Digital Commons Network^™

Jus Cogens: The History, Challenges And Hope Of 'A Giant On Stilts', Stefano Congui

The Plymouth Law and Criminal Justice Review

This article broadly engages with international law and human rights protection. Its focus is on jus cogens, but it also considers universal jurisdiction and erga omnes. In its examination of jus cogens, this article analyses its history, trajectory and philosophical underpinnings.

Foundations In Wisconsin: A Directory [34th Ed. 2015], Mary C. Frenn, Jason Bermender, David Glenn Butner Jr., Brittany Carloni, Clare Mcnamara, Dominic Zappia

Foundations in Wisconsin: A Directory

The 2015 release of Foundations in Wisconsin marks the 34th production of the print directory and the 15th year of the online version. The directory is designed as a research tool for grantseekers interested in locating information on private, corporate, and community foundations registered in Wisconsin. Each entry in this new edition has been updated or reviewed to provide the most current information available. Most of the data was drawn from IRS 990-PF tax returns filed by the foundations. Additional information was obtained from surveys, foundation websites, annual reports, and newsletters.

Wisconsin foundations have shown significant growth in two key …

Advanced Applications Of Cardiac Computed Tomography For The Difficult-To-Image Patient, Benjamin James Clayton

Peninsula Medical School Theses

Throughout the development of computed tomographic (CT) imaging the challenges of capturing the heart, with its perpetual, vigorous motion, and in particular the tiny detail within the coronary arteries, has driven technological progress. Today, CT is a widely used and rapidly growing modality for the investigation of coronary artery disease, as well as other cardiac pathology. However, limitations remain and particular patient groups present a significant challenge to the CT operator. This thesis adds new knowledge to the assessment of these difficult-to-image patients. It considers patients with artefact from coronary artery calcification or stents, examining the remarkable diagnostic performance of …

Law School Culture And The Lost Art Of Collaboration: Why Don't Law Professors Play Well With Others, Michael I. Meyerson

All Faculty Scholarship

I have an Erdős number. Specifically, I have an Erdős number of 5. For the uninitiated, the concept of an “Erdős number” was created by mathematicians to describe how many “degrees of separation” an author of an article is from the great mathematician Paul Erdős. If you coauthored a paper with Erdős, you have an Erdős number of 1. If you coauthor a paper with someone with an Erdős number of 1, you have earned an Erdős number of 2. Coauthoring a paper with someone with an Erdős number of 2 gives you an Erdős number of 3, and so …

Quantum Tests Of The Einstein Equivalence Principle With The Ste-Quest Space Mission, Brett Altschul, Quentin G. Bailey, Luc Blanchet, Kai Bongs, Philippe Bouyer, Luigi Cacciapuoti, Et Al.

Publications

We present in detail the scientific objectives in fundamental physics of the Space–Time Explorer and QUantum Equivalence Space Test (STE–QUEST) space mission. STE–QUEST was pre-selected by the European Space Agency together with four other missions for the cosmic vision M3 launch opportunity planned around 2024. It carries out tests of different aspects of the Einstein Equivalence Principle using atomic clocks, matter wave interferometry and long distance time/frequency links, providing fascinating science at the interface between quantum mechanics and gravitation that cannot be achieved, at that level of precision, in ground experiments. We especially emphasize the specific strong interest of performing …

Arctic Ocean Bathymetry: A Necessary Geospatial Framework, Martin Jakobsson, Larry A. Mayer, Dave Monahan

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Most ocean science relies on a geospatial infrastructure that is built from bathymetry data collected from ships underway, archived, and converted into maps and digital grids. Bathymetry, the depth of the seafloor, besides having vital importance to geology and navigation, is a fundamental element in studies of deep water circulation, tides, tsunami forecasting, upwelling, fishing resources, wave action, sediment transport, environmental change, and slope stability, as well as in site selection for platforms, cables, and pipelines, waste disposal, and mineral extraction. Recent developments in multibeam sonar mapping have so dramatically increased the resolution with which the seafloor can be portrayed …

The Innovator's Dilemma, Max Stul Oppenheimer

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Euclidean Reconstruction Of Natural Underwater Scenes Using Optic Imagery Sequence, Han Hu

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

The development of maritime applications require monitoring, studying and preserving of detailed and close observation on the underwater seafloor and objects. Stereo vision offers advanced technologies to build 3D models from 2D still overlapping images in a relatively inexpensive way. However, while image stereo matching is a necessary step in 3D reconstruction procedure, even the most robust dense matching techniques are not guaranteed to work for underwater images due to the challenging aquatic environment. In this thesis, in addition to a detailed introduction and research on the key components of building 3D models from optic images, a robust modified quasi-dense …

An Electrophysiological Investigation Of Reward Prediction Errors In The Human Brain, Thomas Sambrook

School of Psychology Theses

Reward prediction errors are quantitative signed terms that express the difference between the value of an obtained outcome and the expected value that was placed on it prior to its receipt. Positive reward prediction errors constitute reward, negative reward prediction errors constitute punishment. Reward prediction errors have been shown to be powerful drivers of reinforcement learning in formal models and there is thus a strong reason to believe they are used in the brain. Isolating such neural signals stands to help elucidate how reinforcement learning is implemented in the brain, and may ultimately shed light on individual differences, psychopathologies of …

Numerical Modelling And Control Of An Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Converter, Kate Freeman

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

An oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converter (WEC) is a device designed to extract energy from waves at sea by using the water to move trapped air and thus drive an air turbine. Because the incident waves and the force caused by the power take-off (PTO) interact, control of the power take off (PTO) system can increase the total energy converted. A numerical model was developed to study the interaction of an OWC with the water and other structures around it. ANSYS AQWA is used here to find the effects on the water surface in and around the central …

Survivability Of Wave Energy Converter And Mooring Coupled System Using Cfd, Edward Ransley

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

This thesis discusses the development of a Numerical Wave Tank (NWT) capable of describing the coupled behaviour of Wave Energy Converters (WECs) and their moorings under extreme wave loading. The NWT utilises the open-source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software OpenFOAM(R) to solve the fully nonlinear, incompressible, Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations for air and water using the Finite Volume Method (FVM) and a Volume of Fluid (VOF) treatment of the interface. A method for numerically generating extreme waves is devised, based on the dispersively-focused NewWave theory and using the additional toolbox waves2Foam. A parametric study of the required mesh resolution shows …

Robust Fault Analysis For Permanent Magnet Dc Motor In Safety Critical Applications, Wathiq Abed

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Robust fault analysis (FA) including the diagnosis of faults and predicting their level of severity is necessary to optimise maintenance and improve reliability of Aircraft. Early diagnosis of faults that might occur in the supervised process renders it possible to perform important preventative actions. The proposed diagnostic models were validated in two experimental tests. The first test concerned a single localised and generalised roller element bearing fault in a permanent magnet brushless DC (PMBLDC) motor. Rolling element bearing defect is one of the main reasons for breakdown in electrical machines. Vibration and current are analysed under stationary and non-stationary load …

Brain Inspired Approach To Computational Face Recognition, Joao Paulo Da Silva Gomes

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Face recognition that is invariant to pose and illumination is a problem solved effortlessly by the human brain, but the computational details that underlie such efficient recognition are still far from clear. This thesis draws on research from psychology and neuroscience about face and object recognition and the visual system in order to develop a novel computational method for face detection, feature selection and representation, and memory structure for recall. A biologically plausible framework for developing a face recognition system will be presented. This framework can be divided into four parts: 1) A face detection system. This is an improved …

High-Performance Near-Time Processing Of Bulk Data, Martin Swientek

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Enterprise Systems like customer-billing systems or financial transaction systems are required to process large volumes of data in a fixed period of time. Those systems are increasingly required to also provide near-time processing of data to support new service offerings. Common systems for data processing are either optimized for high maximum throughput or low latency. This thesis proposes the concept for an adaptive middleware, which is a new approach for designing systems for bulk data processing. The adaptive middleware is able to adapt its processing type fluently between batch processing and single-event processing. By using message aggregation, message routing and …

Automated Creation And Provisioning Of Value-Added Telecommunication Services, Thomas Eichelmann

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

The subject of this research is to find a continuous solution, which allows the description, the creation, the provisioning, and the execution of value-added telecommunication services. This work proposes a framework for an easy and timesaving creation and provisioning of value-added telecommunication services in Next Generation Networks. As research method, feasibility, comparative methods are used in this study. Criteria and requirements for service description, service creation, service execution, and service provisioning, are defined and existing technologies are compared with each other and evaluated regarding these criteria and requirements. Extensions to the selected technologies are proposed and possibilities to combine these …

Affective Quality Of Educational Services Measurement In The Context Of Higher Education Marketing, Hanna Shauchenka

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Educational marketing has become an increasingly important area within Higher Education as the competition for students has intensified. Being able to measure and understand the quality of educational services – a key factor in the decision making process for a prospective student – is an incredibly challenging problem as it involves the quantitative measurement of factors such as emotions and affections towards an Institution or programme, which themselves tend to be intangible. The application of total quality management philosophy and methodology in the context of higher education today is fully acknowledged and widely used. These conditions have defined the main …

Interval Kalman Filtering Techniques For Unmanned Surface Vehicle Navigation, Amit Motwani

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

This thesis is about a robust filtering method known as the interval Kalman filter (IKF), an extension of the Kalman filter (KF) to the domain of interval mathematics. The key limitation of the KF is that it requires precise knowledge of the system dynamics and associated stochastic processes. In many cases however, system models are at best, only approximately known. To overcome this limitation, the idea is to describe the uncertain model coefficients in terms of bounded intervals, and operate the filter within the framework of interval arithmetic. In trying to do so, practical difficulties arise, such as the large …

Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensing And Characterisation Of Nano-Colloids For Nanotoxicology Applications, Nasih Hma Salah

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

In this research, a Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) based sensor system was developed for quick detection of not only silver nanoparticles at low concentrations, but also to a range of individual analytes, according to their optical properties. SPR-based sensors are extremely sensitive to changes in the optical properties of the local environment at this interface, making these instruments highly valuable for surface science and bio-sensing experiments. This has enabled silver in solution (silver nitrate) to be detected from colloidal nanoparticles. This study involves the theoretical development of an SPR system, where a glass prism and a multi-layered chip are used. …

Natural Phenolic Extracts From Cardamom (Elettaria Cardamomum), Sumac (Rhus Coriaria) And Pomegranate (Punica Granatum)- Potential Application To Control Pathogenic Bacteria In Foods, Abass Fadhil Razoki Aal-Tay

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Abstract Food-borne disease is still a concern for both consumer and food industry in spite of the use of various preservation techniques. Plant extracts are becoming more popular as naturally occurring antibacterial agents. Antibacterial activity of cardamom, sumac, pomegranate, star anise and cranberry extracts and their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridium perfringens were determined using agar well diffusion and broth dilution methods. Sumac and pomegranate alcoholic extracts and cardamom oleoresin showed strong antibacterial activity, and their MIC range were: for sumac (3-10 mgml-1), for pomegranate (6-12 mgml-1) and …

Flaring And Pollution Detection In The Niger Delta Using Remote Sensing, Barnabas Ojo Morakinyo

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Abstract Through the Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR) initiative a substantial amount of effort and international attention has been focused on the reduction of gas flaring since 2002 (Elvidge et al., 2009). Nigeria is rated as the second country in the world for gas flaring, after Russia. In an attempt to reduce and eliminate gas flaring the federal government of Nigeria has implemented a number of gas flaring reduction projects, but poor governmental regulatory policies have been mostly unsuccessful in phasing it out. This study examines the effects of pollution from gas flaring using multiple satellite based sensors (Landsat 5 …

Intercorporeality And Technology: Toward A New Cognitive, Aesthetic And Communicative Paradigm In The Performing Arts, Isabelle Choinière

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

The goal of this thesis was to reassess the relationship between the moving body and technology, and more specifically, to focus on recent perspectives in the performing arts which inscribe new manifestations and dynamics of cross-pollination between the somatic and technology. According to Dr. Andrea Davidson, 'Such research has rarely been formally identified with the specialised field of somatics' (2013, p.3). The thesis thus proposes to reflect on the experience and conception of the performative body in the link it entertains with technology. Investigating this relationship, it defines a new paradigm, that of an 'interfaced intercorporeality'. This paradigm is constructed …

An Ontology Of Space: Methodological Recursiveness And The Diagram, Rita Cachao

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Current debates on space reveal a dichotomy between two apparently conflicting understandings of space: on the one hand, space is understood as a physical, tangible entity that has an impact on how we perceive, feel and emotionally inhabit the world, and on the other hand, space is conceived as an abstract entity, suggesting that space has no active role (a productivity) within everyday life, being solely a conceptual product of intellectual reasoning. As a result, the commonly used word: ‘space’, will be discussed as an ontologically paradoxical, ambiguous and elusive concept; a concept that cannot be captured within a single …

Polyphibianism: Evolving Transdisciplinarity Into An Imaginary Organism Of Living Knowledge, Ziva Ljubec

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Transdisciplinarity emerged from the urge to grasp the elusive knowledge in the most fertile zone in between and beyond disciplines that escapes even the most elaborate interdisciplinary operations. While interdisciplinary protocol enables experts to operate within foreign disciplines, in the extreme case as diverse as art and science (by inviting artists into scientific departments and vice versa), the production of knowledge remains confined to particular domains. To transcend these confinements and access the knowledge that evades institutionalisation Basarab Nicolescu’s Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity sets up conditions for an open structure to be grown outside the current compartmentalisation into a living knowledge. …

Fire Performance Of Cold-Formed Steel Sections, Shanshan Cheng

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Thin-walled cold-formed steel (CFS) has exhibited inherent structural and architectural advantages over other constructional materials, for example, high strength-to-weight ratio, ease of fabrication, economy in transportation and the flexibility of sectional profiles, which make CFS ideal for modern residential and industrial buildings. They have been increasingly used as purlins as the intermediate members in a roof system, or load-bearing components in low- and mid-rise buildings. However, using CFS members in building structures has been facing challenges due to the lack of knowledge to the fire performance of CFS at elevated temperatures and the lack of fire design guidelines. Among all …

Three-Dimensional Turbulence Characteristics Of The Bottom Boundary Layer Of The Coastal Ocean, Edward C. C. Steele

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

The form and dynamics of ocean turbulence are critical to all marine processes; biological, chemical and physical. The three-dimensional turbulence characteristics of the bottom boundary layer of the coastal ocean are examined using a series of 29,991 instantaneous velocity distributions. These data, recorded by a submersible 3D-PTV system at an elevation of 0.64 m above the seabed, represent conditions typical of moderate tidal flows in the coastal ocean. A complexity associated with submersible 3D-PTV in the coastal ocean is that gaps and noise affect the accuracy of the data collected. To accommodate this, a new Physics-Enabled Flow Restoration Algorithm has …

Implementation Of Technology Enhanced Learning Pedagogy And Impact On Employability And Learning Within Engineering Education Frameworks, Rebecca Vickerstaff

Other Faculty of Science and Engineering Theses

Engineering Education experiences turbulent changes, both from government pressures and from industry demands on readdressing the requirements of graduate capability. Despite vast amounts of engineering literature discussing ‘change’ within the field, engineering curricula still maintains its predominant pedagogic model of dissemination to students as it did in previous decades. Technology Enhanced Learning in education has created new and flexible options in the delivery and assessment of teaching and learning, but uptake is limited and approached with caution within Engineering Education. This mixed methods research introduces an inclusive and innovative approach to Engineering Education assessment techniques utilising an integrated blended learning …

New Routes To Hci - A Transdisciplinary Approach, Marcio Rocha

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Abstract This thesis bring together different disciplines – philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, cybernetics and the performing arts – in a transdisciplinary investigation that raises new questions about the human mind and our relationship with computers and machines in a way that contributes to and helps elucidate the human computer interaction(HCI) debate. It chooses transdisciplinarity as the methodology best able to mobilize new ideas and generate a different approach to HCI, one that will develop fresh insights and produce critical ways of thinking about the problems of contemporary life in relation to our interaction with technologies (in the …

Propagated Image Segmentation Using Edge-Weighted Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation Based Methods, Youjie Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

Propagated image segmentation is the problem of utilizing the existing segmentation of an image for obtaining a new segmentation of, either a neighboring image in a sequence, or the same image but in different scales. We name these two cases as the inter-image propagation and the intra-image propagation respectively. The inter-image propagation is particularly important to material science, where efficient and accurate segmentation of a sequence of 2D serial-sectioned images of 3D material samples is an essential step to understand the underlying micro-structure and related physical properties. For natural images with objects in different scales, the intra-image propagation, where segmentations …

Achieving Reliable Generation \& Delivery Of Energy Through Robust Optimization, Anna Danandeh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we elaborate on the inherent risks and uncertainties in power systems and associated industries, and develop practical solution methods to eliminate their adverse effects.

our research agenda consists of practice-driven problems in different stages of power generation as follows. (1) Affordable fuel procurement through developing a comprehensive fuel supply chain design and operations planning system for electricity generation companies, (2) reliable electricity generation through incorporating dynamic asset rating concept in the unit commitment problem, and (3) efficient demand management through proposing a job scheduling model for effective local generation consumption.

Since reliability cannot be compromised in energy …

Analysis And Energy Reduction Of Humanoid Robot Motions – Stand Up And Sit Down, Ercan Elibol

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research studies the electrical power reduction and control analysis of various motion tasks of a humanoid robot. These motions include standing up and sitting down. Each motion’s tasks have their stable and unstable phases throughout the complete motion cycle. Unstable phases can be caused by gravity forces and improper handling of the upper body of the humanoid robot leaning too forward or backward. Even though most of the dynamic motions seem to be accomplished very simply by humans; standing up and sitting down could create challenges for humanoid robots. Some of the critical challenges researches face are: dynamic nature …