Digital Commons Network^™

Statistical Modeling Of Radiometric Error Propagation In Support Of Hyperspectral Imaging Inversion And Optimized Ground Sensor Network Design, Scott Klempner

Theses

A method is presented that attempts to isolate the relative magnitudes of various error sources present in common algorithms for inverting the effects of atmospheric scattering and absorption on solar irradiance and determine in what ways, if any, operational ground truth measurement systems can be employed to reduce the overall error in retrieved reflectance factor. Error modeling and propagation methodology is developed for each link in the imaging chain, and representative values are determined for the purpose of exercising the model and observing the system behavior in response to a wide variety of inputs. Three distinct approaches to modelbased atmospheric …

Elucidating The Degree Of Selectivity For Nlo Surrogate Attachment To Model Compounds And A Co-Polyimide Using The Mitsunobu Reaction, Timothy E. Woods

Theses

The goals of this research are: to elucidate the degree of selectivity shown using the Mitsunobu reaction for pendent attachment to phenol and carboxylic acid functional groups, and to make progress towards the synthesis of a novel, UV-Crosslinkable, Mellitic Acid Dianhydride (MADA)-containing, low color, nonlinear optical (NLO) pendent co-polyimide (co-PI). Two of the three co-PI components lower the hydrophilicity and color of the product polymer by incorporating C-F bonds between their aromatic rings: the diamine, 2,2-bis(3-amino-4-hydroxyphenyl)hexafluoropropane (Bis-AP-AF), and the dianhydride, 4,4’-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphthalic anhydride (6FDA). MADA was synthesized using a previously established procedure, and its purity was verified by a 5.9% weight …

An Evaluation Of Energy Consumption And Emissions From Intermodal Freight Operations On The Eastern Seaboard: A Gis Network Analysis Approach, Aaron Falzarano

Theses

As global trade continues to increase, the energy and environmental impacts of freight movement in the US have become more of a concern. As such, the freight transport system needs to consider opportunities to meet customer objectives, while also meeting social goals. In the US there has been legislation enacted to address the growing impact that freight movement has on the environment, but there are limited tools to assist in the implementation of those polices. This research sets forth a process for creating a geospatial intermodal freight transportation (GIFT) model within ArcGIS that can be used to analyze freight movement …

Development Of Deterministic Collision-Avoidance Algorithms For Routing Automated Guided Vehicles, Arun S. Pai

Theses

A manufacturing job spends a small portion of its total flow time being processed on machines, and during the remaining time, either it is in a queue or being transported from one work center to another. In a fully automated material-handling environment, automated guided vehicles (AGV) perform the function of transporting the jobs between workstations, and high operational costs are involved in these material-handling activities. Consequently, the AGV route schedule dictates subsequent work-center scheduling. For an AGV job transportation schedule to be effective, the issue of collisions amongst AGV during travel needs to be addressed. Such collisions cause stalemate situations …

Statistical Model Prediction Of Fatigue Life For Diffusion Bonded Inconel 600, Timothy Nowicki

Theses

Diffusion bonding is a solid-state joining process, used in a wide range of fields, allowing the joining of both metallic and ceramic materials to create complicated parts and geometries [1]. Diffusion bonded material has been found to contain inherent defects caused by the bond process that have been loosely associated to the lower tensile and fatigue strengths of the parent material [2]. The process is relatively new, and little research has been done to characterize these defects or their relationship to bond quality, with the exception of a recent study that did relate tensile strength to the bond quality [3]. …

A Two Dimensional Model Of Magnetic Field Assisted Assembly, Gaurev Devrani

Theses

A simplified model to simulate the magnetic field distribution for applications in magnetic field assisted assembly of semiconductor device structures, using commercial software (Vizimag), has been implemented. Solenoids have been utilized to serve as electromagnets that are responsible for the assembly process. Magnetic shielding techniques have been deployed to isolate the influence of one solenoid over another. These solenoids are used to move the devices that need to be placed in recesses within the substrate. The bottom of the devices and the recesses are coated with magnetic materials to facilitate the movement and placement of devices within the recesses in …

Classification Of Hand Held Shapes And Locations In Continuous Signing, Swetha Karri

Theses

Sign language for the deaf and hearing impaired replaces speech with manually produced signs. Each sign has been categorized as being combinations of handshape, movement, orientation, location, and facial expressions. Of the five sign parameters, this thesis focuses on classification of two of the main parameters, the hand shapes and locations, in continuous signing.

Since the nature of hand shapes is transient and not static, neural networks was used as a classifier for hand shapes. And since locations in sign language are defined by linguistic variables rather than by hard core position values, fuzzy logic was used as a classifier …

Development Of Pharmacophore And Comfa Studies For Sigma2 Receptor Ligands, Laura Ann Wirpsza

Theses

This study describes the development of a pharmacophore and CoMIFA model for sigma 2 (σ₂) receptor ligands. CoMFA studies were performed for 32 bioactive σ₂ receptor ligands using the radioligand [H 3] (+) DTG in the presence of pentazocine. The pharmacophore was derived using Distance Comparisons (DISCOtech) from eight partially to highly active ~2 receptor ligands. All 32 compounds were calculated in three methods: AMi, HFI3~21G*, and B3LYP/3~21G* methods. These methods run in Gaussian 98 determined the geometry optimization and electrostatic charges for each molecule. CoMFA maps were developed using SYBYL ver. 7.2 to compare the electrostatic …

Dem Simulated Radial And Axial Pressure In A Cylindrical Granular Column, Meng Cui

Theses

The study of packed beds of granular spheres and their applications are of great interest to industries, and one of the most important subjects that has been studied is cylindrical beds. In 1895, H. A. Janssen discovered that in a vertical cylinder the pressure measured at the bottom does not depend upon the height of the filling in contrast to Newtonian fluids that possess linear hydrostatic pressure equilibrium. One of assumptions of his theory stated that the horizontal pressure is proportional to the vertical. In this thesis, this physical hypothesis is investigated using Discrete Element Simulations of inelastic with a …

Biomechanical Testing Of Upright Range Of Motion Versus Overhead Supine Range Of Motion, Linda Uko

Theses

Rehabilitation of an elbow, following injury, is not a well-studied subject. Clinically, there is not a general consensus on which recovery method is optimal for healing an unstable elbow. When dealing with medial collateral ligament deficiency, many authors have proposed several forearm positions that will yield proper healing of the unstable elbow. Some researchers believe that active mobilization of the elbow with the arm in a vertical position is a safe protocol for rehabilitation with the forearm oriented in a supine pronated position. It was also mentioned that the compressive forces due to the active mobilization of the arm will …

Developing A Virtual City For Emergency Preparedness Planning And Training, Jon K. Morgan

Theses

Existing techniques for emergency preparedness planning and training fail or lack the ability to convey training on a broad scale and timely fashion. Skill sets that are required for planning, mitigation, response and recovery issues are lost through information overload or failure to identify other channels in which to convey the information. In order to resolve some of the issues with currently existing methods such as tabletop training exercises (TTX), instructional video learning and full-scale exercises we can turn to virtual environments.

In a virtual environment teams can interact with their surroundings from the comfort of the office without having …

Reasons For The Low Usage Of Scheduling Software And The Difference In Production Performance Between Users And Nonusers Of Scheduling Software From A Lean Manufacturing Perspective, Sandra Yveborg

Theses

It is more important than ever for printers to improve efficiency and productivity, and the means for doing so are available. Computer-assisted scheduling is one method that is claimed to increase throughput speed and reduce costs, among other benefits. Recently, scheduling applications have started to increase in popularity, and many management information systems (MISs) have built-in scheduling features. However, only 15% of the companies that own scheduling software utilize it. The first part of this research project seeks to determine the reasons for the low usage. Another way to increase efficiency is through Lean manufacturing, a strategy for eliminating non-value-added …

Environmentally-Integrated Optimization Modeling Of Intermodal Freight Transportation: An Application Of The I-95 Corridor Region, Jill Hatcher

Theses

Freight transportation is essential to economic health in the United States in that it transports all types of goods and materials that support commerce and meet consumer demands. However, the literature strongly suggests that the demand for freight transportation is expected to increase, and at a rate that exceeds the capacities to support such demand. The national highway network was built to accommodate a far smaller national population, and its limited capacity and expansion, coupled with a strong and steady population increase over the last century has borne a myriad of congested highways, increased travel time, increased transportation costs, and …

Face Recognition In Low Resolution Video Sequences Using Super Resolution, Somi Ruwan Arachchige

Theses

Human activity is a major concern in a wide variety of applications, such as video surveillance, human computer interface and face image database management. Detecting and recognizing faces is a crucial step in these applications. Furthermore, major advancements and initiatives in security applications in the past years have propelled face recognition technology into the spotlight. The performance of existing face recognition systems declines significantly if the resolution of the face image falls below a certain level. This is especially critical in surveillance imagery where often, due to many reasons, only low-resolution video of faces is available. If these low-resolution images …

Classification Algorithms On The Cell Processor, Mateusz Wyganowski

Theses

The rapid advancement in the capacity and reliability of data storage technology has allowed for the retention of virtually limitless quantity and detail of digital information. Massive information databases are becoming more and more widespread among governmental, educational, scientific, and commercial organizations. By segregating this data into carefully defined input (e.g.: images) and output (e.g.: classification labels) sets, a classification algorithm can be used develop an internal expert model of the data by employing a specialized training algorithm. A properly trained classifier is capable of predicting the output for future input data from the same input domain that it was …

Evaluation Of A Numerical Thrombosis Model For A High Shear Rotating Flow, Carlos Cheek

Theses

Blood clotting, or thrombosis, is an interesting biological application for computational fluid dynamics. Existing numerical thrombosis models have previously been shown to be effective for low shear rates and simple geometries. For these models to be used in biomedical applications such as the design of rotary blood pumps, however, they must first be experimentally validated for high shear rates and complex geometries. In this study, we test the ability of a numerical thrombosis model to predict thrombosis related phenomena in a high shear flow by creating a geometry similar to that of a rotary blood pump. We have applied an …

Modeling And Synthesis Of The Hd Photo Compression Algorithm, Seth Groder

Theses

The primary goal of this thesis is to implement the HD Photo encoding algorithm using Verilog HDL in hardware. The HD Photo algorithm is relatively new and offers several advantages over other digital still continuous tone image compression algorithms and is currently under review by the JPEG committee to become the next JPEG standard, JPEG XR. HD Photo was chosen to become the next JPEG standard because it has a computationally light domain change transform, achieves high compression ratios, and offers several other improvements like its ability to supports a wide variety of pixel formats. HD Photo’s compression algorithm has …

Low Bandwidth Eye Tracker For Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy, Zachary Harvey

Theses

Use of adaptive optics with scanning laser ophthalmoscopes (AOSLOs) has allowed for in vivo, noninvasive imaging of the human rod and cone pho- toreceptor mosaic. This modality could prove to be a valuable tool for clin- icians in early diagnosis of retinal disease as well as provide invaluable incite for researchers. In order for these instruments to become practical in a clinical environment, many challenges must be overcome. Involuntary eye motion makes the use of AOSLOs particularly difficult as it increases imaging time, post-processing time, data storage requirements, and, most importantly, subject's chances of retinal damage due to light exposure. …

Study Of Hardware And Software Optimizations Of Spea2 On Hybrid Fpgas, Brad Theophila

Theses

Traditional radar technology consists of multiple platforms, each designed to process only a single mission objective, such as Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI), Airborne Moving Target Indication (AMTI) or Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). This is no longer considered a cost effective solution, thus leading to the increased need for a single radar platform which can perform multiple radar missions. Many algorithms have been developed to specifically address multi-objective design problems. One such approach, the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 (SPEA2), applies the concept of evolution through a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to the design of simultaneous orthogonal waveforms. The objectives of …

Flow Field Analysis In An Expanding Healthy And Emphysematous Alveolar Model Using Particle Image Velocimetry, Jessica Oakes

Theses

Particle deposition in the acinus region of the lung is a significant area of interest, because particles can potentially travel into the bloodstream through the capillaries in the lung. Drugs, in the form of aerosols, small particulates in a volume of air, may be delivered through the respiratory system. Also, toxic, airborne, particles could enter the body through the pulmonary capillaries in the acinus region of the lung. In order to accurately predict particle deposition, the aspects that influence deposition needs to be understood. Many physiological features may influence flow and particle deposition in the lung; the geometry of the …

Imagination And Phenomenal Experience, Blake Austin Myers

Theses

In this paper I argue that the zombie conceivability argument, as developed by David Chalmers, is unsound. My primary contribution in the paper is a critique of the claim that zombies are positively conceivable. I argue that phenomenal experience (that which zombies purportedly lack) is not something we can imagine; it is only something we can have. We can only imagine the contents of experience, and in doing so we have a new phenomenal experience of the imagined contents. Without being able to imagine phenomenal experience we have no way to determine whether a creature we imagine has or lacks …

Hardware/Software Optimizations For Elliptic Curve Scalar Multiplication On Hybrid Fpgas, Glenn Ramsey Jr.

Theses

Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) offers a viable alternative to Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) by delivering equivalent security with a smaller key size. This has several advantages, including smaller bandwidth demands, faster key exchange, and lower latency encryption and decryption. The fundamental operation for ECC is scalar point multiplication, wherein a point P on an elliptic curve defined over a finite field is multiplied by a scalar k. The complexity of this operation requires a hardware implementation to achieve high performance. The algorithms involved in scalar point multiplication are constantly evolving, incorporating the latest developments in number theory to improve computation time. These …

An Fpga Architecture Design Of A High Performance Adaptive Notch Filter, Michael James Szalkowski

Theses

The occurrence of narrowband interference near frequencies carrying information is a common problem in modern control and signal processing applications. A very narrow notch filter is required in order to remove the unwanted signal while not compromising the integrity of the carrier signal. In many practical situations, the interference may wander within a frequency band, in which case a wider notch filter would be needed to guarantee its removal, which may also allow for the degradation of information being carried in nearby frequencies. If the interference frequency could be autonomously tracked, a narrow bandwidth notch filter could be successfully implemented …

Target Detection Using Oblique Hyperspectral Imagery: A Domain Trade Study, Josef Bishoff

Theses

Hyperspectral imagery (HSI) has proven to be a useful tool when considering the task of target detection. Various processes have been developed that manipulate HSI data in different ways in order to render the data useable for target detection activities. A fundamental initial step in each of these processes is ensuring that the HSI data set obtained is in the same domain as the target’s spectral signature. In general, remotely sensed HSI is collected in terms of digital counts which are calibrated to units of radiance, whereas spectral target signatures are normally available in units of reflectance. This work investigates …

A Homography-Based Multiple-Camera Person-Tracking Algorithm, Matthew Robert Turk

Theses

It is easy to install multiple inexpensive video surveillance cameras around an area. However, multiple-camera tracking is still a developing field. Surveillance products that can be produced with multiple video cameras include camera cueing, wide-area traffic analysis, tracking in the presence of occlusions, and tracking with in-scene entrances. All of these products require solving the consistent labelling problem. This means giving the same meta-target tracking label to all projections of a realworld target in the various cameras. This thesis covers the implementation and testing of a multiple-camera peopletracking algorithm. First, a shape-matching single-camera tracking algorithm was partially re-implemented so that …

Derivation Of The Respiratory Rate Signal From A Single Lead Ecg, Murtaza M. Lakdawala

Theses

It has been long established that respiration has an influence on heart rate, and this effect is called respiratory sinus arrhythmia. As a result, two inferences can be postulated: first respiration information can be derived from cardiac activity, and second this effect offers the potential of removing the respiration effect that suppresses cardiac information which is of clinical significance. As a result of research performed at NJIT, there is a significant amount of data on exercise and heart rate recovery, but not the associated respiration signal. The motivation of this research was to compare and implement an optimal ECG derived …

A Virtual Training Environment For Wheelchair Mounted Robot, Elizabeth Leichtnam

Theses

A model of a robotic manipulator designed to respond to different inputs from users with different skills or conditions is presented. This model can be adapted to different input variables and converted into joint angles which relate to movement in space of the manipulator's links. The algorithm allows for real time response and the features of the virtual environments (i.e., 3D design, stereoscopic vision) gives the designers the opportunity to use this model for training and usability evaluation according to the skills and different conditions that users could present.

Two types of virtual environments were created aiming to be used …

Altered Brain Activity In Autistic Children Versus Healthy Controls While Performing Simple Tasks Using Fmri, Donald Martin Adams Jr.

Theses

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies dealing with Autistic children have primarily been concerned with cognitive facial recognition. Recent studies have demonstrated that Autistic children, when compared to healthy matched controls, exhibit higher neuronal activity when identifying patterns or objects, but lower levels of activity in regards to facial recognition.

The objective of this study was to examine both facial and object recognition and compare them to simple sensorimotor tasks. All subjects were administered 5 stimuli each lasting 320 seconds. Subjects were instructed to use a button press box to identify between a Person/Object and an Arrow/Object. They were then …

A Comparative Study Of The Robustness Of Voting Systems Under Various Models Of Noise, Derek M. Shockey

Theses

While the study of election theory is not a new field in and of itself, recent research has applied various concepts in computer science to the study of social choice theory, which includes election theory. From a security perspective, it is pertinent to investigate how stable election systems are in the face of noise, disruption, and manipulation. Recently, work related to computational election systems has also been of interest to artificial intelligence researchers, where it is incorporated into the decision-making processes of distributed systems. The quantitative analysis of a voting rule's resistance to noise is the robustness, the probability …

Using Reading Screening Measures To Create Risk Indicators For Student Performance On The New York State English Language Arts Examination, Kimberly Davis

Theses

The purpose of this study was to (a) determine whether the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Oral Reading Fluency (DORF) measure and the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) will accurately predict student failure on statewide assessments of reading performance, and (b) establish risk indicators for both DORF and the DRA that are predictive of student failure on a statewide reading assessment. One hundred ninety-five second grade students were administered DORF probes during the fall, winter, and spring and the DRA during the fall and spring. They were then administered the New York State English Language Arts Examination (NYS ELA) …