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Dimensional Analysis And Variational Formulation Of Diffuse Optical Tomography (Dot) Model, Thowhida Akther

All Theses

Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) is an emerging modality for soft tissue imaging with medical applications including breast cancer detection. DOT has many benefits, including its use of non ionizing radiation and its ability to produce high contrast images. However, it is well known that DOT image reconstruction is unstable and has low resolution. DOT uses near infra-red light waves to probe inside a body; for example, DOT can be used to measure the changes in the amount of oxygen in tissues, which can detect early stages of cancer in soft tissues such as the breast and brain. In this thesis, …

Procedurally Generating Biologically Driven Bird And Non-Avian Dinosaur Feathers, Jessica Renee Baron

All Theses

A key element in computer-graphics research is representing the world around us, and immense inspiration may be found in nature. Algorithms and procedural models may be developed that can describe the three-dimensional shape of objects and how they interact with light. This thesis focuses particularly on bird and other dinosaur feathers and their structure. More specifically, it addresses the problem of procedurally generating biologically driven geometry for modeling feathers in computer graphics. As opposed to previously published methods for generated feather geometry, data is derived from a myriad of real-world specimens of feathers and used in creating graphical models of …

Comparison Of Electrical Impedance Tomography Reconstruction Algorithms With Eidors Reconstruction Software, Matthew Brinckerhoff

All Theses

Electrical impedance tomography ("EIT") has many significant applications, ranging from geophysical and medical imaging, to the military, to industrial fields. Due to the relevance of EIT in fields of critical importance to society, further development of EIT is vital. The instability of image reconstruction and the highly nonlinear behavior of the image reconstruction problem, make the problem particularly difficult, are referred to as ill-posed inverse problem. Specifically, development of a comprehensive set of techniques to solve the EIT problem is necessary, due to both its ill-posed, nonlinear nature, and its scope. In this thesis, several approaches to the inversion of …

Intrinsic Geometrical Constraints Of Spontaneously Excited Leidenfrost Drops, Jesse Edward Bergen

All Theses

A liquid drop placed on a heated surface above the Leidenfrost temperature will levitate on a vapor cushion. The static shape of these non-wetting Leidenfrost drops is that of a flattened sphere, reflecting the balance between gravitational, surface tension and lubrication pressures. In this thesis, we study Leidenfrost drops on curved substrates where we observe spontaneous star-shaped surface oscillations of characteristic frequency and mode number. Experiments are conducted using six different liquids and the temporal response of the observed modes n = 2 – 13 is analyzed to dene the oscillation spectrum. We observe that large drops oscillate with a …

Finite Element Discretizations For Linear Elasticity, Emma Cinatl

All Theses

The elasticity equations describe how an elastic material moves under a force. An elastic material is one that returns to its original shape after the force is lifted. Modeling elasticity is useful in manufacturing applications such as suspension cables and nail bending, and biological applications such as weight on bones and tendons [1]. In this thesis we study the modeling of nearly incompressible linearly elastic materials. A nearly incompressible material is one that does not change much under pressure. Linearly elastic materials exhibit small deformations under a force. Standard finite element methods do not work well on nearly incompressible materials …

Effects Of Performance Pressure On Response Inhibition Performance, Daniel N. Endres

All Theses

Previous research suggests that psychological pressure tends to exert detrimental effects on action-oriented cognitive tasks. However, the effect of psychological pressure on inhibitory cognitive processes has been relatively overlooked. Consequently, the goal of this study was to examine the effect of psychological pressure on response inhibition performance. Participants (N = 125) were assigned to either a time pressure condition or control condition, and then completed the Stop Signal Task, which tests response inhibition. Outcome variables of interest were stop accuracy, stop signal reaction time, and post error slowing. The results from the study indicated that time pressure significantly impaired stop …

Intermittent Estimation Of Volumetric Mass Transfer Coefficient Using Offgas Sensor Data For Continuous Our Estimation For Cho Cell Culture, Swadeel Deepak Gaad

All Theses

For the last several years drugs based on monoclonal antibodies have been manufactured using Chinese Hamster Ovaries (CHO) cells by the bio-pharmaceutical industries to treat cancer and other autoimmune diseases. Several control strategies are used to increase the productivity and efficiency in bio-pharmaceutical manufacturing. Cell growth can be controlled by adjusting the feed rate based on oxygen uptake rate of the cells in the bioreactor. Determining the volumetric mass transfer coefficient and oxygen saturation concentration is vital in correctly estimating oxygen uptake rate. Thus, a robust and efficient method to determine volumetric mass transfer coefficient and oxygen saturation concentration, which …

An Investigation Into The Usability Of An Innovation Management Assessment Tool, Elizabeth Jane Westerlund Gendreau

All Theses

Two tools for assessing external knowledge absorption maturity were developed during Part 1 of this research based upon the work of a previous researcher. The first of these tools assesses the maturity of a single organization, or actor. The second tool assesses the maturity of the collaborative innovation network that actor is a part of. Each tool produces a maturity profile for that actor or network which can then be used to inform innovation strategy decision making. An actor maturity assessment tool had been developed in previous research, however it did not consider how important evaluation criteria were to the …

An Investigative Study Of The Snapthrough, Snapback And The Stiffness Properties Of A Kirigami Unit Cell, Aditya Girish Lele

All Theses

Until recently, Carbon Fiber was considered to be a space-age material because of its applications. However, due to the advancements in the synthesis of these materials and manufacturing carbon fiber on a large scale, it has now become possible to use carbon fiber in day-to-day applications. Components which were traditionally being made out of steel or aluminum are now being redesigned and made using carbon fiber composites. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner fuselage is an excellent example where carbon fiber has been used as the major component. This is due to the fact that carbon fiber components are much lighter and …

An Introduction To Homological Algebra And Its Applications, Todd Anthony Morra

All Theses

Ext modules have a number of applications in homological algebra and commutative abstract algebra as a whole. In this document we prove Ext modules are well-defined and motivate their study by characterizing the depth of a ring in terms of Ext modules as well as by giving an application in combinatorial commutative algebra. In particular, we give a way of constructing Cohen-Macaulay rings from simple graphs and show that when we localize these rings, their type is easily computed by counting the number of maximal cliques in the appropriate simple graph. When R is a noetherian ring and S the …

An Experimental Investigation Of Combined Symmetric Asymmetric Composite Laminates, Guy Maximilian Kemmann

All Theses

It has been found that certain asymmetric composite laminates exhibit bistability, and are thus called bistable composite laminates. A bistable composite laminate is a composite laminate that exhibits multiple stable static equilibrium states. If the bistable composite is actuated it will snap to its secondary equilibrium state and then remain there without any further actuation. This unique behavior of bistable composites has made them the subject of much research in the areas of morphing structures as well as energy harvesting. Much of the research done on bistable laminates has been focused on the fundamental characterization of the bistable behavior and …

Numerical Analysis Of Scramjet Cavity Flameholders At Varying Flight Mach Numbers, Matthew Quinones

All Theses

Various types of air breathing engines are used as propulsion devices in aviation. At high flight velocities, the use of a ramjet or supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) may be preferred due to the natural compressibility of air at high speed. A scramjet, while similar to the ramjet, does not slow air to subsonic speeds prior to combustion, allowing it to operate at much higher flight velocities at very high altitude. For this reason, however, the residence time of air inside of the combustor is on the order of milliseconds, requiring rapid mixing and ignition of the fuel to generate adequate …

Hardware Obfuscation For Finite Field Algorithms, Ankur A. Sharma

All Theses

With the rise of computing devices, the security robustness of the devices has become of utmost importance. Companies invest huge sums of money, time and effort in security analysis and vulnerability testing of their software products. Bug bounty programs are held which incentivize security researchers for finding security holes in software. Once holes are found, software firms release security patches for their products. The semiconductor industry has flourished with accelerated innovation. Fabless manufacturing has reduced the time-to-market and lowered the cost of production of devices. Fabless paradigm has introduced trust issues among the hardware designers and manufacturers. Increasing dependence on …

Physical And Virtual Prototyping In Product Design, Matthew S. Sheppard

All Theses

The objective of this research is to demonstrate the role of physical and virtual prototyping in product design. The product development process that was used as a case study for this research was a piece of equipment that improves the ability to capture accurate dimensions of extruder bores of diameter ranging from 39.69 mm to 92.08 mm and depth ranging from 96.52 cm to 327.66 cm. The motivation is that the Eastman Chemical Company expressed difficulty capturing accurate measurements of circularity, diameter, and runout throughout the depth of their polymer extruders because conventional technology is cumbersome at significant depths and …

Using Contraflow On A Road Segment To Improve Emergency Response Vehicle Speed In A Connected Vehicle Environment, Nitin Srinath

All Theses

Emergency response vehicles (ERVs) need to reach their destinations as fast as possible. Road congestion and unpredictable movement of non-emergency vehicles (non-ERVs) makes it challenging for the ERV to move quickly. By using the autonomous/connected vehicle environment, instructions can be disseminated to the non-ERVs in the vicinity of the ERV to facilitate its passage within a link. In this thesis, an extension to a previously developed mathematical program is proposed to enable the ERV to use a contraflow lane when considerable speed gains can be potentially achieved. An experimental analysis is conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of the model’s output …

Thermal Mechanical Numerical Modeling Of Friction Element Welding, Ankit Varma

All Theses

With the objective of minimizing carbon footprint of vehicles, different organizations across the world are increasingly enforcing higher fuel efficiency targets for the automobile manufacturers. To improve the fuel economy while retaining or further improving the structural integrity, the automobile industry is vigorously shifting towards substituting conventional heavy materials like cast iron with new age materials such as aluminum alloys, steel alloys, etc. which are not only much lighter but also offer superior strength-to-weight ratio. Engineers use a mix of these new age materials with the aim of maximizing the benefits from each material. However, the utilization of such materials …

Developing Optimization System For Improving Highway Network Performance Under Seismic Hazards: A Case Study Of Charleston, Sc, Nixon Wonoto

All Theses

A significant number of bridges in the Central and Southeastern United States (CSUS) are known to have a design that is lacking or no seismic consideration. In an article by Wong et al., Charleston is considered an active seismic zone, and the economic loss from the Charleston region could reach over $14 billion if 1886 Charleston’s earthquake would happen again in the near future. Due to lack of present consideration in seismic design for bridges in CSUS, there has been emerging research that studies retrofit strategies for CSUS region such as in Charleston. However, most of the retrofit program, including …

Implementation And Applications Of Art-Directable Ocean Simulation Tools, Jingcong Zhang

All Theses

Ocean effects are important aspects of the filmmaking. They help to establish emotions and dynamism via the behaviors of the oceans, and provides the different atmosphere for storytelling by creating various ocean scenarios. Gilligan is a prototype environmental scene simulator, whose core technique of the ocean simulation has been widely used in feature film productions. This thesis develops ocean simulation tools working with Maya and Houdini with the techniques provided by Gilligan. The Gilligan-Maya workflow executes ocean simulation methods in Gilligan to simulate oceans. The Gilligan-Houdini workflow integrates Gilligan into Houdini, containing a Houdini wrapper of Gilligan, along with a …

Creating A Virtual World For Mathematics, Young Rae Kim, Mi Sun Park

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications (Archived)

A virtual world was created using the popular sandbox game Minecraft to support the development of preservice teachers’ knowledge for teaching mathematics. Preservice teachers explored the virtual world for a geometry activity involving area and volume problems. They then discussed how this integration of technology could support students’ effective learning of mathematics in a meaningful way. The findings of the study demonstrated that to a certain extent the Minecraft activity supported the transfer of knowledge from preservice teachers’ mathematics content knowledge to their mathematics pedagogical and instructional practice knowledge. Preservice teachers appreciated the usefulness and effectiveness of the Minecraft activity …

Stochastic Water Balance Dynamics Of Passive And Controlled Stormwater Basins, Anthony J. Parolari, Steven Pelrine, Mark S. Bartlett

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Urbanization and changing rainfall intensities affect the performance of urban stormwater infrastructure, creating the necessity to design resilient stormwater systems. One proposed method to increase the resilience of stormwater infrastructure is the active control of system flows. To improve the understanding of actively-controlled urban water infrastructure function under variable hydro-climate, we develop a stochastic water balance model for stormwater retention and detention basins with both passive and actively-controlled outflow structures. Under active outflow control, the outflow valve is closed until the water level in the basin reaches a specified maximum at which point the valve opens and the basin empties. …

Infrastructure-Based Access Policy Enforcement Using Software-Defined Networks, Tyler Carden Culp

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes a method to enhance network security using software defined networks. Standard networks use perimeter-based defenses to block attackers from gaining access to internal systems. A key problem with standard networks is that once a malicious entity has gained access to the network, they are often able to freely move throughout the network and to attack internal systems with impunity. This problem can be mitigated by placing defenses such as firewalls between machines on the network, but this approach requires significant resources and constant maintenance. If the network infrastructure itself is leveraged as a defense by individualizing the …

Measurement Of The Cross Section Of Top Quark Pairs In Association With A Photon In Lepton+Jets Events At √S =13 Tev, Titas Roy

Theses and Dissertations

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is the world’s biggest and most powerful accelerator. Colliding protons at the highest centre of mass energy yet, data are being collected by the detectors at an unprecendented rate, making it possible to search for new particles as well as make precise measurements. With the increase in statistics and energy of the data collected, it is now possible to make precise measurements with events that have a relatively low probability of occuring. In this thesis, the production cross section of a top quark pair plus a radiated photon, tt¯+γ, is measured in proton-proton …

Mitigating Loss Of Control In General Aviation: A Human-Systems Integrated Flight Test Method For Mapping Pilot Cognition And Aircraft Dynamics, Tiziano Bernard

Theses and Dissertations

General aviation (GA) loss of control accidents, in the United States, have continued to occur despite efforts by government and non-government research agencies. The lack of data during loss of control events (due to the absence of data recorders in small aircraft) does not allow for an accurate reconstruction of the accidents, causing accident investigators to focus on generic causes like pilot error. Flight test research has shown that there are various systems induced causal factors that can potentially set up an aircraft to depart controlled flight and do not aid pilot efforts. An example of these causal factors is …

A Framework For Characterizing The Security Posture Of Cyber Systems, Matthew Ridley

Theses and Dissertations

Modern day applications can be spread across multiple virtual or physical systems, and be accessed or attacked by pretty much any one any where. Cybersecurity is used to mitigate these cyber threats but there are limited resources that can be dedicated to security. As result, trade-offs and decisions must be made around what is prioritized and what isn’t. Cyber risk management provides methodologies for identifying threats, evaluating risks and making decisions, however, it can be difficult to determine whether the system is actually secure enough and the risk is actually within an acceptable parameters. This thesis provides a framework for …

Determination Of The Magnetic Field Dependence Of The Surface Resistance Of Superconductors From Cavity Tests, J. R. Delayen, H. Park, S. Su. De Silva, G. Ciovati, Z. Li

Physics Faculty Publications

We present a general method to derive the magnetic field dependence of the surface resistance of superconductors from the Q-curves obtained during the cryogenic tests of cavities. The results are applied to coaxial half-wave cavities, TM-like “elliptical” accelerating cavities, and cavities of more complicated geometries.

An Assessment Tool To Analyze Code Written In App Inventor, Rohit Gopalan

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Assessment plays a significant role in today’s educational field. When creating an assessment tool, we should keep in mind that the tool measures learning, supports learning and encourages learning. Many assessment tools are available in the educational market such as Dr. Scratch, FCS1 Assessment Instrument, and Beyond the rubric. These tools help teachers to evaluate students’ performance in programming activities, but they do not completely measure the creativity shown by students in programming. For example, Dr. Scratch measures abstraction, problem decomposition, and parallelism. FCS1 Assessment Instrument measures a set of foundational computer science concepts like variables, loops, and arrays. It …

Rfviz: An Interactive Visualization Package For Random Forests In R, Christopher Beckett

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Random forests are very popular tools for predictive analysis and data science. They work for both classification (where there is a categorical response variable) and regression (where the response is continuous). Random forests provide proximities, and both local and global measures of variable importance. However, these quantities require special tools to be effectively used to interpret the forest. Rfviz is a sophisticated interactive visualization package and toolkit in R, specially designed for interpreting the results of a random forest in a user-friendly way. Rfviz uses a recently developed R package (loon) from the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) to create …

Calculating The Cohomology Of A Lie Algebra Using Maple And The Serre Hochschild Spectral Sequence, Jacob Kullberg

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Lie algebra cohomology is an important tool in many branches of mathematics. It is used in the Topology of homogeneous spaces, Deformation theory, and Extension theory. There exists extensive theory for calculating the cohomology of semi simple Lie algebras, but more tools are needed for calculating the cohomology of general Lie algebras. To calculate the cohomology of general Lie algebras, I used the symbolic software program called Maple. I wrote software to calculate the cohomology in several different ways. I wrote several programs to calculate the cohomology directly. This proved to be computationally expensive as the number of differential forms …

Two Cases Of Intellectual Continuity Between Mental Philosophy And Psychology: William James And Charles Grandison Finney, Zachary Zschaechner

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The history of American psychology was once dominated by a narrative that emphasized the unprecedented nature of psychology at the expense of its relation to mental philosophy. Contrary to this narrative, this discussion offers two cases of intellectual continuity between 19th century Protestant mental philosophy and the new psychology as it emerged in the United States in the last quarter of the 19th century.

The Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper: Remote Sensing Of The Nighttime Oh Layer During The Deepwave Campaign, Pattilyn Mclaughlin

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper [AMTM] is a remote sensing instrument developed at Utah State University to map temperature structures in the hydroxyl airglow emission at ~87 km. These maps can then be used to quantify wave field characteristics and to observe general climatology trends. Two recent campaigns that it has been involved with are the DEEPWAVE campaign in Lauder, New Zealand and the Super Soaker campaign in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment, “DEEPWAVE” was an international measurement and modeling program intended to characterize the generation and propagation of a broad range of atmospheric gravity waves with …