Digital Commons Network^™

Mathematical Modeling Of Seir Model With Generalized Incidence Function And The Extension To Covid-19 Model, Shymaa Mohammad Dadoa

Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic had shown the importance of the SEIR model in predicting the outcome of the disease spread and to find the best strategies to contain the pandemic. As this type of model has a limited number of compartments, many other models were derived from the SEIR model to cover, to the maximum, the complex dynamics of the disease spread. These extensions of the SEIR model bring natural validity questions: How can we validate these models? and how far/close are these extended models from giving us real insights into the pandemic?

This thesis investigates the SEIR epidemic model and …

Design Of An 8-Bit Configurable Cnn Hardware Accelerator For Audio And Image Classification, Christie Agbalessi

Theses

Picture yourself resting or attending a meeting in the back seat while your car is driving you home with all the privacy a driverless vehicle offers. Designing autonomous systems involves decoding environmental cues and making safe decisions. Convolution Neural Networks (CNNs) are the leading choices for computer vision tasks due to their high performance and scalability to pieces of hardware. They have long been run on Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) and Central Processing Units (CPUs). Yet, today, there is an urgent need to accelerate CNNs in low-power consumption hardware for real-time inference. This research aims to design a configurable hardware …

Hyper-Sensitive Mems Pressure Sensor Array For Microscale Bubble Pressure Measurement, Yash Rajan Rasaikar

Theses

As technology is advancing, more complex, efficient, and powerful devices are being made. These powerful devices generate a lot of heat which needs to be taken out to maximize their performance. Hence, efforts are being made to improve cooling techniques for these devices. Boiling is one such technique used in the cooling of devices. The heat transfer performance in the flow boiling systems is higher than that in pool boiling systems. With a simple add-on tapered manifold over a plain surface, we can convert pool boiling to flow boiling. This study will lead to improved performance and reliability of microelectronic …

Data-Driven Equations For Coevolving Network Systems, Nicholas John

Theses

The framework of coevolving networks is a tool to model large-scale interacting dynamical systems undergoing change in connective structure, describing phenomena such as epidemic spreading on social networks with individuals changing their connections to avoid infection. Along with direct computational simulation, coevolving network systems are often formulated in terms of systems of ordinary differential equations in their descriptive statistics. The equation approach reduces the computational burden of analyzing the systems, but deriving equations becomes difficult as the underlying model becomes more complicated and as the desire for accuracy increases. We present an approach to construct equations for coevolving network systems …

A Method For Measuring Puffing And Respiratory Parameters Of Tobacco Users Within Their Natural Usage Environment, Shehan Jayasekera

Theses

Background: Although researchers have investigated the puffing behavior of tobacco products, no attempt has yet been made to observe both puffing and respiratory behaviors simultaneously in the natural use environment. Observation of puffing behavior alone is insufficient for predicting the health effects of tobacco use, as it can only be used to estimate the amount of emissions generated and transferred to the oral cavity. Respiration behavior must be observed for the estimation of delivery and retention of nicotine and other HPHCs in the lungs. Parameters that quantify respiratory behavior include inhalation and exhalation volumes, flow rates, and durations, as well …

Clean Deconvolution Of Radio Pulsar Pulses, Olivia Young

Theses

Broadband radio waves emitted from pulsars are distorted as they propagate toward Earth due to interactions with the free electrons that comprise the interstellar medium (ISM). Irregularities in the ISM cause multipath propagation of the wavefronts along the line of sight toward Earth, with lower radio frequencies being more greatly impacted than higher frequencies. These delays result in later times of arrival for the lower frequencies and cause the observed pulse to arrive with a broadened tail, which can be described using a pulse broadening function. CLEAN deconvolution, as outlined in Bhat et al. (2003) for use in pulsar scattering …

Artificial Neural Network Concepts And Examples, Harcharan Kabbay

Theses

Artificial Neural Networks have gained much media attention in the last few years. Every day, numer- ous articles on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning exist. Both academics and business are becoming increasingly interested in deep learning. Deep learning has innumerable uses, in- cluding autonomous driving, computer vision, robotics, security and surveillance, and natural language processing. The recent development and focus have primarily been made possible by the convergence of related research efforts and the introduction of APIs like Keras. The availability of high-speed compute resources such as GPUs and TPUs has also been instrumental in developing deep learning …

Manifold Based Deep Learning: Advances And Machine Learning Applications, Navya Nagananda

Theses

Manifolds are topological spaces that are locally Euclidean and find applications in dimensionality reduction, subspace learning, visual domain adaptation, clustering, and more. In this dissertation, we propose a framework for linear dimensionality reduction called the proxy matrix optimization (PMO) that uses the Grassmann manifold for optimizing over orthogonal matrix manifolds. PMO is an iterative and flexible method that finds the lower-dimensional projections for various linear dimensionality reduction methods by changing the objective function. PMO is suitable for Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA), Maximum Autocorrelation Factors (MAF), and Locality Preserving Projections (LPP). We extend …

Analysis Of Growth And Decay In Neutrally Stable Flows, Colin Huber

Theses

The stability of linearized partial differential equations (PDEs) governing disturbance propagation in a one-dimensional medium, such as a perturbed fluid-fluid interface, is traditionally deduced by examining the growth of exponential modes of the form hk = Akei(kx−!t), where hk is a mode associated with the height of the perturbed interface, Ak is its amplitude, k is a real wave number, ! is a complex frequency, x is the spatial direction, and t is time. It is assumed that these modes may be superimposed to construct the solution, h, to any response, and thus, if any of these modes grow in …

Efficient Photonic Integrated Circuits – Optimizing Fiber-To-Chip Coupling, Modulation, And Detection, Peichuan Yin

Theses

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are attracting attention in a wide range of applications due to their superior performance over traditional discrete photonic devices. However, the development of PICs is bottlenecked by the integration of different fundamental building blocks. High sensitivity and diverse material properties hinder the realization of a monolithic photonic integrated circuit platform. High-efficiency solutions for photonic device integration are critical for making high-performance and low-cost devices. The objective of this work is to demonstrate high-efficiency optimization methods for a comprehensive photonic integrated chip system. This work analyzes the transition of optical signal waves between each component in a …

Hexgen Roguevania, Conrad Garcia

Theses

This project is inspired by procedural generation methods, Metroid, Castlevania, Rogue, and modern roguelikes. This project is structured around the notion of how procedural game content can be experienced when it is tied directly to player progression. The focus of this project incorporates procedurally generated content so that it can be altered during gameplay. In a sense, this idea brings level content to the player, instead of the player travelling to new zones. The resulting game world starts visually coherent, changing into a world that resembles a patchwork of different biomes crafted by the player’s decisions to progress the game’s …

A Customer Agnostic Machine Learning Based Peak Electric Load Days Forecasting Methodology For Consumers With And Without Renewable Electricity Generation, Omar Aponte

Theses

The adoption of electricity generation from renewable sources, as well as the push for a speedy electrification of sectors such as transportation and buildings, makes peak electric load management an essential aspect to ensure the electric grid’s reliability and safety. Utilities have established peak load charges that can amount to up to 70% of electricity costs to transfer the financial burden of managing these loads to the consumers. These pricing schemes have created a need for efficient peak electric load management strategies that consumers can implement in order to reduce the financial impact of this type of load. Research has …

Distribution Of Carrion-Associated Beetles And Their Phoretic Mites Along An Urban-Rural Gradient In Northeast Alabama, Kennedy Norris

Theses

Global insect decline has been linked to urbanization, most notably by habitat fragmentation. These insects perform important ecological functions such as pollination, managing pests, and decomposing carrion to recycle nutrients back into the environment. Despite the importance of nutrient recycling behavior displayed by carrion-associated beetles, little research has been done on them in the southeastern US. Previous studies have found a relationship between urbanization, less favorable environmental conditions, carrion availability, and decreased insect diversity. However, no studies have been conducted in the southeastern United States on the relationship of these beetles to their environment despite having the highest rates of …

Smart And Intelligent Automation For Industry 4.0 Using Millimeter-Wave And Deep Reinforcement Learning, Abhishek Vashist

Theses

Innovations in communication systems, compute hardware, and deep learning algorithms have led to the advancement of smart industry automation. Smart automation includes industrial sectors such as intelligent warehouse management, smart infrastructure for first responders, and smart monitoring systems. Automation aims to maximize efficiency, safety, and reliability. Autonomous forklifts can significantly increase productivity, reduce safety-related accidents, and improve operation speed to enhance the efficiency of a warehouse. Forklifts or robotic agents are required to perform different tasks such as position estimation, mapping, and dispatching. Each of the tasks involves different requirements and design constraints. Smart infrastructure for first responder applications requires …

Dynamic Algorithms And Asymptotic Theory For Lp-Norm Data Analysis, Mayur Dhanaraj

Theses

The focus of this dissertation is the development of outlier-resistant stochastic algorithms for Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the derivation of novel asymptotic theory for Lp-norm Principal Component Analysis (Lp-PCA). Modern machine learning and signal processing applications employ sensors that collect large volumes of data measurements that are stored in the form of data matrices, that are often massive and need to be efficiently processed in order to enable machine learning algorithms to perform effective underlying pattern discovery. One such commonly used matrix analysis technique is PCA. Over the past century, PCA has been extensively used in areas such as …

Credit Card Fraud Detection Using Machine Learning, Meera Alemad

Theses

The purpose of this project is to detect the fraudulent transactions made by credit cards by the use of machine learning techniques, to stop fraudsters from the unauthorized usage of customers’ accounts. The increase of credit card fraud is growing rapidly worldwide, which is the reason actions should be taken to stop fraudsters. Putting a limit for those actions would have a positive impact on the customers as their money would be recovered and retrieved back into their accounts and they won’t be charged for items or services that were not purchased by them which is the main goal of …

Leveraging Formulae And Text For Improved Math Retrieval, Behrooz Mansouri

Theses

Large collections containing millions of math formulas are available online. Retrieving math expressions from these collections is challenging. Users can use formula, formula+text, or math questions to express their math information needs. The structural complexity of formulas requires specialized processing. Despite the existence of math search systems and online community question-answering websites for math, little is known about mathematical information needs. This research first explores the characteristics of math searches using a general search engine. The findings show how math searches are different from general searches. Then, test collections for math-aware search are introduced. The ARQMath test collections have two …

Optimizing Vaccine Procurement For Affordability And Profits, Bruno Alves-Maciel

Theses

This thesis presents methods to increase savings in the global vaccine market without compromising its sustainability. Considering a hypothetically coordinated vaccine market (HCVM), where one or more coordinating entities are responsible for negotiating quantities and prices of vaccines on behalf of countries with different purchasing powers, this work explores four different and complementary issues related to market configurations impacting global affordability and profits: (1) the level of cooperation among coordinating entities; (2) optimal country assignment to coordinating entities; (3) benefits in procuring vaccines through tenders of formularies rather than purchasing doses individually; and (4) the value of a dollar saved …

Mos Compatible Deposited Materials For Optical Interconnects, Simone Iadanza

Theses

The recent years' exponential growth of data transmission in datacom and telecom technology (such as in Wavelength Division Multiplexing - WDM) has highlighted the energy consumption challenges of electronics, shifting research and industry interest towards optical interconnects. Novel and more efficient integrated photonics is being given the objective to face the ever-increasing demand for speed and bandwidth. This has initiated, in both industrial and academic environments, a quest for low-power, compact and cost-effective optical interconnects that can be integrated on electronic boards of Datacentres and transceivers all over the world. In this thesis, different types of WDM compatible Hybrid External …

Analysis Of Global Banking Network, Sonali Kannan

Theses

The outbreak of the Global Pandemic Covid-19 that spread terribly across various countries from the end of 2019, has severely altered people’s life and economy. Various reports across papers and news articles on how each government was managing the costs of vaccines, medical equipment, and necessities. The world saw shifts in stock markets, unemployment, the tourism industry completely coming to a standstill, and more. Has this Covid Pandemic which played a crucial role within geographical boundaries altered the financial transactions across countries on a higher level? With the help of the statistics available with the Bank of International Settlements, this …

Mangrove Growth Promotion By Endophytic Actinobacteria And Seaweed Extract, Ameera Khalfan Salem Alkaabi

Theses

In this study, I aimed to determine the impact of the application of a commercial seaweed extract (SWE) bio-stimulant and endophytic actinobacterial isolates on growth performance and endogenous hormonal levels of mangroves. Therefore, I isolated endophytic plant growth promoting (PGP) actinobacteria (PGPA) from mangrove roots; and evaluated their potential as biological inoculants on mangrove seedlings under greenhouse and open-field nursery conditions. Seven salt tolerant isolates had the ability to produce different levels of in vitro plant growth regulators (PGRs) and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase (ACCD), and to solubilize phosphorus. Accordingly, only one isolate, Streptomyces tubercidicus UAE1 (St), was …

Properties Of Certain Connected Graphs Related To Their Edge Metric Dimension, Sanabel Mahmoud Y. Bisharat

Theses

Metric dimension, resolving sets and edge metric dimension are very important invariants for the resolvability of graphs that have been studied and investigated intensively in the literature over the last decades. Their immense utilization in network topology, master mind games, robot navigation and representation of chemical compounds make their study very attractive. This thesis is concerned with the graph-theoretic properties of certain families of connected graphs related to their edge metric dimension. The main objective of this thesis is to study the comparison of metric dimension ver-sus edge metric dimension of certain families of graphs. The study investigates the relationship …

Human Detection From Aerial Imagery For Search And Rescue Operations, Namat Ahmad Bachir

Theses

Mountain recreation is becoming more popular with mountaineering, rock climbing, skiing, mountain biking, hiking, and mushroom picking among the most popular sports. Despite this tendency, there is currently limited research available explaining the rise in search and rescue (SAR), as well as the injuries and illnesses that entail SAR aid in tourist-friendly mountain and desert areas. The objective of a search and rescue operation is to scan the farthest area feasible in the shortest amount of time in order to locate a lost or wounded individual. In the past decade, several new and spectacular uses for drones, including search and …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Nanostructured Hybrid Materials For Gas Sensing Applications, Husam H.D Altakroori

Theses

The rapid increase in environmental pollution has become a major concern, and its monitoring has evolved into a priority for human health. This fact has directed the researchers to make more efforts to find new techniques for the detection of gases hazardous to the environment and human health. With the tremendous advances in technology, gas-sensing devices have become popularly used in environmental applications to detect various toxic gases at very low concentrations.

This work aims at developing high-performance gas sensors with enhanced sensitivity, selectivity, low response time, and low operating temperature. The proposed sensors are fabricated based on the integration …

Effects Of Wettability, Lithology, And Permeability On The Optimum Slug Size Of Low Salinity Water Flooding In Carbonates: An Experimental Approach, Hala Khaled Hasan Alshadafan

Theses

Low salinity water flooding has attracted academic and industry communities due to its relatively simple and applicable technology. One of the drawbacks of applying the IOR/EOR technique is the lack of the availability of low salinity water in large quantities at the reasonable cost required for a technically and environmentally successful project. To overcome this problem, the industry proposed to use produced water/sea water after dilution, and reverse osmosis filter technology to achieve the required salinity. Both techniques are quite costly and might hinder the project's economic success. Low salinity water as slug size followed by high salinity water was …

Asssembly And Deployment Of The Uaeu 256-Element Radio Array For Space Science, Ibrahim J.M. Alghoul

Theses

The scope of this project, a 256-element Radio Interferometer Array was assembled and deployed as part of the “UAEU Radio Astronomy Pathway Project”, which is jointly supported by the College of Science and the National Space Science & Technology Centre (NSSTC) at the UAE University. This antenna array was deployed at the NSSTC site, and it will serve as the central part of the ground-based radio observations facility to be utilized for multi-disciplinary space science research at the UAEU. The facility is capable of making low-frequency radio observations of astronomical sources and events, measurements for spacecraft tracking, atmospheric studies, planetary …

The Interactive Simulation Of Mars Dust Storms With The Mars General Circulation Model Marswrf At The Resolution Of 7.5°×9° (Latitude By Longitude), Khulood Hasan Alshehhi

Theses

The Mars dust cycle, including dust storms, has a great impact on the temperature, and the climate in general, on Mars. Dust particles in the atmosphere have a great capacity for absorbing/emitting infrared radiation resulting in large changes in the Martian climate. Local and regional dust storms occur in any Martian Year (MY), but global dust storm events (GDEs), which can cover the whole planet, occur, on average, once every 3-4 MYs. MarsWRF is a Mars version of the terrestrial numerical weather and climate model WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting Model) and part of the Planet WRF models for planetary …

Deep Learning Based Segmentation And Classification For Improved Breast Cancer Detection, Bita Khosrow Asadi Khosrow Asadi

Theses

Breast Cancer is a leading killer of women globally. It is a serious health concern caused by calcifications or abnormal tissue growth in the breast. Doing a screening and identifying the nature of the tumor as benign or malignant is important to facilitate early intervention, which drastically decreases the mortality rate. Usually, it uses ultrasound images, since they are easily accessible to most people and have no drawbacks as such, unlike in the other most famous screening technique of mammograms where in some cases you may not get a clear scan. In this thesis, the approach to this problem is …

Aerodynamics And Aeroacoustics Optimization Of Vehicle’S Side Mirror Base And Exhaust Pipe, Moath Nayef Mohamed Zaareer

Theses

This thesis is concerned with studying two different vehicle parts in terms of aerodynamics and aeroacoustics. Two main factors determine the efficiency and luxury of the vehicle, the low aerodynamic forces and low noise emission. The aerodynamic drag coefficient is concerned with how easy a vehicle can travel through the air; the lower the value, the less fuel is needed to move the vehicle forward and less air resistance the vehicle faces. The aerodynamic lift coefficient is related to vehicle ground stability, and the more negative the value is, the higher the vehicle's stability. Moreover, the aeroacoustics is concerned with …

Robust Detection Of Coronary Heart Disease Using Machine Learning Algorithms, Anas Haitham Domyati

Theses

Predicting whether or not someone will get heart or cardiac disease is now one of the most difficult jobs in the area of medicine. Heart disease is responsible for the deaths of about one person per minute in the contemporary age. Processing the vast amounts of data that are generated in the field of healthcare is an important application for data science. Because predicting cardiac disease is a difficult undertaking, there is a pressing need to automate the prediction process to minimize the dangers that are connected with it and provide the patient with timely warning. The chapter one in …