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Heat Transfer And Aerodynamic Losses Caused By Additively Manufactured Turbine Blades Enhanced By Micro-Machining And Chemical Polishing, Mason Hancock Jan 2025

Heat Transfer And Aerodynamic Losses Caused By Additively Manufactured Turbine Blades Enhanced By Micro-Machining And Chemical Polishing, Mason Hancock

Theses

As turbine engines are pushed to operate at higher temperatures and pressure ratios, turbine blades are forced to interact with more extreme conditions. Additive manufacturing (AM) offers new possibilities for meeting these challenges by allowing the fabrication of complex shapes from advanced materials like GRX-810, an alloy designed to maintain strength and durability at extreme temperatures. However, one of the trade-offs with AM is its inherently rough surface finish, which can vary depending on how the surface is treated after printing. This thesis investigates how different surface treatment methods, including micromachining and chemical polishing, as well as the untreated, as-built …


A Study On The Nocturnal Evolution During Perils 2023 Iop3’S Supercells To Qlcs Development, Meredith Bean Jan 2025

A Study On The Nocturnal Evolution During Perils 2023 Iop3’S Supercells To Qlcs Development, Meredith Bean

Theses

The Propagation Evolution and Rotation of Linear Storms (PERiLS) field campaign deployed mobile facilities on 24 March 2023 to the Mississippi Delta region. During the intensive operational period, a storm system passed over the PERiLS network that later produced multiple tornadoes in Mississippi and North Alabama. This mesoscale convective system evolved from supercells and merged into a QLCS. This study aimed to document and understand the changes in environmental parameters and associated convective-scale structures as the system moved from initiation over the PERiLS network to North Alabama. The analysis methodology utilizes ground-based assets to ascertain if the MCS was surface …


Liposomes As A Platform For Cd40 Ligand Presentation For The Purpose Of Feeder-Free B Cell Activation, Sydney Bone Jan 2025

Liposomes As A Platform For Cd40 Ligand Presentation For The Purpose Of Feeder-Free B Cell Activation, Sydney Bone

Theses

Improvement of in-vitro culture of immune cells is critical for expanding our understanding of the immune system and advancing the treatment of diseases, whether pathogenic, cancerous, or autoimmune, via cellular immunotherapies. This study aims to develop a feeder-free B cell culture system using biomaterials-based presentation of a critical signaling molecule, namely CD40 ligand (CD40L). Traditional B cell culture methods rely on allogenic feeder cells to present CD40L, but a culture of only autologous cells is preferable for cellular immunotherapies. Previous work of our lab established an effective feeder-free B cell culture system using magnetic microbeads as a synthetic platform for …


Simplified Soil-Based Approach For Maximum Pressure Prediction In Horizontal Directional Drilling Operations, India Clark Jan 2025

Simplified Soil-Based Approach For Maximum Pressure Prediction In Horizontal Directional Drilling Operations, India Clark

Theses

Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is a trenchless pipeline installation method used in areas where traditional trenching is not feasible due to environmental concerns, existing infrastructure, or other constraints. However, HDD presents significant engineering challenges, with design failures often resulting from excessive installation stresses and Hydro Fracture. Hydro Fracture occurs when the pressure of drilling fluid exceeds the soil’s bearing capacity, leading to unintended subsurface fractures. To mitigate this risk, researchers have relied on the Delft Equation to estimate the maximum allowable mud pressure for borehole stability. However, this equation does have notable limitations and assumptions, which may not accurately reflect …


Determination Of Material Deformation At Truly Constant Strain Rates Utilizing Full-Field Stress And Strain Measurements, Derryk Lee Daignault Jan 2025

Determination Of Material Deformation At Truly Constant Strain Rates Utilizing Full-Field Stress And Strain Measurements, Derryk Lee Daignault

Theses

The rate sensitivity of materials is an important aspect to consider when designing components; such as in manufacturing processes, aerospace vehicle impacts/propulsion systems, and automobile collisions. Characterizing a material’s rate sensitivity can be expensive and time consuming due to multiple tests being necessary at each given strain-rate to fully characterize the response. This project proposes a methodology to determine the material response at multiple truly constant true strain rates from a single test using non-uniform geometry and the strain localization phenomenon. Finite element simulations using Ansys LS-DYNA are used to design potential new test specimen geometries to induce constant and …


Fault Tolerance In Krylov Subspace Methods, Sandesh Pandit Jan 2025

Fault Tolerance In Krylov Subspace Methods, Sandesh Pandit

Theses

The increasing complexity of modern high-performance computing (HPC) systems, with their vast number of processing units and extensive memory hierarchies, introduces significant challenges to system resilience, particularly in the face of soft errors. Krylov subspace methods, which play a pivotal role in solving large-scale sparse linear systems and eigenvalue problems, are iterative in nature and thus susceptible to the propagation of soft errors. In this paper, we examine the fault tolerance properties of two widely-used Krylov subspace methods: the Lanczos method and the Bi- Conjugate Gradient (BiCG) method. Specifically, we analyze the impact of soft errors introduced during the critical …


Sensor Fusion For Enhancing Motion Capture : Integrating Optical And Inertial Motion Capture Systems, Hailey Hicks Jan 2025

Sensor Fusion For Enhancing Motion Capture : Integrating Optical And Inertial Motion Capture Systems, Hailey Hicks

Theses

This study aimed to create and evaluate a custom sensor fusion algorithm based on Gauss-Newton optimization that combines Optical Motion Capture (OMC) and Inertial Motion Capture (IMC) measurements to combat the limitations of solely using each system. The goal was to demonstrate how inertial measurement unit (IMU) data can be seamlessly integrated into motion capture data to provide a more efficient and reliable gap filling process for future research. The algorithm takes the first and last frame of OMC data, as quaternions, and fills the rest with IMU gyroscope orientation data to simulate gaps of up to ten minutes. The …


A Deep Learning Multi-Channel Framework For Indoor Image Retrieval, Vidhi M. Bhatia Jan 2025

A Deep Learning Multi-Channel Framework For Indoor Image Retrieval, Vidhi M. Bhatia

Theses

Processing and analyzing multi-source image data is vital across a wide range of fields, including artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning, computer vision, geolocation, autonomous navigation, remote sensing, and forensic investigations. Although conventional image matching methods such as Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF) have proven effective in controlled setting, they often face challenges when applied to diverse datasets that exhibit substantial variations in viewpoint, scale, lighting conditions, and modality. Recent developments in deep learning, including convolutional neural networks (CNNs), transformers, generative adversarial networks (GANs), and self-supervised learning, have led to the creation of more efficient and precise …


Multiscale Finite Element Analysis Of Cylindrical Jellyroll Based Energy Storage Devices, Wesley James Knee Jan 2025

Multiscale Finite Element Analysis Of Cylindrical Jellyroll Based Energy Storage Devices, Wesley James Knee

Theses

Lithium batteries are an ever-expanding solution for energy storage; however, their internal chemistry is highly prone to combustion. Any severe mechanical failure can lead to this scenario, which is problematic as their use in electric vehicles increases. As such, finite element modeling efforts need to improve in order to properly define the failure mechanics of these batteries. Efforts have already been made to create an accurate model of the battery as a whole, but this generalized model does not capture the short-circuiting phenomena within the internal components. To solve this problem, a representative volume model that generates input data and …


Efficient Lossless Compression Of Malaria Infected Image Datasets Using Vision Transformers And Deep Autoencoders, Md Firoz Mahmud Jan 2025

Efficient Lossless Compression Of Malaria Infected Image Datasets Using Vision Transformers And Deep Autoencoders, Md Firoz Mahmud

Theses

In the field of medical imaging, lossless compression techniques play a critical role in maintaining the fidelity of medical data, while improving the efficiency of data storage and transmission, especially in telemedicine applications. This thesis addresses the development of a novel machine learning-based method for lossless compression of images of erythrocytes infected with malaria. The proposed method has two stages. In the first stage, a Vision Transformer, a computer vision model that can learn long-range dependence, is employed to separate erythrocyte images into two categories: infected and uninfected. This classification stage is essential as it allows the subsequent compression approaches …


Comparing Role Differences Among Systems Architects, Systems Designers, And Systems Engineers, Kelly X. Campo Jan 2025

Comparing Role Differences Among Systems Architects, Systems Designers, And Systems Engineers, Kelly X. Campo

Theses

The roles of a systems architect (SA), systems designer (SD), and systems engineer (SE) often work together to develop systems, especially as the scale and complexity of engineered systems increase. However, management of these roles can result in ambiguity of task assignments and may reduce accountability for deliverables. Furthermore, there are few published works examining the roles of SAs, SDs, and SEs collectively. This research explores perceptions of the similarities and differences between the roles of SAs, SDs, and SEs by conducting a systematic literature review of 57 sources containing 1064 quotes in addition to a thematic content analysis, analyzed …


Internal Kinematic Structure And Environment Of An Extremely High-Shear, Low-Cape Qlcs Across North Alabama On 03 March 2023, Caleb Kiser Jan 2025

Internal Kinematic Structure And Environment Of An Extremely High-Shear, Low-Cape Qlcs Across North Alabama On 03 March 2023, Caleb Kiser

Theses

During the morning of 03 March 2023, a potent Quasi-Linear Convective System (QLCS) impacted northern Alabama, The QLCS was characterized by extremely High Shear and Low CAPE (HSLC), with CAPE below 500 Jkg-1 and 0-6 km wind shear approaching 49 ms-1. A total of 315 damaging straight-line wind reports were noted by the SPC, with the majority of those occurring across the southeastern US. This study examines the mesoscale variability in vertical wind profiles (VWPs) and storm-relative helicity (SRH), including documenting the presence of extreme shear and the variance in SRH magnitudes across northern AL. VWPs indicated that wind shear …


Average Heat Flux Measurements In An Additively Manufactured Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Calorimeter, Matthew Aaron Maybee Jan 2025

Average Heat Flux Measurements In An Additively Manufactured Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Calorimeter, Matthew Aaron Maybee

Theses

Rotating detonation rocket engines (RDREs) offer benefits over traditional deflagrative engines, including increased engine performance, compact combustion and negligible detrimental thermoacoustic instabilities due to mode-locking. Realizing the benefits of a detonation-based propulsion system will be accompanied by increased thermal loads due to a combination of heat release at elevated pressure and temperature, as well as compact heat release due to detonation. Managing these heat loads necessitates the development of thermal management strategies. As a first step towards establishing the requirements for detonation-based engine thermal management strategies, this work develops an additively manufactured (AM) water-based, axially resolved calorimeter for integration in …


Deep Learning Time Series Prediction Strategies For Efficiently Emulating Noah Land Surface Model Soil Moisture Dynamics, Mitchell T. Dodson Jan 2025

Deep Learning Time Series Prediction Strategies For Efficiently Emulating Noah Land Surface Model Soil Moisture Dynamics, Mitchell T. Dodson

Theses

This work examines the ability of deep learning time series generative models to accurately and efficiently emulate the hourly temporal dynamics of the Noah Land Surface Model (Noah-LSM) out to a 2 week forecast horizon, given atmospheric forcings and static parameterization provided by the second phase North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS-2) framework. Results from multiple neural network architectures are compared alongside variations in prediction target, loss function characteristics, and model properties. The most performant model types are subsequently evaluated with respect to forecast distance, annual seasonality, and against a variety of regional scenarios, including several event case studies. …


Ammonium Perchlorate Manufacturing Effects On Propellant Burning Rate, Erin Faith Wallace Jan 2025

Ammonium Perchlorate Manufacturing Effects On Propellant Burning Rate, Erin Faith Wallace

Theses

This thesis investigates the effect of ingredient variations on the burning rate of reduced smoke, low burning rate composite solid propellant. The effort focused on identical propellant formulations which presented significant burning rate differences correlated with the ammonium perchlorate (AP) source. A series of 1-gallon propellant mixes were prepared and tested utilizing both Manufacturer A and Manufacturer B ammonium perchlorate to investigate the propellant burning rate and pressure exponent shift anomaly and correlate those findings to the differing ingredient properties between the two AP lots. Each propellant mix was evaluated for burning rate utilizing subscale test motors and a scanning …


Near-Field Analysis Of Horn Antennas For Electromagnetic Compatibility Testing, Landon Riley Carroll Jan 2025

Near-Field Analysis Of Horn Antennas For Electromagnetic Compatibility Testing, Landon Riley Carroll

Theses

Standard gain horn antennas are widely used in electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing and antenna measurements. In EMC testing, it is often required to generate high electric field intensities across a wide frequency range within the near-field region. However, the focusing properties of antennas are deteriorated in the radiating near-field region. In order to increase engineering confidence in EMC testing, it is desirable to understand the root causes of the aforementioned radiation degradation. In this thesis, the near-field characteristics of three different pyramidal standard gain horns are investigated using full-wave analysis, analytical methods, and measurement. The causes of near-field gain reduction …


Factors Affecting Freshwater Fish Communities In Two North Alabama Counties, Joshua Fitts Jan 2025

Factors Affecting Freshwater Fish Communities In Two North Alabama Counties, Joshua Fitts

Theses

This study examined how physical habitat characteristics influence freshwater fish diversity in streams of Madison and Limestone Counties, Alabama. Ten 150-meter stream reaches were sampled using backpack electrofishing and seining, with habitat variables measured at fixed transects. Principal component analysis identified four main habitat gradients representing flow and substrate, channel size, gravel dominance, and canopy–bedrock conditions. Although overall species richness and Shannon diversity were not significantly related to these gradients, species-specific correlations revealed clear ecological preferences. Regression models showed that root wads, herbaceous vegetation, and riprap modestly increased richness, emphasizing the role of structural diversity. These findings highlight the importance …


Influence Of Hot Isostatic Pressing And Quench Rate On Aluminum 2139am, A Novel Alloy For Lpbf, James Wagnon Jan 2025

Influence Of Hot Isostatic Pressing And Quench Rate On Aluminum 2139am, A Novel Alloy For Lpbf, James Wagnon

Theses

Mechanical and microstructural evaluation was carried out on a modified 2XXX series aluminum alloy designed for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). Aluminum 2139AM samples printed via LPBF were given three distinct heat treatments: baseline T4 with water quench, modified T4 with hot isostatic pressing (HIP) and natural cooling, and modified T4 with HIP and rapid gas quench. This study examines the effects of the experimental HIP treatment with rapid gas cooling on the LPBF samples to increase ductility and assess the potential of the material as an AM replacement for 2024-T4 aluminum parts. Use of HIP processing on 2139AM was …


A Mutually Exclusive 3d Convolution Based Time Dilation Framework For Future Frame Prediction In Video Streams Of Natural Events, Benjamin Robinson Jan 2025

A Mutually Exclusive 3d Convolution Based Time Dilation Framework For Future Frame Prediction In Video Streams Of Natural Events, Benjamin Robinson

Theses

In this thesis, a framework for predicting future frames from videos of naturally occurring processes will be presented. This is achieved by learning the underlying physical laws of the natural process through the exploitation of spatiotemporal features from the frames of the video. Our framework defines windows containing frames at varying time intervals, which we call dilations, and uses them to predict future frames using a 3D convolutional neural network (CNN). The network architecture accepts six time-dilated windows of input video frames and computes spatiotemporal features for each window maintaining the exclusion of the resulting features across three phases of …


Effects Of Band-K Reordering On Sparse Tensor Formats For Parallel Architectures, Shae Nicolas Bolt Jan 2025

Effects Of Band-K Reordering On Sparse Tensor Formats For Parallel Architectures, Shae Nicolas Bolt

Theses

This thesis presents a background in sparse tensor formats and a study of the effects of Band-K and lexi-ordering on the HiCOO sparse tensor format using the matricized tensor times Khatri-Rao product (MTTKRP). We provide a background of sparse tensors and tensors in general. We cover several foundational sparse tensor formats including CSR, BCSR, and COO, and extensions to those formats HiCOO and CSR-K. Furthermore, we discuss methods of reordering tensors using Band-K and lexi-ordering. Finally, we modify HiParTI to supporting Band-K reordering over slices and benchmark the results against lexi-ordering and natural ordering.


Predicting Airbnb Prices In Dubai Using Machine Learning, Hamad Younus Altamimi Jan 2025

Predicting Airbnb Prices In Dubai Using Machine Learning, Hamad Younus Altamimi

Theses

The Airbnb rental market in Dubai is dynamic and full of varying factors like location, equipment, and demand time shortages, which makes it challenging to have fair pricing for the different levels of Airbnb properties in Dubai. The goal of the project was to construct a powerful machine-learning model for the forecast of the Airbnb rental price in Dubai The method used by the project was systematic from the beginning to the end stages, which included the data collection from Kaggle, the data preprocessing which involved the handling of missing values, outlier elimination, data type conversion, and exploratory data analysis …


Study Of An Evolutionary Sequence Of Nearby, High-Excitation Bipolar Planetary Nebulae With Alma And Hst, Paula M. Moraga Baez Jan 2025

Study Of An Evolutionary Sequence Of Nearby, High-Excitation Bipolar Planetary Nebulae With Alma And Hst, Paula M. Moraga Baez

Theses

Planetary nebulae (PNe) reveal the near-final stages of the evolution of intermediate-mass (1-8 solar mass) stars, immediately after such stars shed their envelopes through copious asymptotic giant branch (AGB) mass loss. PNe reveal products of intermediate-mass stellar nucleosynthesis just before they enrich the interstellar medium, and their central stars provide subjects for studying the origins of white dwarfs and interacting binary systems involving compact objects. The processes that shape planetary nebulae and determine their chemistries can be unveiled through multiwavelength observational studies of molecule-rich PNe ranging from young and rapidly evolving nebulae, such as NGC 7027, NGC 6302, and NGC …


Resilient Power System Load Frequency Control, Ghadeer Ahmed Almahri Jan 2025

Resilient Power System Load Frequency Control, Ghadeer Ahmed Almahri

Theses

Standard frequency and voltage levels need to be maintained when the electric power system is running in order to keep it in a satisfactory state of operation. Between AC power generation and use, there should be a balance between active and reactive power. However, due to variations in active and reactive power requirements, the frequency and voltage provided may fluctuate from their rated values. Any unwelcome change in frequency or voltage can have an immediate effect on how the power system operates and may even cause harm to linked devices. These parts are intended to operate at certain rated frequencies …


The Table, Ruichu Yu Jan 2025

The Table, Ruichu Yu

Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between identity formation, emotional rupture, and social performance through the symbolic framework of the dining table to examine how everyday rituals shape and destabilize the self. Beginning with a personal history of crafting prosthetic ears at the request of the artist’s otologist father, the project emerges from an initial desire to heal others and confronts the emotional weight of restoration. As the work evolves, this act of repair becomes a catalyst for the artist’s own confrontation with psychological fragmentation, shifting the focus from medical mending to the deconstruction of selfhood. Drawing on theories of performativity …


Domain-Specific Customization For Improving Speech To Text, Zubin Mario Tobias Jan 2025

Domain-Specific Customization For Improving Speech To Text, Zubin Mario Tobias

Theses

The advent of transformer-based models has revolutionized natural language processing, bringing remarkable improvements in tasks like automatic speech recognition (ASR). Inspired by these advancements, this thesis explores the optimization of a transformer-based ASR model to improve transcription accuracy in educational settings, particularly for lecture content. The goal of this research is to provide real-time, high-accuracy captions that enhance accessibility for all students, while offering a cost-effective solution for educators. To assess the potential of domain-specific fine-tuning, Whisper-small underwent two phases of fine-tuning. In the first phase, it was finetuned on care- fully selected, publicly available datasets: SpeechColab’s Gigaspeech-XS [39], AMI …


Active Learning Methodologies And Applications, Pradeep Bajracharya Jan 2025

Active Learning Methodologies And Applications, Pradeep Bajracharya

Theses

Active learning (AL) is a Machine Learning (ML) strategy that offers a promising solution to challenges posed by the data-intensive tasks by selectively querying the most informative data, reducing the need for extensive labeled datasets. This approach is particularly valuable for fields like cardiac research and scientific simulations, where data labeling becomes expensive and often impractical. Deep Active Learning (DAL) extends this concept to deep learning models, which are typically data hungry, where the focus is more to optimize data selection in discrete search spaces. Conversely, Explorative Active Learning (EAL), is tailored for exploration of continuous search spaces, employing machine …


Using Generative Models For Data Augmentation In Medical Imaging, Nilesh Kumar Jan 2025

Using Generative Models For Data Augmentation In Medical Imaging, Nilesh Kumar

Theses

Obtaining large amounts of labelled data in medical imaging is hindered by issues like privacy and cost, therefore limiting the gains that can be achieved from Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). A lot of work has shown data augmentation to be an effective strategy for expanding training data leading to more robust models. However, the lack of data is not always uniform across datasets e.g., some classes in a dataset may be underrepresented. This is particularly problematic because the overall good performance of a model on a dataset can easily mask the under-performance of underrepresented classes or instances. Naively employing data …


How Smart City Growth Principles Can Be Adopted In The Uae To Solve The Local Housing Problems?, Shaima Abdulla Alblooki Jan 2025

How Smart City Growth Principles Can Be Adopted In The Uae To Solve The Local Housing Problems?, Shaima Abdulla Alblooki

Theses

Shaikh Zayed Housing Program “SZHP” is the governmental program that is responsible for local housing in the UAE. The program’s main aim is to offer a variety of housing services such as loans, grants, and ready-to-move houses. However, both the continuously growing urban population and liveability challenges are impeding the program to meet its goal. As mentioned on SZHP’s official website “We should continue to explore new ways to establish informed dialogue with different groups of society and to ensure adequate housing for national families, in achieving stability and community development by meeting future needs” (SZHP, 2022 ). Accordingly, this …


The Line, Tyler Delaney Bischoff Jan 2025

The Line, Tyler Delaney Bischoff

Theses

“The essence of good design is revealing the invisible structure that holds everything together, allowing us to see beauty in strength." - Frank Lloyd Wright This Thesis investigates the transposition of architectural principles into ceramic art, drawing inspiration from Western New York’s late 19th century and early 20th century architectural and craft traditions. Through an exploration of symmetry and proportion, surface texture, materiality, and the dynamic interplay between light and shadow, this research examines how architecture influences not only the physical aesthetics of ceramic art, but also its atmospheric and emotional presence. Recognizing how form is never static but continuously …


Ink And Internment: The Wartime Artistry Of Japanese Americans And Spaniards During World War Ii, Avery Calvert Jan 2025

Ink And Internment: The Wartime Artistry Of Japanese Americans And Spaniards During World War Ii, Avery Calvert

Theses

World War II displaced millions of people around the world. “Ink and Internment: The Wartime Artistry of Japanese Americans and Spaniards During World War II” evaluates the internment experiences of Japanese Americans and Spaniards through the lens of art with a special focus on two artists: Miné Okubo and Josep Bartolí. Okubo, a Japanese American artist born in 1927, experienced internment in the United States as a young adult. Her artwork reveals her personal experience as well as that of her fellow internees. Okubo created her art memoir, Citizen 13600, to share the internment experience of Japanese Americans with others. …