Digital Commons Network^™

Recovery Of Valuable Metals From Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Organic Acids: Assessment Of Technoeconomic Feasibility, Leqi Lin

Theses

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are used in diverse electronic products with anticipated over 500 thousand tonnes of the waste LIBs globally in 2020. To protect the environment and also recover valuable materials such as lithium (Li) and cobalt (Co), our research employed a hydrometallurgy method and demonstrated that exposure of spent LIBs to Organic Aqua Regia (OAR) could leach Li and Co without the pre-separation of cathode from Al foil using organic solvents such as Dimethylformamide (DMF) and N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP). The leaching efficiency of 99% and 94% for Li and Co were obtained with a leaching rate of 0.021, 0.167 …

Deep Learning For Quantitative Motion Tracking Based On Optical Coherence Tomography, Peter Abdelmalak

Theses

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a cross-sectional imaging modality based on low coherence light interferometry. OCT has been widely used in diagnostic ophthalmology and has found applications in other biomedical fields such as cancer detection and surgical guidance.

In the Laboratory of Biophotonics Imaging and Sensing at New Jersey Institute of Technology, we developed a unique needle OCT imager based on a single fiber probe for breast cancer imaging. The needle OCT imager with sub-millimeter diameter can be inserted into tissue for minimally invasive in situ breast imaging. OCT imaging provides spatial resolution similar to histology and has the potential …

Enhanced Removal Of Perfluorooctanoic Acid (Pfoa) Via Microwave-Fenton-Reactive Membrane Filtration, Fangzhou Liu

Theses

Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA), one of the common per- and poly fluorinated alkylated substances (PFASs), is increasingly detected in the environment due to the diverse industrial applications and high resistance to degradation processes. This study evaluated degradation of PFOA in microwave-assistant catalytic membrane filtration, a process that integrates microwave catalytic reactions into a ceramic membrane filtration. First, water permeation of the pristine and catalyst-coated membranes were examined under the influence of microwave irradiation to analyse the impacts of the coating layer and water temperature increase on permeate flux, which were well interpreted by three models. Then, the PFOA removal was first …

Privacy-Preserving Recommendation System Using Federated Learning, Rahul Basu

Theses

Federated Learning is a form of distributed learning which leverages edge devices for training. It aims to preserve privacy by communicating users’ learning parameters and gradient updates to the global server during the training while keeping the actual data on the users’ devices. The training on global server is performed on these parameters instead of user data directly while fine tuning of the model can be done on client’s devices locally. However, federated learning is not without its shortcomings and in this thesis, we present an overview of the learning paradigm and propose a new federated recommender system framework that …

Analysis Of Gameplay Strategies In Hearthstone: A Data Science Approach, Connor W. Watson

Theses

In recent years, games have been a popular test bed for AI research, and the presence of Collectible Card Games (CCGs) in that space is still increasing. One such CCG for both competitive/casual play and AI research is Hearthstone, a two-player adversarial game where players seeks to implement one of several gameplay strategies to defeat their opponent and decrease all of their Health points to zero. Although some open source simulators exist, some of their methodologies for simulated agents create opponents with a relatively low skill level. Using evolutionary algorithms, this thesis seeks to evolve agents with a higher skill …

Model-Based Deep Siamese Autoencoder For Clustering Single Cell Rna-Seq Data, Zixia Meng

Theses

In the biological field, the smallest unit of organisms in most biological systems is the single cell, and the classification of cells is an everlasting problem. A central task for analysis of single-cell RNA-seq data is to identify and characterize novel cell types. Currently, there are several classical methods, such as K-means algorithm, spectral clustering, and Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs), which are widely used to cluster the cells. Furthermore, typical dimensional reduction methods such as PCA, t-SNE, and ZIDA have been introduced to overcome “the curse of dimensionality”. A more recent method scDeepCluster has demonstrated improved and promising performances in …

Spectral 3d Reconstruction Based On Macroscopic Oct Imaging, Xingyu Zhou

Theses

Various optical technologies have been utilized to improve art conservation by art conservators, such as laser triangulation, stereophotogrammetry, structured light, laser scanner and time of flight sensors. These methods have been deployed to capture the 3D or surface topography information of sculptures and architectures. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has introduced new imaging methods to study the surface features and subsurface structures of delicate cultural heritage objects. However, despite its higher spatial resolution, the field of view (FOV) of OCT severely limits the size of the scanning area and does not allow macroscopic examination. To solve this issue, we develop and …

Prediction Of Gas-Hydrate Equilibrium, Stability And Kinetic Nucleation In Porous Media, Yali Zhang

Theses

Natural gas-hydrates are crystalline inclusion compounds with gas molecules (guest compounds) trapped within a host lattice formed by water molecules in an ice-like hydrogen-bonded framework. Natural gas-hydrates have the potential to become an important carbon-based resource addressing the increasing energy demand, and they pose a risk in terms of climate change. Accurate estimates of gas-hydrates global inventory, understanding of formation and dissociation processes of gas-hydrates, and evaluation of their environmental impact require models that accurately describe gas-hydrate stability in sediments and predict gas-hydrate kinetic nucleation processes. The hypothesis driving this work is that incorporation of selected sediment properties, i.e., surface …

Re-Engineering Universities’ Admission Process Using Artificial Intelligence And Cloud, Ammar Kamel Alrefai

Theses

Student admission system is a web application interface that students usually use to apply for admission into a university. The traditional admission process has two steps. The first step is when the students fill in a form by providing all the required information from the admission office, like the personal information, previous academic records, English test results (IELTS or TOEFL) and the program they want to study. The second step is to upload the required documents that verify the information provided in the first step, like the identity card, national number, passport copies, TOEFL/IELTS test results, past bachelor/master certificate or …

A Recent (2020) Comparative Analysis Of Genome Aligners Shows Hisat2 And Bwa Are Among The Best Tools, Ryan J. Musich

Theses

Genome aligners are an important tool in bioinformatics research as they can be used to detect gene variants to create higher crop yields, detect abnormal gene production in cancer cell lines, or identify weaknesses in a newly discovered pathogen. Aligners work by taking sequenced DNA or RNA and mapping these reads to their corresponding location in a reference genome. Although beneficial as a tool, choosing which aligner to use for a project is often a difficult decision due to the large number of tools available and each one claiming to be the best at what it does. The goal of …

Customer Complaints Auto-Assignment Using Machine Learning Algorithms, Muammar Nasser Saleh Mohammed

Theses

Managing customer complaints is a very challenging activity, especially when it comes to a government entity like Roads a Transport Authority (RTA) that manages the roads infrastructure and services. RTA for the management of the customer complaints requires a sophisticated and intelligent responsive system for the large volume of cases and calls, which result in needs to a lot of human resources to receive, record and handle customer calls and cases. "The key customer-save course of action is the complaints-handling process. Customers who complain to service providers and are well treated by the process are less likely to churn than …

Predicting And Enhancing Employee Daily Performance For Dewa-Hv Design Department, Maryam Abdulrahim Alshenaini

Theses

The most measurement tool used to measure daily employee performance is the daily productivity rate. It is an important indicator to understand employee daily performance and achievement. As a management level or as any successful manager, they are looking to achieve a higher percentage of daily productivity per employee to increase their department's total outcome. The primary purpose of this project is to implement the predicting and model and analysis techniques to improve and forecast the productivity of HV-design employees and reduce the lost time per day. Also, this project aims to identify the current situation of daily employee performance …

The Primary Volatile Composition Of Comet C/2015 Er61 (Panstarrs), Aaron Butler

Theses

In the outer edges of the solar system exist two regions: the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud. These two regions have a high amount of icy bodies (comets) orbiting the Sun. Comets located within the Oort cloud and Kuiper belt contain an ancient codex to the solar systems contents, before the formation of our solar system. Presented are near-infrared, high-resolution (λ/Δλ ~40000) data obtained from the immersion-grating echelle spectrograph iSHELL at the 3m NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Maunakea, Hawaii of the Oort cloud comet C/2015 ER61 (PANSTARRS). Observations took place on April 15 and 17 in 2017 while …

Polarization Properties Of Broad Lines In Active Galactic Nuclei, Brian Christopher Lake

Theses

The center of every large galaxy is believed to host a supermassive black hole (SMBH). In some of these galaxies, the nuclear region is extremely luminous and far outshines the entire stellar population. Called active galactic nuclei (AGN), these central sources are equally fascinating and perplexing. Due to their immense distance and small size, modern observation techniques are unable to resolve the structure of these regions. However, the polarization of scattered light carries the imprint of the geometry and kinematics of both the sources and the scattering medium. Here, we present a study of the broad H$\alpha$ lines in a …

School Bus Network Optimization, Husam Abdelrahim Al-Qawasmeh

Theses

The city of Dubai has more than 200 schools, with around 6,500 School buses that are either managed by the school itself or bus operator companies. A low percentage of bus-usage aggravates school traffic according to top RTA official that stated that only 11% of total school trips in Dubai are via bus (compared to 32% in the United States), school buses account for 13% of peak-hour traffic while they 53% of bus seats were occupied, as parents prefer private transport. Private transport schools remain as significant contributing factor traffic congestion, and environmental pollution as a major percentage of students …

Impact Of Social Media On Dubai Stock Market Using Sentiment Analysis, Khaled Fawzi Hawas

Theses

One of the main objectives of having securities stock markets is to ensure fair trading. Our analysis of this study will show how sentiment analysis and text mining techniques can help stock markets to sense wipes in the market participants' behaviors and how the market community can benefit from it. The ability to detect potential insiders and investors' mood would help the stock market to take necessary actions to protect the trading environment and enhance investors’ trust in the market. In this project, we will be building a pilot proof of concept utilizing sentiment analysis on Twitter, one of the …

The Infratemporal Fossa: Visual Communication & 2d Animation To Present Anatomical Forms, Gwendolyn Fuller

Theses

Gross Anatomy is the study of human organs and tissues that are visible to the naked eye. It is a keystone class intended for medical students, where they can gain hands-on knowledge of human anatomy by dissecting each region of a human cadaver. The class consists of a lecture, where the instructor will discuss a specific anatomical region, and a subsequent lab, where the students will then dissect that region of the cadaver. The goal for lecture is to present an anatomical region to the students with the intention of aiding them to identify the structures later in lab. Most …

An Analysis Of The Components Of Terrorism, Rhianna Hayes

Theses

Terrorism is a complex topic to study. There is no consensus on what the word terrorism means, and there is even less consensus on why groups of people go out of their way to use terrorism as a form of political expression. Various analyses and studies have been conducted to attempt to explain this complex topic. Many of these studies have drawn from criminal justice research to apply criminological theories as an explanation for terrorism. The application of criminological theories provides one baseline for people to attempt to understand terrorism. At first glance, it may seem that criminological theories will …

Untitled, Rachel Yan Gu

Theses

The surface of the world is composed of innumerable points which may be abstracted for the sake of comprehension, like molecules, numbers, and pixels, they may also be an apple, a road, or a single person. Under these points, there are numerous nets, which are independent but also link everything together. They combine all of the numerous points together, and are the foundation of the points. I hope to see the nets through the points to explore the core of the world underneath.

I reconstruct the points and nets to create a visual representation of their relationships within our physical …

Digital Communication Tools Used By Those 65 And Older: The Benefits And Barriers Of Use, Susan Quatro

Theses

Utilizing the technology acceptance model theory (TAM), this study focuses on current digital communication tools used by those who are 65 and older, and the benefits and barriers of use. Using a mixed methods approach, individual interviews were conducted with those in this age demographic. The interviews captured older individuals’ preferences of digital communication tools, their primary uses of these tools, and any barriers that hinder their use and acceptance. A survey of caregivers was conducted to gain their perspective on the benefits and barriers they see older people face when using digital technology media. The survey was sent to …

[Iteration 2491-J], Jeff Leavitt

Theses

When one considers the macro scale of human existence, it is ultimately a never-ending cycle of futility. We are born, some of us reproduce, and then we die. No matter what exists within that cycle, those facts remain true. However, a futile existence does not have to be a meaningless one. When one considers the micro scale of human existence, there is beauty and joy within the lives of individuals. Individuality is an essential component our existence, and it allows us to spend our time on this planet in a meaningful way. Futility, as a concept, is not inherently pessimistic. …

An Analysis Of Communication Apprehension Between Stem And Non-Stem University Students, Samantha Schreiber

Theses

This study compares communication apprehension (CA) of undergraduate STEM and non-STEM students at a private university in the United States. Using a variation of the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension, undergraduate students were surveyed online and during in-person class sessions. Based on 409 (N = 409) survey responses, there was no significant difference in CA between STEM and non-STEM students. However, independent sample t-tests revealed differences in STEM for gender and year-level. Male students have significantly higher CA than their female classmates in all contexts. Additionally, senior students have significantly higher CA in group discussions and public speaking settings compared …

Dynamic Balance: A Personal Journey, Mark Zeh

Theses

My thesis concept is about dynamic balance. I am showing this concept through the table. A table is defined “…as a piece of furniture with a flat top and one or more legs, providing a level surface on which objects may be placed…” The idea of sturdy or stable is not mentioned in this definition or any other that I looked at. Why? Maybe because the concept of stability regarding table attributes is just so taken for granted, so engrained in our consciousness, that we simply overlook the necessity to call out this trait. By the very nature of its …

The Perception Of Lgbtq Influencers On Social Media, Stephanie Sabala

Theses

Social media brand influencers have become one of the biggest marketing and public relations trends of 2017, especially those who promote lifestyle brands (Glucksman, 2017). While many social media users are capitalizing on the “brand influencer” trend, people who identify as the LGBTQ, still struggle to connect with the heterosexual audience as brand influencers source. YouTube and Instagram are visual mediums that allow brand influencers to craft their expertise verbally and visually to communicate their expertise and enhance credibility. Using the source credibility theory, which posits that persuasiveness of the message is based on the perceived credibility of the source …

Synthetic Aperture Radar Simulation By Electro Optical To Sar Transformation Using Generative Adversarial Network, Jason Slover

Theses

The CycleGAN generative adversarial network is applied to simulated electo-optical (EO) images in order to transition them into a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)-like domain. If possible this would allow the user to simulate radar images without computing the phase history of the scene. Though visual inspection leaves the output images appearing SAR-like, examination by t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) shows that CycleGAN was insufficient at generalizing an EO-to-SAR conversion. Further, using the transitioned images as training data for a neural network shows that SAR features used for classification are not present in the simulated images.

Clearing The Clouds: Extracting 3d Information From Amongst The Noise, Alexander Fafard

Theses

Advancements permitting the rapid extraction of 3D point clouds from a variety of imaging modalities across the global landscape have provided a vast collection of high fidelity digital surface models. This has created a situation with unprecedented overabundance of 3D observations which greatly outstrips our current capacity to manage and infer actionable information. While years of research have removed some of the manual analysis burden for many tasks, human analysis is still a cornerstone of 3D scene exploitation. This is especially true for complex tasks which necessitate comprehension of scale, texture and contextual learning. In order to ameliorate the interpretation …

Evaluating The Impact Of Gun Involved Violence Elimination (Give) Initiative Within The City Of Rochester, Michael Nicholas Surtel

Theses

Within the city of Rochester, gun violence has become something of a common occurrence within local neighborhoods and streets where violent crime continues to flourish. Between 2010 and 2018 the recorded number of shootings that have occurred in the city of Rochester were around 1,679, with around 200 being categorized as fatal shootings (https://data-rpdny.opendata.arcgis.com/). Many of the issues plaguing the Rochester Police Department in addressing the issue of gun violence are due to a misperceived idea of what causes gun violence in the first place and how to go about it without having to waste their resources on ineffective tactics. …

Token, Kathleen Marie Ripton Johnson

Theses

Token is a thesis body of work that combines two and three-dimensional printmaking and sculpture techniques, to highlights contemporary issues and poetry through the lens of a fable. This body of work deals with how culturally relevant information is spread by using traditional storytelling to reveal, with a certain level of absurdity, an underlying lesson, warning, or teachable moment.

In the work, the tooth is a symbol of payment or sacrifice and in our contemporary capitalist world, everything costs something. In this reality, the number of teeth lost demonstrates who you are, what you have and what you have had …

Link-Family Safety Mobile Application Design, Yingxin Xie

Theses

The safety and health of children are essential issues not only for households but also for society. Missing Child is a severe strike to a family. It causes severe trauma memory and affects family members both psychologically and physically. Incidents like this also spread a feeling of fear among the local community. Many efforts have been made to help with this problem, such as the Amber Alert system, the location-tracking functions in the operating system in smartphones. There are also many safety apps in the app stores trying to prevent this kind of incident. However, there are still things that …

Dead On Arrival, Paul Benns

Theses

Dead on Arrival is a film about a character named Blue. The world is comprised of memories and follows our character along a path of self-discovery and redemption. Blue’s earliest memory is that of discovering an object that makes him happy. Through the course of the opening moments of the film, Blue discovers the harsh reality of not quite hitting the mark with his abilities. With the missed mark, comes the self-doubt and negative self-thinking that manifests itself through a physical change in his character. This physical manifestation leads to the rejection of his newfound friend and follows him throughout …