a consistent model, which avoids overfitting in prediction, enhances model interpretability and identifies relevant variables. We explore various continuous, nearly unbiased, sparse and accurate technique of linear model using coefficients paths like penalized maximum likelihood and nonconvex penalties, and iterative Sure Independence Screening (SIS). The convex penalized (pseudo-) likelihood approach based on the elastic net uses a mixture of the ℓ1 (Lasso) and ℓ2 (ridge regression) simultaneously achieve automatic variable selection, continuous shrinkage, and selection of the groups of correlated variables. Variable selection using …

Assembly Language, Joe S. Lee

Theses

“Assembly Language” is a culmination of an exploration, through the medium of ceramics, in understanding complexity that arises through the interactions between simple components.

In the realm of computer science, the term “Assembly Language” refers to a low-level programming language for any programmable digital device. It is typically just one step above writing in the raw ones and zeros of binary. Every program at some point needs to be translated into assembly language so that it can be understood by the device, and every program that has ever been written for a digital device is essentially composed of a series …

The Modernized Keyboard: Improving The Musician’S Experience Through User-Centered Design, Andrew James Magee

Theses

In 2016, a major part of being a gigging musician is traveling with your instrument.

For musicians with smaller instruments, such as the harmonica, traveling is no problem. Simply place it in your pocket and you are good to go anywhere with musical creation at your fingertips.

Medium-sized instruments, like the guitar, are somewhat of a hassle to travel with due to their size, but are also typically lightweight, so the traveling still somewhat tolerable.

But for musicians with large and heavy instruments, such as drums or a digital keyboard, traveling can be a nightmare. 

My thesis explores the full …