Digital Commons Network^™

Fault Interpretation And Reservoir Characterization Of The Farewell Formation Within Kerry Field, Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, Waleed Deefallah M Alotaby

Masters Theses

"The Kerry Field, located in the southern offshore Taranaki Basin, is a large liquid-rich gas accumulation with a thin (20 m) oil rim. The field was discovered by the New Zealand Oil & Gas in 1986 (well Kupe South-1). The gas and oil are trapped within a 9.2 km² fault-dependent three-way dip closure in the Paleocene Farewell Formation reservoir. Pressure, volume, and temperature (PVT) data indicate that the gas and oil columns in the field are in equilibrium with one another and are saturated at current reservoir conditions.

The Farewell Formation is the uppermost formation of the Kapuni Group …

A Decision Support Simulation Model For Bed Management In Healthcare, Raja A. Baru

Masters Theses

"In order to provide access to care in a timely manner, it is necessary to effectively manage the allocation of limited resources such as beds. Bed management is key to the effective delivery of high-quality and low-cost healthcare. An efficient utilization of beds requires a detailed understanding of the hospital's operational behavior. It is necessary to understand the behavior of a hospital in order to make necessary adjustments to its resources, and policies, which can improve patient's access to care. The aim of this research was to develop a discrete event simulation to assist in planning and staff scheduling decisions. …

Emission Source Microscopy Applications On Emi Source Localization And Emi Mitigation With Lossy Materials, Xiangyang Jiao

Masters Theses

"In Section 1, the emission source microscopy (ESM) methodology will be introduced and used to identify the sources of radiation on different DUTs. As the new technology generation, the integration density and the operating speed of integrated circuits have been increasing steadily. However, root cause diagnostics to locate the source of EMI radiation is more problematic in the complex system. The ESM technique provides a powerful tool to detect and characterize the active sources of radiation. The amplitude and phase of fields are measured on a plane away from the DUT, and this measurement can get rid of the evanescent …

An Investigation Of Shear-Friction Of Lightweight Aggregate Concretes, Kristian Krc

Masters Theses

"This thesis reports the results of research initiated to evaluate the influence of lightweight aggregate type and casting procedure on shear transfer across an interface of concretes cast at different times. The topic of shear transfer has been evaluated and revisited in recent PCI Design Handbooks. In this test program, a series of cold joint as well as monolithic specimens are evaluated. The peak shear strength and post peak behavior are examined. The experimental matrix included 28 push-off specimens that were either cast monolithically or cast at different times creating the condition referred to as a cold joint. The variables …

Space-Based Relative Multitarget Tracking, Keith Allen Legrand

Masters Theses

"Access to space has expanded dramatically over the past decade. The growing popularity of small satellites, specifically cubesats, and the following launch initiatives have resulted in exponentially growing launch numbers into low Earth orbit. This growing congestion in space has punctuated the need for local space monitoring and autonomous satellite inspection. This work describes the development of a framework for monitoring local space and tracking multiple objects concurrently in a satellite's neighborhood. The development of this multitarget tracking systems has produced collateral developments in numerical methods, relative orbital mechanics, and initial relative orbit determination.

This work belongs to a class …

E-Mail Authorship Attribution Using Customized Associative Classification, Michael R. Schmid, Farkhund Iqbal, Benjamin C.M. Fung

All Works

E-mail communication is often abused for conducting social engineering attacks including spamming, phishing, identity theft and for distributing malware. This is largely attributed to the problem of anonymity inherent in the standard electronic mail protocol. In the literature, authorship attribution is studied as a text categorization problem where the writing styles of individuals are modeled based on their previously written sample documents. The developed model is employed to identify the most plausible writer of the text. Unfortunately, most existing studies focus solely on improving predictive accuracy and not on the inherent value of the evidence collected. In this study, we …

High Technology, Consumer Privacy, And U.S. National Security, Laura K. Donohue

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Documents released over the past year detailing the National Security Agency’s (“NSA”) telephony metadata collection program and interception of international content under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) implicated U.S. high technology companies in government surveillance. The result was an immediate, and detrimental, impact on U.S. corporations, the economy, and U.S. national security.

The first Snowden documents, printed on June 5, 2013, revealed that the government had served orders on Verizon, directing the company to turn over telephony metadata under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. The following day, The Guardian published classified slides detailing how the NSA had …

Time-Mindedness And Jurisprudence, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Analytic jurisprudence often strikes outsiders as a discipline unto itself, unconnected with the problems that other legal scholarship investigates. Gerald Postema, in the article to which this paper responds, traces this “unsociability” to two narrowing defects in the project of analytic jurisprudence: (1) from Austin on, it has concerned itself largely with the analysis of professional concepts, without connecting that analysis with other disciplines that study law, nor with the history of jurisprudence itself, nor with general philosophy; (2) analytic jurisprudence studies only time-­‐slice legal systems, rather than legal systems unfolding in history. He argues that a time-­‐slice legal system …

Why Healthy Behavior Is The Hard Choice, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Our society is structured to encourage unhealthy diets and physically inactive lifestyles, which are key risk factors for chronic diseases including diabetes, heart diseases, and cancers. We are bombarded with advertisements for hyperprocessed foods laden with saturated fat, salt, sugar, and refined carbohydrates, “low-fat” foods often contain high amounts of sugar and salt, and parks and recreation spaces are often inaccessible or unsafe.

Four simple ideas - taxes on unhealthy products, product reformulation, improving the informational environment, and increasing healthy food accessibility - could make healthy behaviors the “default” choice for most consumers. First, taxes on unhealthy products, such as …

On-Die Sensors For Transient Events, Mihir Vimal Suchak

Masters Theses

"Failures caused by transient electromagnetic events like Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) are a major concern for embedded systems. The component often failing is an integrated circuit (IC). Determining which IC is affected in a multi-device system is a challenging task. Debugging errors often requires sophisticated lab setups which require intentionally disturbing and probing various parts of the system which might not be easily accessible. Opening the system and adding probes may change its response to the transient event, which further compounds the problem.

On-die transient event sensors were developed that require relatively little area on die, making them inexpensive, they consume …

Damage Detection Through Acoustic Emission Of Fracture Processes In Concrete Masonry Units, John Alexander Cain

Masters Theses

"Masonry structures are vulnerable to earthquakes; their brittleness and discontinuous formation make them susceptible to collapse. In the event of an emergency, this could be detrimental and perhaps fatal. The area of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is focused on understanding the behavior of structures for the sake of safety and predicting their longevity. One applicable technique to monitor this behavior is Acoustic Emission (AE). Acoustic Emissions are transient elastic waves released as microcracks nucleate from stress intensities, coalesce into cracks and then accumulate as damage. AE monitoring is a favorable method because it is capable of detecting cracking from within …

Developing A Novel Methodolgy And Testbed For Fatigue Analysis Of Metal Specimens, Sai Aravind Palepu

Masters Theses

"A prototype of fatigue testing machine was built to determine the fatigue strength of materials. Proposed testing prototype was displacement controlled magnetic type bend fatigue testing machine. Designed prototype was tuned to operate at or near resonance of the specimen in order to amplify excitation displacement. Low maintenance i.e. zero wear of the parts was achieved, there were no moving components in the prototype machine. Crucial components used to build were: DC power supply, solenoid, Arduino UNO, supports and laser displacement sensor. DC source used to pass current through solenoid producing magnetic field; mosfet and Arduino generated square waves of …

Enhancing Social Science Research In The Uae: An Open Source Software Solution University Of Sharjah (Uos) Case Study, Manar Abu Talib, Muhammed Abuodeh, Adhraa Almansoori, Arwa Alnauimi

All Works

© 2015 The Manar Abu Talib, Muhammed AbuOdeh, Adhraa Almansoori and Arwa AlNauimi. Researchers, practitioners and social scientists all agree on the enormous importance of social science research in advancing human knowledge and informing public policy makers. The National Research Foundation, along with other organizations in the UAE, is leading the initiative to integrate the efforts of social research institutions in order to support the decision making process in the UAE. As indicated by a number of social researchers during the last forum held on May 29-30, 2012, at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, Abu Dhabi, UAE, …

In Praise Of Ex Ante Regulation, Brian Galle

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Timing is an important consideration in regulatory design. Corrective taxes are usually imposed before or contemporaneously with the harmful activity they are aimed at preventing, while tort awards are assessed ex post, in its aftermath. Patents and research grants both can encourage innovation, but patents pay off only after the invention is marketed. In a world of perfect information, fully rational actors, and complete credit or insurance markets, time would not matter. In the real world, though, the failure of one or more of these assumptions can change dramatically the impact of a regulatory option. For example, prior commentators have …

Perceptions Of Recipients Of A Florida High School Dropout Prevention Program’S Scholarship About The Influence Of Mentoring And Student Advocacy On Success And Persistence In Higher Education, Tracy Lyn Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to help a specific Florida high school dropout prevention program better understand the factors that influence the postsecondary persistence rates of their scholarship recipients. The program administrators want to explore the scholarship recipients’ perceptions regarding the role of mentoring and student advocacy in his/her academic success or college persistence. To understand the scholarship recipients experience better, a mixed methods study was conducted with current program scholarship recipients to gain insight into the individual student’s perception of factors including mentoring and student advocacy that influenced student success and completion in college.

Information gained from the student …

Low Effort Crowdsourcing: Leveraging Peripheral Attention For Crowd Work, Vaish Rajan, Peter Organisciak, Kotaro Hara, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Haoqi Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Crowdsourcing systems leverage short bursts of focusedattention from many contributors to achieve a goal. Byrequiring people’s full attention, existing crowdsourcingsystems fail to leverage people’s cognitive surplus in themany settings for which they may be distracted, performingor waiting to perform another task, or barely payingattention. In this paper, we study opportunities for loweffortcrowdsourcing that enable people to contribute toproblem solving in such settings. We discuss the designspace for low-effort crowdsourcing, and through a seriesof prototypes, demonstrate interaction techniques, mechanisms,and emerging principles for enabling low-effortcrowdsourcing.

A Systematic Study On Explicit-State Non-Zenoness Checking For Timed Automata, Ting Wang, Jun Sun, Xinyu Wang, Yang Liu, Yuanjie Si, Jin Song Dong, Xiaohu Yang, Xiaohong Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Zeno runs, where infinitely many actions occur within finite time, may arise in Timed Automata models. Zeno runs are not feasible in reality and must be pruned during system verification. Thus it is necessary to check whether a run is Zeno or not so as to avoid presenting Zeno runs as counterexamples during model checking. Existing approaches on non-Zenoness checking include either introducing an additional clock in the Timed Automata models or additional accepting states in the zone graphs. In addition, there are approaches proposed for alternative timed modeling languages, which could be generalized to Timed Automata. In this work, …

Recovering Household Preferences For Digital Entertainment, Jin Li, Zhiling Guo, Robert J. Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Cable TV return path data made possible by current generation set-top boxes present a new opportunity to analyze household viewing behavior and recover household viewing preferences from it. This research develops a model of household viewing preference that supports quantifying a household's valuation for different categories of digital content within the constraints of the programs to which it subscribes. This study uses a data set of more than 1 million observations on households from a digital entertainment firm that offers basic and premium services. Our estimation is via a Bayesian hierarchical model that employs the Gibbs sampler. The results show …

Analysis Of Attitudes, Gender, And Beliefs Of Adolescent Students Concerning Interactive Technology, Courtney L. Teague

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to provide insight about the perceptions of middle school students attending a Title I school about technology use and careers. Using a mixed methods approach, the researcher explored the beliefs and circumstances that affect attitudes and behaviors in technology usage by eighth-grade boys and girls. The research questions for this study included: 1) female Title I middle school students' perceptions of interactive technology, 2) male Title I middle school students' perceptions of interactive technology, and 3) gender differences towards interactive technology. Data were collected from six focus group participants and 226 students who completed a …

Maintenance, Barbara J. Stark

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Statistical Analysis And Modeling Of Information Diffusion Across Online Social Networks, Michael Piserchia

Open Access Master's Theses

In recent years, online social networks have become a very popular and effective forum for information exchange. These large, highly interconnected networks span the globe and have the ability to disseminate information in a fraction of the time it would take other communication networks. Given the myriad ways in which online social networks can be used, creating accurate, predictive models for the spread of information across them is very valuable. With that, modeling processes on large networks is a difficult task. It is computationally expensive, and usually prohibitive, to model a process on the entirety of a very large network. …

Experimental Study Of A Flying Wing Anchor In Sand Under Pure Loading, Sven Sivarajah

Open Access Master's Theses

The Flying Wing Anchor (patent pending) is a new anchor concept that stabilizes offshore foundations for renewable energy. The anchor, with a wing-like shape, uses its weight to penetrate into the seabed by free-fall and mobilizes its full capacity by using the in-service load, so it is a new concept to optimize the sustainability of offshore foundations for renewable energy. A major challenge is to understand the trajectory of the anchor during loading because the anchor capacity depends on the final embedment depth and orientation. The objective of this study is to experimentally investigate the anchor behavior under pure static …

Training And Source Code Generation For Artificial Neural Networks, Brandon Winrich

Open Access Master's Theses

he ideas and technology behind artificial neural networks have advanced considerably since their introduction in 1943 by Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts. However, the complexity of large networks means that it may not be computationally feasible to retrain a network during the execution of another program, or to store a network in such a form that it can be traversed node by node. The purpose of this project is to design and implement a program that would train an artificial neural network and export source code for it so that the network may be used in other projects.

After discussing …

Thermal Efficiency Enhancement Of An A/C System Using Computer Simulations, Xinyu Zhang

Open Access Master's Theses

In this study, effects of airflow maldistribution in a prototype V-shaped evaporator (Model CAD501) for an air-conditioning (A/C) system are investigated using computer simulations. The configuration of the fin-and-tube heat exchanger is first simplified into a 30-channel air flow passages and velocity profiles of air flowing through the simplified heat exchanger passages are obtained using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software Abaqus. The performances of the A/C system are then evaluated using thermodynamics software EES (Engineering Equation Solver) based on the velocity distribution provided by the CFD simulation. Methodologies are proposed to solve the problems associated with the air flow mal-distribution. …

The Development Of Guidance For Solving Polymer-Penetrant Diffusion Problems In Marine Hardware, Matthew Aaron Rice

Open Access Master's Theses

There is a need for the development and trial of an accessible, robust procedure that can be followed to solve polymer-penetrant diffusion problems associated with marine hardware failures, incorporating some of the complexities abounding in these types of systems. The goals of this guidance are to instruct design engineers in the appropriate methods to apply when predicting diffusion phenomena as well as to assist them when selecting materials for diffusion-susceptible or -dependent applications, especially those related to marine hardware. A straightforward step-by-step flowchart tool is presented to accomplish this instruction to average scientists and engineers not deeply versed in the …

Flourescence-Based Detection Of Pesticides Via Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles, William Talbert

Open Access Master's Theses

The use of synthetic pesticides has played a large role in increasing crop yields throughout the world, but their adverse effects on humans and non-target animals is of major concern due to their toxicity and persistence in the environment. Some of the more persistent examples are organochlorine pesticides, particularly dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its metabolites. Reported herein is the development of a detection scheme using organic nanoparticles for the fluorescence detection of a range of pesticides. The nanoparticles were fabricated from a synthetic conjugated fluorescent polymer, and fluorescence experiments were performed using both nanoparticle solutions and polymer thin films.

The large …

Enhancement On Counting Invariant On Symmetric Virtual Biracks, Melinda Ho

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis introduces a new enhancement for virtual birack counting invariants. We first introduce knots and other general types of knots (oriented knots, framed knots, racks, and biracks). Then we’ll discuss the methods, knot invariants, mathematicians use to identify whether two knots are different. Next we’ll look at knots with virtual crossings and knots with a good involution. Finally, we introduce a new symmetric enhancement for virtual birack counting invariants and provide an example.

Gps Spoofing Detection Using Multiple Antennas And Individual Space Vehicle Pseudoranges, David S. Radin

Open Access Master's Theses

Spoofing is the common term used for describing the intentional broadcasting of false radio frequency signals intended to disrupt and mislead systems that depend on accurate position, navigation, and timing information provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS). Spoofing is an increasingly recognized threat which is garnering increased interest from researchers and users, both military and civilian.

This thesis presents a novel GPS spoof detection algorithm that exploits the geometric distribution of a horizontal array of GPS antenna-receivers and the geometric configuration of visible navigation satellites. Using a Neyman-Pearson hypothesis testing formulation, a spatial correlation test is developed that can …

Modeling The Probability Of Mortgage Default Via Logistic Regression And Survival Analysis, Qingfen Zhang

Open Access Master's Theses

The goal of this thesis is to model and predict the probability of default (PD) for a mortgage portfolio. In order to achieve this goal, logistic regression and survival analysis methods are applied to a large dataset of mortgage portfolios recorded by one of the national banks. While logistic regression has been commonly used for modeling PD in the banking industry, survival analysis has not been explored extensively in the area. Here, survival analysis is offered as a competitive alternative to logistic regression.

The results of the final modeling for both methods show very similar fit in terms of the …

Modeling Brain Desynchronization By Eeg Sensor Variance In Epileptic Patients, Craig Michael Krebsbach

Open Access Master's Theses

The use of electroencephalogram (EEG) for predictive purposes of seizures in epileptic patients has grown steadily with the access to greater computing power. Methods of seizure analysis to date have focused on modeling and computer aided machine learning to help increase sensitivity and specificity of seizure detection. Brain synchronization between various areas of the brain at the onset of seizures tends to be a common feature of seizures, followed by a resynchronization of the various brain areas at the end of seizures. While previous methods have looked at the cross-correlation or lag-correlation of only two areas the brain, most EEG …