Digital Commons Network^™

Towards Multimodal Open-World Learning In Deep Neural Networks, Manoj Acharya

Theses

Over the past decade, deep neural networks have enormously advanced machine perception, especially object classification, object detection, and multimodal scene understanding. But, a major limitation of these systems is that they assume a closed-world setting, i.e., the train and the test distribution match exactly. As a result, any input belonging to a category that the system has never seen during training will not be recognized as unknown. However, many real-world applications often need this capability. For example, self-driving cars operate in a dynamic world where the data can change over time due to changes in season, geographic location, sensor types, …

Technology Use By Registered Dietitians For Patient Care In An Outpatient Setting, Donika Emerllahu

Theses

Background Technology use in digital health tools has increased significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many in-office patient care services. Although healthcare practices have adopted several technologies, they remain surrounded by a saturated increase in consumer-based wearables and smartphone applications. As a result, attitudes and acceptability toward integrating these technologies for patient care are evolving. Digital health tools is an umbrella term including several technologies utilized among health care providers for the purpose of patient care. The inclusion of digital health tools by Registered Dietitian Nutritionists’ (RDNs) in practice provides a more robust and personalized approach to patients and their …

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 …

Cyber Attacks On Power System Substations, Turkei Abdulla Aldarrai

Theses

Modern cyber-physical smart power grids are increasingly relying on their associated cyber networks to fulfill a variety of monitoring and control activities, which unavoidably results in a rise in cyber vulnerabilities. In light of the likely cyber risks, it is crucial to create efficient ways for evaluating the overall sufficiency of power systems thoroughly. Cybersecurity must be implemented inside the smart grid to ensure the safe and dependable operation of this new type of electrical network. The use of standardized procedures and solutions is generally agreed upon amongst experts as the best starting point. The past several years have seen …

Towards A Robust And Long-Lasting Antimicrobial Surface, Justin A. Silva

Theses

Bacterial adhesion to surfaces such as medical devices causes approximately 1.7 million infections and 75,000 deaths each year in the United States. Throughout the past several years, many studies have been conducted on micro- and nanostructure-enabled antimicrobial surfaces. However, this idea is controversial, as some studies have shown that superhydrophobic micro and nanostructures cannot prevent bacterial growth over time and that they are not a practical solution to reduce healthcare-related infections. The objective of this study is to develop a mechanically durable and long-lasting antimicrobial surface to prevent bacterial growth. High-aspect-ratio micro mushroom structures are fabricated by high resolution stereolithography …

R-Cad: Rare Cyber Alert Signature Relationship Extraction Through Temporal Based Learning, Gordon Werner

Theses

The large number of streaming intrusion alerts make it challenging for security analysts to quickly identify attack patterns. This is especially difficult since critical alerts often occur too rarely for traditional pattern mining algorithms to be effective. Recognizing the attack speed as an inherent indicator of differing cyber attacks, this work aggregates alerts into attack episodes that have distinct attack speeds, and finds attack actions regularly co-occurring within the same episode. This enables a novel use of the constrained SPADE temporal pattern mining algorithm to extract consistent co-occurrences of alert signatures that are indicative of attack actions that follow each …

Deprivation Of Liberty Relating To Detention In Irish Residential Care Centres For The Older Person; A Legal And Ethical Analysis, Florence Horsman Hogan

Theses

People enter residential care for a wide variety of reasons, with many people stating they would prefer to live in their own homes. Lack of community resources may lead to an older person entering residential care against their stated will and preferences. Recent case law in Ireland has established that outside of the Mental Health Act (2001) and for infection control purposes the 1947 Health Act, there is no legal provision in Irish healthcare which allows for a person to be detained against their will. The Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015 is a key piece of legislation to enable …

Critical Corridor: Survey Of Predator Occurrence And Habitat Use In A Threatened Rainforest Protected Area: Comatsa-Sud And Marojejy National Park, Madagascar, Patrick H. Ross

Theses

Madagascar is a nation praised for its floral and faunal endemism and biodiversity. Among the island nation’s most emblematic fauna are its native mammalian carnivores; they are members of the threatened and endemic Eupleridae family. The Corridor of Marojejy – Anjanaharibe Sud – Tsaratanana (COMATSA) is a system of forest protected areas in which three large protected areas are connected in northern Madagascar: Tsaratanana Reserve, Anjanaharibe Sud Special Reserve and Marojejy National Park which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. COMATSA is a newly protected and currently threatened corridor system that lacks detailed surveys and assessments of its native …

A Study On Plant-Derived Small Proteins And Peptides With Antiyeast Activity And Preliminary Investigations In Food Materials, Giulia Mignone

Theses

The discovery of novel antimicrobial molecules would benefit considerably different biotechnological fields, including medicine, agriculture and the food industry, on which this thesis work focuses. Specifically, here are presented fundamental studies on plant-derived antimicrobial proteins for the reduction of food spoilage caused by yeast microorganisms. Small proteins and peptides from the plant innate immune system possess several characteristics which could make them ideal candidates for a novel and natural antispoilage agent. The first Chapter reviews proteins families associated with the plant innate immune system that exhibit antiyeast activity and low molecular weight (<30 kDa), focusing on their structure and antiyeast mode of action. Chapter 2 investigates two peptides, Pn-AMP1 and Pn-AMP2 belonging to the hevein-type peptides family; peptides were synthetically generated using their native amino acid sequence. Synthetic Pn-AMP1 showed fast action activity against common food spoilage yeasts, it resulted potentially safe for consumption, and it was successfully incorporated in UHT milk and Fanta Orange, where it contained the growth of Kluyveromyces lactis and Zygosaccharomyces bailii, respectively. A different family of antimicrobial plant proteins (2S albumins) was studied in Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6. Chapter 3 describes the selective extraction of an antiyeast protein (labelled WMS1 in this thesis work) of ~14 kDa from white mustard (Brassica hirta) seeds. The protein was purified in a relatively high yield, using a simple protocol that included only one chromatographic method step. In Chapter 4, bioinformatics tools and wet-lab techniques are used to study the structure and classify the antiyeast protein. The WMS1 antiyeast protein was identified as an isoform of the Napin protein Allergen Sin a 1 belonging to the 2S albumins family, characterised by high structural stability which donates to the protein resistance heat treatment and proteolytic degradation. Chapter 5 describes the antimicrobial spectrum of WMS1 , its antiyeast mechanism of action and its validity as preservative agent. Although WMS1 resulted potentially safe for consumption and inhibited the growth of Z. bailii in several beverage systems, its biotechnological potential is limited by its allergic properties. In Chapter 6, the protein WMS1 was cloned in a pET28a-MBP vector and expressed in an E. coli BL21 system. Interestedly, recombinant WMS1 and native WMS1 showed similar activity against the yeast Z. bailii. Thesis abstract 2 Chapter 7 includes a protocol for the rational design of ultra-short antimicrobial peptides. Since ultra-short antimicrobial sequences can be found within the sequence of any larger protein, the protocol was applied using WMS1 primary sequence, and seven ultra-short SinA-AMPs were chemically generated. Among the various SinA-AMPs, the peptide labelled SinA-pepIII had in vitro activity against several common yeast spoilage strains via membrane permeabilisation and it could be employed as a food preservative as it was pH- and heat- stable, potentially safe in terms of human consumption and it prevented the growth of Z. bailii in cranberry juice. The results obtained in this work offer new perspectives in the research for novel and clean-label food preservatives to fight the food waste phenomenon.

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 …

An Empirical Investigation Into Current And Future Overheating Frequency In Nzeb And Passivhaus Dwellings In Ireland, Evan Finegan

Theses

The European Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) 2011, ensures that all new Irish dwellings designed after 01st November 2019 are nearly zero energy (nZEB) dwellings. The Passive House (PH) standard has been the most commonly applied energy standard across the globe in recent decades, while overheating is identified as a growing issue in nZEB and PH dwellings. The EPBD requires all dwellings to be designed to reduce energy consumption, while considering general indoor climate conditions to avoid the negative effects of overheating. Overheating frequency simulations are not mandatory for dwellings under Irish legislation. Anticipated climate change trends will result in …

Communities And World Heritage Nomination: The Journey Of The Valentia Transatlantic Cable Ensemble, Elizabeth Baxter

Theses

In recent years, the role of communities in the stewardship of World Heritage (WH) sites has been recognised and encouraged by UNESCO. Communities have formally been included in all WH processes from nomination to inscription on the WH List. This case study documents a community-led approach to Ireland’s first industrial WH nomination; The ‘Valentia Transatlantic Cable Ensemble’ (VTCE) on Valentia Island, Co. Kerry. Objectives of this project have been fulfilled through a comprehensive literature review and a qualitative research design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of the Valentia Island community and other stakeholders. Examination and analysis of the data …

Implementation And Evaluation Of Deep Neural Networks In Commercially Available Processing In Memory Hardware, Prangon Das

Theses

Deep Neural Networks (DNN), specifically Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are often associated with a large number of data-parallel computations. Therefore, data-centric computing paradigms, such as Processing in Memory (PIM), are being widely explored for CNN acceleration applications. A recent PIM architecture, developed and commercialized by the UPMEM company, has demonstrated impressive performance boost over traditional CPU-based systems for a wide range of data parallel applications. However, the application domain of CNN acceleration is yet to be explored on this PIM platform. In this work, successful implementations of CNNs on the UPMEM PIM system are presented. Furthermore, multiple operation mapping schemes …

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 …

Biophysical Mechanisms Of Cell-Substrate Interactions Over Porous Membranes, Zahra Allahyari

Theses

There is an increasing interest in the development of microphysiological systems due to their applications in drug discoveries and development of therapeutic strategies. Porous membranes are major components of these in vitro biological systems. The interest in using porous membranes, especially ultrathin ones, stems from their capabilities in providing physiologically relevant tissue interfaces and cell-cell communication between the co-cultured cells. Despite the wide applications of these membranes in biomimetic platforms, their role in modulating different cellular behaviors and the enabling mechanism for these effects are not fully understood. It has been previously shown that porous membranes generally weaken cell-substrate interaction. …

Post-Season Depression, But Not Anxiety, Differs From In-Season Status In Ncaa Diii Lacrosse Student-Athletes, Jimmy Spillane

Theses

Objective: While mental health among collegiate athletes is receiving increased attention, research on when student-athletes suffer the most from anxious or depressive thoughts is limited. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to examine how anxiety and depression levels change in student-athletes between in-season, and after completion of the playoffs (after-season), timepoints.

Design: The present study was a pre-post study design with a repeated measures assessment six weeks apart that collected data using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Harvard Department of Psychiatry/National Depression Screening Day Scale (HANDS). The survey set was delivered using the Qualtrics Platform (Qualtrics International Inc, …

Investigation Of Thickness And Robustness Of Ultrathin Parylene Membranes For Tissue Barrier And Co-Culture Models, Shayan Gholizadeh

Theses

Ultrathin porous membranes are currently used for various biomedical applications, ranging from co-culture systems to tissue barrier models. In the blood-brain barrier model, the intimate proximity between endothelial and glial cells plays a significant role in cell-cell communication and transmigration across the barrier, which cannot be physiologically modeled with conventional co-culture systems typically separating cell types by more than 10 μm. A thickness gradient membrane can enable studies where the goal is to understand the physical characteristics of co-culture arrangement in the barrier model. Here, a robust method to generate ultrathin porous Parylene C (UPP) membranes is developed not just …

High Error Rate Qubit Routing, Sean Bonaventure

Theses

The current state of quantum computers is characterized by its limited resources and high noise levels. These are known as Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum Computing (NISQ). Reduction of noise is addressed at the technology level, while noise mitigation strategies have been proposed through the compilation process of quantum circuits. The compilation process entails a number of steps that are computationally intensive and scale poorly as the problems grow in size and resource usage. This paper addresses the problems associated with noise by proposing a noise aware qubit routing algorithm. This algorithm attempts to improve accuracy of circuits by using SWAP …

Quantifying The Effects Of Customer Predictability On Battery Energy Storage System Cost And Emissions, Mudit Bhadresh Purohit

Theses

Electricity providers are using variable pricing to encourage customers to shift energy consumption from “peak” times. This presents a great opportunity for the customers to reduce their bills using this variable pricing strategy coupled with a battery energy storage system (BESS). The schedule of charging and discharging the BESS depends on the forecasted customer demand data. Forecasts are bound to have a certain degree of error associated with them, and hence it becomes important to understand the effect of these forecasting errors on the cost and the emissions associated with scheduling of the BESS. In this work, a method has …

Supporting The Maintenance Of Identifier Names: A Holistic Approach To High-Quality Automated Identifier Naming, Anthony S. Peruma

Theses

A considerable part of the source code is identifier names-- unique lexical tokens that provide information about entities, and entity interactions, within the code. Identifier names provide human-readable descriptions of classes, functions, variables, etc. Poor or ambiguous identifier names (i.e., names that do not correctly describe the code behavior they are associated with) will lead developers to spend more time working towards understanding the code's behavior. Bad naming can also have detrimental effects on tools that rely on natural language clues; degrading the quality of their output and making them unreliable. Additionally, misinterpretations of the code, caused by poor names, …

Color In Pharma: Color Associations And Expected Efficacies, Rema M. Amawi

Theses

Colors influence our daily perceptions and expectations which can manifest in a variety of ways. This research has three main objectives: the first is to demonstrate this effect on the relationship between the colors of pills and their perceived and expected efficacies. The second is to test this effect on a wide variety of demographics, thereby demonstrating that categories such as ethnicity, location, age, gender, educational levels, and pill usage frequency can influence the choices made by participants. Finally, the third objective is to understand the reasoning behind the choices made by participants, as well as the color associations exhibited. …

Probing The Processes Of Planet Formation Via Studies Of The Ε Chameleonitis Association, D. Annie Dickson-Vandervelde

Theses

Nearby Young Moving Groups (NYMGs), i.e., loose groups of stars of agevicinity, present ideal, accessible observational laboratories for studies on star and planet formation. Studying individual members of NYMGs, especially those hosting protoplanetary disks, in the infrared and millimeter regimes gives astronomers key information on disk evolution and the planet formation process. In this dissertation, I present an analysis of newly available data for members of one of the youngest known NYMGs, the Epsilon Chameleonitis Association (ECA), including detailed studies of two ECA members that host protoplanetary disks viewed at high inclinations (i.e. within ~30 degrees of edge-on). Through analysis …

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 …

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 …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Graphene Oxide-Based High-Density Polyethylene / Polypropylene Nanocomposites For Biomedical Applications, Albaina Ali Aldhaheri

Theses

Polymeric nanocomposites have recently become one of the most essential sought-after materials for biomedical applications. Among many others, High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) is being widely used as a bearing material for the artificial hip and knee joints. However, the weak surface properties of HDPE limit the total artificial hip joints’ survival chances. The addition of polypropylene (PP) improves the surface properties of HDPE composites along with their thermal, chemical, and mechanical properties which are crucial in biomedical applications. Moreover, PP can be easily blended with polyethylene (PE) as it has an almost similar chemical resistance to PE. However, PP is more …

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 …

Static Testing Of Hybrid Rocket Engine Using Biomass Waste, Saleh Mohammed Musaed Badi

Theses

This work investigates experimentally for the first time the performance of two solid biomass wastes as propellants for a Hybrid Rocket Motor based on the combustion and propulsion parameters such as combustion chamber pressure, thrust force, chamber temperature, combustion characteristics, and flame length generated. The main objective of this study is to examine the performance of the proposed biomass fuels (Date stone powder and Jojoba waste powder) in comparison with typical hydrocarbon fuels. To make an accurate comparison, Paraffin Wax-based propellant was used in this study as a reference fuel to compare with biomass performance using the same testing facility …

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 …

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 …