Digital Commons Network^™

Comparing Greedy Constructive Heuristic Subtour Elimination Methods For The Traveling Salesman Problem, Petar Jackovich, Bruce A. Cox, Raymond R. Hill

Faculty Publications

Purpose — This paper aims to define the class of fragment constructive heuristics used to compute feasible solutions for the traveling salesman problem (TSP) into edge-greedy and vertex-greedy subclasses. As these subclasses of heuristics can create subtours, two known methodologies for subtour elimination on symmetric instances are reviewed and are expanded to cover asymmetric problem instances. This paper introduces a third novel subtour elimination methodology, the greedy tracker (GT), and compares it to both known methodologies. Design/methodology/approach — Computational results for all three subtour elimination methodologies are generated across 17 symmetric instances ranging in size from 29 vertices to 5,934 …

Modified C-17 Taxi Procedures: A Fuel Cost Savings Exploration, Michael Wells, Michael Krester, Benjamin Hazen, Jeffery D. Weir

Faculty Publications

Purpose — This study aims to explore the viability of using C-17 reduced-engine taxi procedures from a cost savings and capability perspective. Design/methodology/approach — This study model expected engine fuel flow based on the number of operational engines, aircraft gross weight (GW) and average aircraft groundspeed. Using this model, the research executes a cost savings simulation estimating the expected annual savings produced by the proposed taxi methodology. Operational and safety risks are also considered. Findings — The results indicate that significant fuel and costs savings are available via the employment of reduced-engine taxi procedures. On an annual basis, the mobility …

Automatic Pain Assessment Through Facial Expressions, Ilham Seladji

Theses

Pain is a strong symptom of diseases. Being an involuntary unpleasant feeling, it can be considered as a reliable indicator of health issues. Pain has always been expressed verbally, but in some cases, traditional patient self-reporting is not efficient. On one side, there are patients who have neurological disorders and cannot express themselves accurately, as well as patients who suddenly lose consciousness due to an abrupt faintness. On another side, medical staff working in crowded hospitals need to focus on emergencies and would opt for the automation of the task of looking after hospitalized patients during their entire stay, in …

Evaluation Of The Intake Of Fresh Mulberry In Crossbred Large White Pigs: Morphometric, Histological And Hematological Study, Yuvan Contino, F. Ojeda, R. Herrera, Nancy Altunaga, Guadalupe Pérez, J. L. Moliner

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Use Of A Simulation Model To Develop Feeding Strategies For Cattle At Pasture In Small Scale Dairy Farming Systems In The Highlands Of Central Mexico: Methodological Frame Work, O. A. Castelán-Ortega, J. G. Estrada‐Flores, A. M. J. Espinoza‐Ortega, E. Sánchez‐Vera, M. Hernández‐Ortega, M. A. Rojas‐Garduño, V. Ambriz‐Vilchis

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

The Utilization Of Stored Soil Moistures For Forage Legumes Supply In The Dry Season In West Timor, Indonesia, Esnawan Budisantoso, Neal Dalgliesh, P. Th. Fernandez, T. Basuki, E. Hosang, D. Kana Hau, Jacob Nulik

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Traveling-Wave Electrophoresis: 1d Model, Austin Green

Physics Capstone Projects

A 1D model of traveling-wave electrophoresis predicts that molecular diffusion raises the trapping threshold and that other physical properties of the species effect the trapping threshold as well. Small concentrations, below 5μM, raise the trapping threshold for high diffusivity species, resulting in a lower efficiency. Species with a mid-range electrophoretic mobility and diffusivity have their trapping threshold slightly lowered with an increase in concentration, leading to more particles traveling with the wave.

Quantifying Anticancer Drug Doxorubicin Binding To Dna Using Optical Tweezers, Zachary Ells

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Doxorubicin is a successful anticancer drug approved for use in the 1970s and is considered to be one of the most effective cancer treatment methods today. Although Doxorubicin has positive survival statistics it has very negative side effects in many cases. Bleeding from the soles of the palms and feet, along with excruciating pain is often exhibited through the administration of this drug. Based on the preliminary findings utilizing optical tweezers we anticipate that this study will provide critical information about the drug binding mechanism. Single molecule biophysics techniques have provided useful insight into the DNA-binding mechanisms of small molecules. …

District-Based And School-Based Variables Predicting Performance Of High Schools In Arkansas, Justin Luttrell

College of Education Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the predictive effects of school size, teacher absenteeism, pupil-teacher ratio, district health literacy percentage, and highly mobile student population rates. These predictive factors were examined on persistence as measured by the 4-year graduation rates, on accountability ratings as measured by the ESSA building score, and on the overall academic achievement as measured by the average ACT composite score of juniors for high schools in Arkansas, respectively. A quantitative, multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The sample data for this study comprised 75 Arkansas public high schools, selected and stratified …

Predictive Effects On Transfer Student Success By Prior Academic Integration And By Social Integration, Jacob Brownfield

College of Education Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine predictive effects among the transfer GPA, the number of hours transferred, a remedial course taken pretransfer, the transferred completion percentage, the use of on-campus housing, participation in collegiate athletics, and participation in social clubs on transfer student success as measured by the post-transfer first semester GPA and graduating GPA of undergraduate transfer students at a private liberal arts university in Central Arkansas. The post-transfer number of semesters until graduation was included as a predictor variable for the fourth Hypothesis. Tinto’s longitudinal model of student departure served as the theoretical framework, and the …

Observation And Measurement Of The Higgs Boson Produced In Association With A Vector Boson And Decaying To A Pair Of Bottom Quarks With The Atlas Detector At Lhc, Peilong Wang

Physics Theses and Dissertations

A search of the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of bottom quarks using the WH and ZH associated production is performed with the ATLAS detector. The analyzed data were collected in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 LHC Run-2 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb⁻¹. Final states that contains 0, 1, and 2 charged leptons (electrons or muons, denoted as l) are considered, to target the processes of Z→νν, W→lν and Z→ll. Object reconstruction, event selection, and signal and control region definition are included. Systematic uncertainty …

Advanced Thermal Characterization And Temperature Control To Enable The Next Generation Of Micro-Electronic Technologies, Assaad El Helou

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

In the electronics world, self-heating is an inevitable by-product of electrical activation that has a major impact on device performance and reliability. Thermal technologies have been in constant development to effectively dissipate the generated heat and keep device operation temperatures within reliable limits. Moreover, thermal characterization technologies have been implemented to understand the thermal performance within microelectronic sys- tems, but not without facing experimental and numerical challenges. This work presents ad- vanced thermal investigations, both experimental and numerical, that are adapted and most suited for emerging micro-electronic technologies. Initially, the main experimental and numerical modeling challenges faced in the thermal …

Preparing Culturally And Linguistically Responsive Teachers Across Contexts: Community-Based Learning And Intercultural Telecollaboration, Sumei Wu

Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing a three-paper structure, this dissertation examines complementary approaches to supporting teachers in learning from and with one another as a community of educators developing their expertise to teach culturally and linguistically diverse learners. The first approach of community-based learning has a longer research trajectory because it examines the context of face-to-face tutor­ing, in which teachers work directly with diverse learners in a physical setting as part of professional learning and move through a feedback cycle, planning – enacting – feedback - reflection. The second approach shifts into a growing area of interest, telecollaboration, for teacher educators, particularly in second …

Integrating Different Data Sources For Estimation Of Total With Unknown Population Size, Zhaoce Liu

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

Probability sampling has served as the gold-standard in survey practice for many decades. However, as many new data collection methods become available, it is possible to improve the quality and efficiency of traditional survey practices by integrating different sample sources. Web-based surveys from the so-called opt-in panels are one type of nonprobability sample that becoming popular these years. They often come with large sample sizes to yield efficient estimates, but selection bias may compromise the generalizability of results to the broader population.

Our motivating example is a survey conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which collects data to …

Statistical Modeling Of High-Throughput Sequencing Data And Spatially Resolved Transcriptomic Data, Shen Yin

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies have shown that RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) can be used to measure mRNA of sufficient quality extracted from Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) tissues to provide whole-genome transcriptome analysis. However, little attention has been given to the normalization of FFPE RNA-seq data. In Chapters 1 and 2, we propose a new normalization method, labeled MIXnorm, and its simplified version SMIXnorm, for FFPE RNA-seq data. MIXnorm relies on a two-component mixture model, which models non-expressed genes by zero-inflated Poisson distributions and models expressed genes by truncated normal distributions. To obtain maximum likelihood estimates, we develop a nested EM algorithm, in which closed-form …

Analyzing Performance, Energy Consumption, And Reliability Of Mobile Applications, Osama Barack

Computer Science and Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Mobile applications have become a high priority for software developers. Researchers and practitioners are working toward improving and optimizing the energy efficiency and performance of mobile applications due to the capacity limitation of mobile device processors and batteries. In addition, mobile applications have become popular among end-users, developers have introduced a wide range of features that increase the complexity of application code.

To improve and enhance the maintainability, extensibility, and understandability of application code, refactoring techniques were introduced. However, implementing such techniques to mobile applications affects energy efficiency and performance. To evaluate and categorize software implementation and optimization efficiency, several …

Deep Neural Network Based Student Response Modeling With Uncertainty, Multimodality And Attention, Xinyi Ding

Computer Science and Engineering Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I investigate deep neural network based student response modeling, more specifically Knowledge Tracing (KT). Knowledge Tracing allows Intelligent Tutoring Systems to infer which topics or skills a student has mastered, thus adjusting curriculum accordingly. Deep neural network based knowledge tracing models like Deep Knowledge Tracing (DKT) and Dynamic Key-Value Memory Network (DKVMN) have achieved significant improvements compared with conventional probabilistic models. There are mainly two goals in this thesis: 1) To have a better understanding of existing deep neural network based models and their predictions through visualization and through incorporating uncertainties. 2) To improve the performance of …

Bayesian Semi-Supervised Keyphrase Extraction And Jackknife Empirical Likelihood For Assessing Heterogeneity In Meta-Analysis, Guanshen Wang

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates: (1) A Bayesian Semi-supervised Approach to Keyphrase Extraction with Only Positive and Unlabeled Data, (2) Jackknife Empirical Likelihood Confidence Intervals for Assessing Heterogeneity in Meta-analysis of Rare Binary Events.

In the big data era, people are blessed with a huge amount of information. However, the availability of information may also pose great challenges. One big challenge is how to extract useful yet succinct information in an automated fashion. As one of the first few efforts, keyphrase extraction methods summarize an article by identifying a list of keyphrases. Many existing keyphrase extraction methods focus on the unsupervised setting, …

Examining Multiple Imputation For Measurement Error Correction In Count Data With Excess Zeros, Shalima Zalsha

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

Measurement error and missing data are two common problems in wildlife population surveys. These data are collected from the environment and may be missing or measured with error when the observer’s ability to see the animal is obscured. Methods such as video transects for estimating red snapper abundance and aerial surveys for estimating moose population sizes are highly affected by these problems since total abundance will be underestimated if missing/mismeasured counts are ignored. We shall refer to this problem as visibility bias; it occurs when the true counts are observed when visibility is high, partially observed when visibility is low …

Improved Statistical Methods For Time-Series And Lifetime Data, Xiaojie Zhu

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, improved statistical methods for time-series and lifetime data are developed. First, an improved trend test for time series data is presented. Then, robust parametric estimation methods based on system lifetime data with known system signatures are developed.

In the first part of this dissertation, we consider a test for the monotonic trend in time series data proposed by Brillinger (1989). It has been shown that when there are highly correlated residuals or short record lengths, Brillinger’s test procedure tends to have significance level much higher than the nominal level. This could be related to the discrepancy between …

The Ftc And Ai Governance: A Regulatory Proposal, Michael Spiro

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

No abstract provided.

Modelling Optimal Control Of Heavy Alcohol Consumption On The Transmission Dynamics Of Hiv/Aids, Emmanuel Ongodia, Gasper G. Mwanga

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Unhealthy consumption of alcohol continues to be found everywhere in our communities leading to behavioural and physiological effects on neuro-cognitive function. This results into high-risk sexual behaviour mainly due to impaired decision- making capacity and impulsivity, a catalyst of HIV infection and ultimately AIDS. This paper investigates the best control combination for HIV/AIDS pandemic in a community with alcohol abuse problem. It proposes a compartmental deterministic model for the transmission dynamics of HIV/AIDS in a community plagued with alcohol abuse. The paper determines the implementation of optimal control strategies involving reduction of new HIV cases through the ABC (abstinence, being …

On The Basis Of Gender: Discrimination Against Transgender People In The Hiring Process, Aaron N. Baillargeon

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

The study investigated the effect of a job applicant’s gender identity (male or female) and gender history (cisgender or transgender) on the evaluated quality of the applicant and the likelihood of the applicant being hired for a vacant software engineer position. Participants from the worker pool of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk evaluated the quality of a fictitious job applicant based on a mock resume and background check created for the purposes of this study, then completed the Social Dominance Orientation. There was no significant effect of gender identity or gender history on the evaluated quality of the job applicant or on …

Analysis Of Github Pull Requests, Canon Ellis

Computer Science and Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The popularity of the software repository site GitHub has created a rise in the Pull Based Development Models' use. An essential portion of pull-based development is the creation of Pull Requests. Pull Requests often have to be reviewed by an individual to be approved and accepted into the Master branch of a software repository. The reviewing process can often be time-consuming and introduce a relatively high level of lost development time. This paper examines thousands of pull requests to understand the most valuable metadata of pull requests. We then introduce metrics in comparing the metadata of pull requests to understand …

Multigrid For The Nonlinear Power Flow Equations, Enrique Pereira Batista

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

The continuously changing structure of power systems and the inclusion of renewable
energy sources are leading to changes in the dynamics of modern power grid,
which have brought renewed attention to the solution of the AC power flow equations.
In particular, development of fast and robust solvers for the power flow problem
continues to be actively investigated. A novel multigrid technique for coarse-graining
dynamic power grid models has been developed recently. This technique uses an
algebraic multigrid (AMG) coarsening strategy applied to the weighted
graph Laplacian that arises from the power network's topology for the construction
of coarse-grain approximations to …

Uncertainty Quantification Of Nonreflecting Boundary Schemes, Brian Citty

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

Numerical methods have been developed to solve partial differential equations involving the far-field radiation of waves. In addition, there has been recent interest in uncertainty quantification- a burgeoning field involving solving PDEs where random variables are used to model uncertainty in the data. In this thesis we will apply uncertainty quantification methodology to the 1D and 2D wave equation with nonreflecting boundary. We first derive a boundary condition for the 1D wave equation assuming several models of the random wave speed. Later we use our result to compare to an asymptotic SDE approach, and finally we repeat our analysis for …

Modeling Fluid Phenomena In The Context Of The Constrained Vapor Bubble System, James Barrett

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the fluid phenomena observed within what is known as the constrained vapor bubble system. The constrained vapor bubble system is a closed system consisting of a quartz cuvette partially filled with liquid and used as a coolant device. Heat is applied to the heater end which causes the liquid to evaporate and condense on the cooled end of the cuvette. Liquid travels back to the heated end via capillary flow in the corners. A pure vapor bubble is formed in the center of the cuvette giving rise to the name of the experiment. The constrained vapor …

The Use Of Evidential Reasoning Model With Biomarkers In Pancreatic Cancer Prediction, Qianhui Fan

Master's Projects

In this project, an evidential reasoning model is built to amalgamate factors that could be used in early detection of pancreatic cancer. Our machine learning model outputs a probability of a given patient having prostate cancer based on various input variables. These variables include health history factors, such as smoking and medical history, technical artifacts, such as biopsy sequencing technology, and genomic biomarkers such as mutational, transcriptional and methylomic profiles, cfDNA, and copy number variation. The dataset used in this project is a part of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project and was collected from the National Cancer Institute (NIH) …

College Choice And Enrollment Among Youth Formerly In Foster Care, Jacob P. Gross, Ellen Stolzenberg, Alex Williams

Journal of College Access

Despite being among the most disadvantaged groups with respect to college access and success in the United States, youth formerly in foster care (YFFC) remain an understudied population in higher education research. Although they aspire to college at high levels, youth in foster care enjoy less postsecondary access and success than their peers who have not experienced foster care. This study seeks to better understand how YFFC compare to their peers regarding college preparation, choice, enrollment, and financing; academic self-concept and degree aspirations; and concerns about paying for college. Using Perna's (2008) college choice model and data from the 2016 …

Complete Issue, Christopher W. Tremblay, Laura Owen, Patrick J. O'Connor Phd

Journal of College Access

No abstract provided.