Digital Commons Network^™

Analysis And Computation Of A Quadratic Matrix Polynomial With Schur-Products And Applications To The Barboy-Tenne Model, Carrie Lahnovych

Theses

Quadratic matrix polynomials of the form Y^2 +τ ◦Y = B +τ ◦C , where Y , τ , B, and C are real, symmetric 3x3 matrices and the dot ◦ denotes the Schur product, arise in the Barboy-Tenne equations of statistical mechanics [1]. In this paper we discuss the number of solutions for Y , and devise and implement algorithms solving equations of this form. We will focus our attention on solving the equations in two specific cases and discuss the existence of a solution in the general case.

Design, Development And Simulation Of Sub-Lithographic Process For Patterning Nm Scale Features, Guriqbal Singh Josan

Theses

The ability to create sub-lithographic nm-scale features without the need of high-end lithography tools will create new opportunities for the electronics industry. Most current technologies are lithography dependent and inherit associated CD variations. The mainstay of this work is mathematical modeling, simulation and verification of a revolutionary void transfer process for patterning nm scale features originally introduced by Breitwisch et al. at IBM. The technique studied involves intentional creation of voids using a conformal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) followed by controlled etch-back to form nanoscale pores. This method provides features that are independent of lithographically defined parent holes and exhibit …

An Analysis Of The Motto Adduced By Wittgenstein For The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Thomas Patrick Knoten

Theses

ABSTRACT Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus has this motto: “…and whatever a man knows, whatever is not mere rumbling and roaring that he has heard, can be said in three words.” There is a ‘tension’ in the Tractatus between whether or not ethics may be known. I contend that the motto helps resolve this tension and that therein lies its importance. I address, inter alia, the origin of this motto, some philosophical influences on Wittgenstein, the phenomena/noumena distinction and Wittgenstein’s distinction between ‘sense’ and ‘nonsense’. I, then, treat Wittgenstein’s say/show distinction and how the Tractatus beckons not to the poverty of silence …

Scalability Study For Robotic Hand Platform, Melissa Monahan

Theses

The goal of this thesis project was to determine the lower limit of scale for the RIT robotic grasping hand. This was accomplished using a combination of computer simulation and experimental studies. A force analysis was conducted to determine the size of air muscles required to achieve appropriate contact forces at a smaller scale. Input variables, such as the actuation force and tendon return force, were determined experimentally. A dynamic computer model of the hand system was then created using Recurdyn. This was used to predict the contact (grasping) force of the fingers at full-scale, half-scale, and quarter-scale. Correlation between …

Providing Flow Parameters For Approximate Die Design Models And The Improvement And Verification Of Those Models Using Cfd Analysis, Mark Livelli

Theses

The role of a coating die is to distribute a uniform, two dimensional liquid film over a solid surface, often formed as an intermediate step in the manufacturing process of polymeric sheet products. The goal of coating die design is to deliver, with a single die, the largest range of fluid rheologies and flow conditions to within specified uniformity limits. Demanding applications require the film thickness nonuniformity to be as little as one percent across the entire coating surface for acceptable quality of the final product, necessitating optimized design as well as precision manufacturing. There are two principal techniques used …

Robust Control Strategies For Hybrid Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Systems, Tahar Allag

Theses

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) systems are electrochemical energy conversion devices characterized by the use of solid oxide as the electrolyte. They operate at high temperatures (between 800± ¡ 1000±C). Mitigating fuel starvation and improving load-following capability of SOFCs are conflicting control objectives. In this thesis, this issue is addressed using a hybrid SOFC ultra-capacitor configuration. The fuel cell is controlled by incorporating a steady-state property of fuel utilization into an input-shaping framework. Two comprehensive control strategies are developed. The first is a Lyapunov-based nonlinear control and the second is a standard H-infinity robust control. Both strategies additionally control the …

Topological & Network Theoretic Approaches In Hyperspectral Remote Sensing, Ryan H. Lewis

Theses

Hyperspectral remote sensing is a valuable new technology that has numerous com- mercial and scientific applications. For example, it has been used to study crop health, mineral and soil composition, and pollution levels. Hyperspectral imaging also has im- portant military and intelligence applications such as the identification of man-made materials, and detection of chemical and biological plumes. The key mathematical challenges of hyperspectral imaging include image classification, anomaly detection, and target detection. Image classification is the process of grouping pixels into spec- trally similar clusters. This thesis describes a new topological and network-theoretic approach for classifying pixels in hyperspectral image …

Impact Of Image Personalization On Response Rate Of Direct Mail Advertising, Dandan Wang

Theses

With widespread adoption of full-color digital presses in the commercial printing industry, personalization has been enabled to create one-to-one marketing communication to enhance the effectiveness of print media advertising. Prior researches showed an increase in response rates with data-driven personalized direct mailings. However, the impact of image personalization on response rate of direct mail advertising is still unknown. This research used an experimental design to test the impact of image personalization on response rate of direct mail advertising. A direct mail postcard campaign was created with three levels of personalization (black-and-white name-only personalization, full-color name-only personalization, full-color name and image …

Spectrally Accurate Initial Data In Numerical Relativity, Nicholas Battista

Theses

Einstein's theory of general relativity has radically altered the way in which we perceive the universe. His breakthrough was to realize that the fabric of space is deformable in the presence of mass, and that space and time are linked into a continuum. Much evidence has been gathered in support of general relativity over the decades. Some of the indirect evidence for GR includes the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, the anomalous perihelion of mercury, and the gravitational redshift. One of the most striking predictions of GR, that has not yet been confirmed, is the existence of gravitational waves. The primary …

The Culling, Nikolos Sardos

Theses

The Culling is an animated, short film graduate thesis. It explores ideas of perception by examining an anthropomorphic tribal group of lobsters that live in the fish tank of a New England seafood restaurant. The story is told through the experiences of a new comer to this lobster tribe. It focuses on his reactions to the odd traditions and beliefs of his peers in this new and strange place. The film is a 2D animation that has been produced digitally using various video, audio and animation software. The goal of this paper is to outline the production of this thesis …

The Imagined Collection, A Story, Nancy Knapik

Theses

Music was the creative inspiration that provided the underlying rhythm to this body of work. It was guided by the concept of ethereal sound materializing into tangible found objects whose attributes included the ability to visually invoke the fleeting emotional memories of the listening experience. This written thesis serves to discuss the philosophies and aesthetic choices these conceptual themes prompted while making the work. It includes an artistic exploration of the fascinating nature of collection and the association between art and memory. The oral defense of the work brought to light the need to address the distinction between the maker …

Demonstrating Landsat's New Potential To Monitor Coastal And Inland Waters, Aaron Gerace

Theses

The Operational Land Imager (OLI) is a new Landsat sensor being developed by the joint USGS-NASA Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) that exhibits the potential to be a state-of-the-art instrument for studying inland and coastal waters. With upgrades such as a new Coastal Aerosol band, 12 bit quantization, and improved signal-to-noise, OLI will be spectrally and radiometrically superior to its predecessors. When considering Landsat's already high 30 meter spatial resolution, coupled with the fact that its data is free to the community, the OLI sensor may prove to be more valuable than any other environmental imaging satellite to date. The …

Oxidized Porous Silicon For Localized Formation Of Soi Active Regions, Bharat Veeramachaneni

Theses

The oxidation of electrochemically etched porous silicon (Si) has demonstrated success in the formation of device quality Localized Silicon on Insulator (L-SOI) for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) applications [1, 2]. A primary advantage of L-SOI formation is the ability to integrate novel device structures and optoelectronics (i.e. optical switches, waveguides) with bulk silicon CMOS. The formation of porous Si can be selective by controlling the Fermi level in areas to be etched or not etched, which is typically done by adjusting the level of doping [1]. An alternative method is to introduce a reversible donor species such as protons …

Print Media Paper Consumption Patterns Through A System Dynamics Approach, Alicia Tejada Abreu

Theses

As awareness of the current unsustainable state of our society increases, it has become evident that immediate action is needed to change this state. Many of the ecological changes that threaten the long-term survival of humans and of other species have anthropogenic origins. Industry's impact and its role in mitigating these impacts is the focus of much discussion and debate. Two industries that are working to deal with these issues are the printing and paper industries. The environmental impacts associated with the entire life-cycle of paper are significant, yet the socially redeeming value of the content printed can be equally …

Image-Based Math Retrieval Using Handwritten Queries, Li Yu

Theses

We present a new technique to locate mathematical expressions in document images using images of handwritten queries, without the use of optical character recognition. In our approach, two types of X-Y cutting are used to construct document region indexes that hold potential matches . Candidates are selected based on a set of tolerance parameters and then are ranked using image similarity, with the top 10 matches being returned to the user. The ranking of candidates relies on decreasing sum-of-squares distance between the upper and lower image contours for the candidate region and query image; Dynamic Time Warping is used to …

An Analysis Of Current Intersection Support And Falls In United States Coal Mines And Recommendations To Improve Safety, Allen Robert Mueller

Theses

Background: The support of intersections in coal mines is an important safety issue in the U.S., as intersections are by far the most common area for unplanned falls of ground. A relatively comprehensive, nation-wide study of falls of ground is coupled with a national survey to mines about their support methods to determine common characteristics of failure and recommend changes to improve stability, and recommendations for future research. Methods: Over 600 fall of ground reports were collected from nine of the 11 Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) District offices, and data was compiled to determine common characteristics of these …

Galapagos Hawk: Demographic And Social Effects In A Changing Environment, Jose Luis Rivera

Theses

The Galapagos Hawk (Buteo galapagoensis) is endemic to the Galapagos Islands, where it is the top predator and only resident diurnal raptor. On most islands, Galapagos hawks form polyandrous breeding groups with one female with up to eight males. Before entering a breeding group, individuals spend 3-4 years as non-breeding floaters. I studied the hawks on Santiago Island, where introduced goats had been recently eradicated, leading to drastic changes in the ecology of the island. Using mark-recapture procedures, we assessed the size of the juvenile component of the population over time. In addition, using software MARK with a 12-year demographic …

Wireless Security Proportional To County Development, Guillermo M. Martinez

Theses

This paper verify the hypothesis "developed counties have a higher wireless security level than undeveloped counties", this is performed by doing a quantitative study to a group of 50 samples gathered from a war drive database. In further sections of the paper will be explained the importance of wireless security and how companies like RSA have performed studies to determinate the wireless security level of several major cities around the world.

By following the binomial test and median comparison, the reader will understand why in this paper the hypothesis was rejected. All the results indicate that no relation existed between …

Corda Na Bretha: Cord Of Life, Elizabeth Kelly

Theses

Through the creation of images of imaginary solar systems my thesis will explore the development of space through the processes of collograph and four-color intaglio-type inversion printmaking with painting. I am interested in the possibility of what we know and can touch, so I create my own visual universes for exploration. Kasimir Malevich influenced my personal exploration. Malevich created his own movement of Suprematism, which enabled him to construct images that had no reference at all to reality. Suprematism refers to the pure feeling in art over art's objectivity. I began treating the surface of the imprinted paper by creating …

Efficient Terrain Representation For Robot Swarms, Daniel Stella

Theses

Swarm robotics pertains to the use of many simplistic robots working together to complete complex tasks. These robots behave autonomously and collaboratively by utilizing local sensors and/or communication mechanisms. To investigate behaviors of large robot swarms, simulations are often used, yet mostly assume unrealistic 2D terrain. While representing the exact physical terrain is ideal, it may not be desirable and necessary to do so for the understanding of robot behavior. To this end, this work aims at developing an efficient terrain model specifically compatible with robot swarms. In order to reduce physical terrain into a manageable data set, Triangulated Irregular …

Regional Target Surveillance With Cooperative Robots Using Apfs, Jessica Larocque

Theses

Target surveillance in a bounded environment has been a growing focus in the past few years, particularly with recent world events prompting the need for environmental monitoring using automated surveillance. Scenarios exist where the goal is to be able to track targets within a certain distance and yet maintain a proper distribution of the surveillance units to provide field coverage. Previous works in this area using mobile robots as the surveillance units have made assumptions of a global awareness capability provided by a central controller. Artificial Potential Fields (APFs) have been used in cooperative robots and swarm research for applications …

Locomotion Of Circular Robots With Diametrically Translating Legs: Design, Analysis, And Fabrication, Eric R. Steffan

Theses

This work develops an analytical basis for designing the locomotion of mobile robots with a circular core and equispaced diametral legs which actuate linearly. Two elementary regimes of motion are first developed using the intrinsic geometry of the mechanism, then combined for fluid motion. The first and primary gait has a path trajectory defined by its kinematic constraints. Dynamics are explored to assist actuator design and understand the mechanism's constraint forces. Simulation results are provided in support of the design concept and geometric optimization. The proposed robot, or Locomotive Amoebic Device (LAD), bears resemblance with certain cellular locomotion, and thus …

Is Catherine Crazy? The Role Of Schizophrenia And The Character Catherine In David Auburn's Play Proof: Exploring The Script From Research To Performance, Karin M. Lorenz

Theses

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The Nature Of Fictional Characters, Katherine Celeste Tullmann

Theses

This paper explores the ramifications of a central question concerning our everyday experience with film and other art forms: how it is possible to recognize a character in a sequel or related artwork as the exact same character as that found in the original or previous artwork. My main goal is to determine necessary and sufficient identity conditions for fictional film characters which may adequately account for our everyday discussion of these characters. After addressing several intuitions which any theory of fictional characters must address, I propose that film and other characters should be best understood as “abstract artifacts” following …

Effects Of Video-Conferencing On Gaze Behavior And Communication, Leanne Bohannon

Theses

Through the use of eye-tracking and conversation analysis this study examined the impact of video-conferencing on communication. Paired participants performed a collaborative task over four communication media: face-to-face; desktop video-conferencing with eye contact; and life-size video-conferencing with and without eye contact. Participants more frequently checked the information their partner verbally relayed when communicating face-to-face and over life-size video-conferencing with eye contact. They also looked more at their partner when conversing over life-size video-conferencing with eye contact compared to the other conditions. The results imply that the mode across which we communicate does influence our verbal and non-verbal interactions but that …

Application Of The B-Spline Collocation Method To A Geometrically Non-Linear Beam Problem, Jason Magoon

Theses

Engineers are researching solutions to resolve many of today's technical challenges. Numerical techniques are used to solve the mathematical models that arise in engineering problems. A numerical technique that is increasingly being used to solve mathematical models in engineering research is called the B-spline Collocation Method. The B-spline Collocation Method has a few distinct advantages over the Finite Element and Finite Difference Methods. The main advantage is that the B-spline Collocation Method efficiently provides a piecewise-continuous, closed form solution. Another advantage is that the B-spline Collocation Method procedure is very simple and easy to apply to many problems involving partial …

Asset Protection In A Limited Swarm Environment Utilizing Artificial Potential Fields, Dieter Laskowski

Theses

Asset protection is a behavior in which a team of robots establishes a formation around a resource marked as an asset in a hostile environment in order to protect the asset from threats. The robots are assumed to be homogeneous and run a decentralized control algo- rithm and possess a repulsive quality to the threats. Previous works in this area have used centralized control or considered the use of many robots. This work aims at developing an algorithm that is both decentralized, and able to protect assets using only a few robots. In order to provide this behavior an algorithm …

In Silico Prediction Of Non-Coding Rnas Using Supervised Learning And Feature Ranking Methods, Stephen J. Griesmer

Theses

This thesis presents a novel method, RNAMultifold, for development of a non-coding RNA (ncRNA) classification model based on features derived from folding the consensus sequence of multiple sequence alignments using different folding programs: RNAalifold, CentroidFold, and RSpredict. The method ranks these folding features according to a Class Separation Measure (CSM) that quantifies the ability of the features to differentiate between samples from positive and negative test sets. The set of top-ranked features is then used to construct classification models: Naive Bayes, Fisher Linear Discriminant, and Support Vector Machine (SVM). These models are compared to the performance of the same models …

Social Group Discovery Using Using Co-Location Traces, Steve Mardenfeld

Theses

Social information can be used to enhance existing applications and services or can be utilized to devise entirely new applications. Examples of such applications include recommendation systems, peer-to-peer networks, opportunistic data dissemination in ad hoc networks, or mobile friend finder. Social information can be collected from either online or mobile sources.

This thesis focuses on identifying social groups based on data collected from mobile phones. These data can be either location or co-location traces. Unfortunately, location traces require a localization system for every mobile device, and users are reluctant to share absolute location due to privacy concerns. On the other …

Development Of Pharmacophore And Comfa Study Of Rigid And Flexible Sigma 2 Receptor Ligands, Hemantbhai Patel

Theses

In the present study a pharmacophore and CoMFA model was derived for sigma 2 (62) receptors by using Sybyl 7.2 Software Package. The CoMFA studies used 22 bioactive molecules as a training set and 4 molecules as a test set for the o2 receptor ligands. The geometries and electrostatic charges of all molecules were calculated using various levels of calculations. The geometry optimization and electrostatic charges of all 26 molecules were performed by using semiemprical AM1, ab initio HF/6-31G* and density functional B3LYP/6-31G* in Gaussian 98. The pharmacophore model was derived by using Distance Comparisions (DISCOtech) from 4 partially to …