Digital Commons Network^™

Comprehensive Molecular Characterization Of Pan-Cancer Biomarkers, Yifan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US. Enormous efforts have been devoted to understanding and treat the disease. Overall cancer mortality rate declines in recent years. Meanwhile, the common biological functions and regulatory mechanisms of the general development of cancer remain to be elucidated. Here, we developed computational approaches to integrate multilayer genomic data for better understanding and characterizing cancer. First, utilizing high-through whole-exome sequencing and RNA sequencing data, we developed a systems biology method that combined somatic mutations and gene expression to uncover biomarkers for breast cancer survival prediction. Our method overlaid somatic mutations on …

Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite Promising Materials For Next Generation Solar Cells, Gailan Asad Kazem Al-Dainy

Theses and Dissertations

Scientists and engineers are developing photovoltaic devices as promising clean energy tools. Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have attracted considerable attention as next-generation thin film solar cells due to their high efficiency, solution processability, easy processing, and low-cost fabrication. Moreover, perovskite exhibits outstanding optoelectronic properties. These unique properties have led to a rapid rise in their power conversion efficiency (PCE) as single-junction from 3.9% to certified 23.4% in just about 9 years. However, the stability of perovskite solar cell (PSC) -based devices is still an issue, therefore, it is important to increase both the efficiency and stability of PSC devices. Based on …

Paleoseismic Studies Using Geophysical Techniques: Sand Blow Features In Eastern Arkansas, Rauf R. Hussein

Theses and Dissertations

Damaging earthquakes including pre-historical, historical and recent demand paleoseismic studies to improve seismic risk assessment of future destructive earthquakes. Such large earthquakes could damage many structures, kill scores of people and leave others homeless, and devastate the economy. In this study, extensive research efforts are described to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) in detecting and identifying specific geological features that are related to historic and prehistoric earthquakes. These features are preserved in the near surface soil and manifested as sand blows, buried paleo-surfaces, venting dikes, and structural faults. They are related to severe cyclic …

Measuring The Impact Of Cooperative Rewards On Ai, Dain Harmon

Computer Science

We consider the effects of varying individualistic and team rewards on learning for a Deep Q-Network AI in a multi-agent system, using a synthetic team game ‘Futlol’ designed for this purpose. Experimental results with this game using the OpenSpiel framework indicate that mixed reward structures result in lower win rates. It is unclear if this is due to faster learning on simpler reward structures or a flaw in the nature of the reward system.

Review And Case Study Of Electric Submersible Pump Performance With Dispersions, Dexter Bryant Ellexson

Engineering

Centrifugal pump performance is very sensitive to fluid viscosity, gas fraction, and flow pattern in impeller channels. Viscous oil reduces the head and rate capacity of the pump. High gas fraction reduces the head capacity of the pump at high rates and leads to unstable surging at low rates. If the flow pattern in the impeller transitions to an elongated bubble the pump can gas-lock causing loss of production and excessive heat buildup. The complex geometry and 3-dimensional flow in a pump stage make the analysis of flow in a pump difficult without simplifying assumptions. Empirical and mechanistic models have …

A Bayesian Mixed Multistate Open-Robust Design Mark-Recapture Model To Estimate Heterogeneity In Transition Rates In An Imperfectly Detected System, Janelle J. Badger

Mathematics and Statistics

Multistate mark-recapture models have long been used to assess ecological and demographic parameters such as survival, phenology, and breeding rates by estimating transition rates among a series of latent or observable states. Here, we introduce a Bayesian mixed multistate open robust design mark recapture model (MSORD), with random intercepts and slopes to explore individual heterogeneity in transition rates and individual responses to covariates. We fit this model to simulated data sets to test whether the model could accurately and precisely estimate five parameters, set to known values a priori, under varying sampling schemes. To assess the behavior of the model …

Implementing Mindfulness: The Effect On Student Behavior And Focus At The Elementary Level, Brianna Anderson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The practice of mindfulness is being used with increasing regularity in classrooms around the world. Mindfulness is the idea of being present in the moment without thinking about the past or wondering about the future. Teaching students about practicing mindfulness has several components including breathing, seeing, stretching, and listening. Provided is a literature review and research on the positive effects mindfulness has on a students’ ability to focus, self-regulate, and release anxiety and stress in a Title 1 elementary classroom. Analysis of the data showed a decrease in the frequency of off-task behaviors in four out of six students during …

The Relation Between Hyperlipidemia, Hypertension, And Downstream Cognitive And Neuroanatomical Function, Victor James Wasserman

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: Cardiovascular risks (CVR) such as hypertension and hyperlipidemia play a critical role in the emergence of dementia syndromes. Medication to treat CVR may not obviate downstream risk for cognitive change.

Methods: To examine the relation between history of treatment with medications to treat CVR and cognitive outcomes, participants were seen at time points ~7 years apart, completed neuropsychological evaluations, assessed for history of treatment with medication associated with hypertension and hyperlipidemia as indicators of CVR, and classified into 3 groups: Not Treated, Inconsistently Treated, and Consistently Treated. Regression models associating neuropsychological outcome measures of cognition and CVR were explored …

Bioinformatics Metadata Extraction For Machine Learning Analysis, Zachary Tom

Master's Projects

Next generation sequencing (NGS) has revolutionized the biological sciences. Today, entire genomes can be rapidly sequenced, enabling advancements in personalized medicine, genetic diseases, and more. The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) hosts the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) containing vast amounts of valuable NGS data. Recently, research has shown that sequencing errors in conventional NGS workflows are key confounding factors for detecting mutations. Various steps such as sample handling and library preparation can introduce artifacts that affect the accuracy of calling rare mutations. Thus, there is a need for more insight into the exact relationship between various steps of the …

Student Success In Virtual Versus In-Person Learning During A Direct Instruction Math Intervention Course, Christina Lindmeier

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Public education has always been thought of as being completed in a brick and mortar setting with students in desks and teachers at the front of the classroom. Students interact with their peers and learn through lecture and hands-on activities. This general understanding was quickly changed in the spring of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Schools had to shift from in person learning to online learning with little to no planning time. As schools began to transition back in the fall of 2020, school boards had to make the choice of continuing all virtual learning, creating a hybrid learning …

Born To Burn: Characterizing Fuel Loads, Flammability And Plant Traits Across Spatio-Temporal Gradients Of Black Spruce Dominated Communities, Emilia J. Grzesik

Biological Sciences

The flammability of black spruce forests is influenced by the fuel loadings and quality of fuels within a site, whereas the ability of a site to self-replace after fire, and thus forest resiliency, depends on the fire-ecological trait attributes of the plant community. Black spruce plant communities have been undergoing self-replacement succession from low to moderate severity fires for thousands of years, however, recent intensification of interior Alaska's fire regime is leading to shifts in post-fire successional trajectories, resulting in many ecological implications. This study focuses on understanding the variation in black spruce forest flammability, based on fuel load quantity …

The Effects Of Individual And Environmental Heterogeneity On Long-Term Population Dynamics Of Cassin's Auklets (Ptychoramphus Aleuticus), Michael E. Johns

Biological Sciences

Reproductive output and survival are expected to be balanced through a tradeoff between current success and future potential, in response to environmental conditions that vary on spatial and temporal scales. Long-term datasets that follow uniquely marked animals through time are excellent tools for describing how heritable or derived traits that influence reproduction and survival can be attributed to individual quality, and how the added reproductive performance of these individuals influence population dynamics. A 37-year record of breeding histories from known-aged Cassin's auklets from Southeast Farallon Island, a colony off the coast of central California, was used to examine these ideas …

Toward Non-Invasive Measurement Of Atmospheric Temperature Using Vibro-Rotational Raman Spectra Of Diatomic Gases, Tyler Capek, Jacek Borysow, Claudio Mazzoleni, Massimo Moraldi

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

We demonstrate precise determination of atmospheric temperature using vibro-rotational Raman (VRR) spectra of molecular nitrogen and oxygen in the range of 292–293 K. We used a continuous wave fiber laser operating at 10 W near 532 nm as an excitation source in conjunction with a multi-pass cell. First, we show that the approximation that nitrogen and oxygen molecules behave like rigid rotors leads to erroneous derivations of temperature values from VRR spectra. Then, we account for molecular non-rigidity and compare four different methods for the determination of air temperature. Each method requires no temperature calibration. The first method involves fitting …

A Preliminary Analysis Of How A Software Organization’S Maturity And Size Affect Its Intellectual Property Portfolio, Daniel Gifford

Master of Science in Software Engineering Theses

Intellectual property, commonly known as IP, is complex. The four main types of software IP, which is what this thesis will focus on, are patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and copyright. Patents, trade secrets, and copyrights were all studied by this thesis. Software IP is unique in that it can by copyrighted. Different IP owners, which can be businesses of different types, individuals, and universities, often have different strategies as to how to use their IP portfolio. This thesis studies differences in IP usage between these entities specifically in the field of software. Large and small software companies were analyzed specifically. …

Quantifying Deepfake Detection Accuracy For A Variety Of Natural Settings, Pratikkumar Prajapati

Master's Projects

Deep fakes are videos generated from a starting video of a person where that person's face has been swapped for someone else's. In this report, we describe our work to develop general, deep learning-based models to classify Deep Fake content. Our first experiments involved simple Convolution Neural Network (CNN)-based models where we varied how individual frames from the source video were passed to the CNN. These simple models tended to give low accuracy scores for discriminating fake versus non-fake videos of less than 60%. We then developed three more sophisticated models: one based on choosing test frames, one based on …

Malware Classification Using Lstms, Dennis Dang

Master's Projects

Signature and anomaly based detection have long been quintessential techniques used in malware detection. However, these techniques have become increasingly ineffective as malware becomes more complex. Researchers have therefore turned to deep learning to construct better performing models. In this project, we create four different long-short term memory (LSTM) models and train each model to classify malware by family type. Our data consists of opcodes extracted from malware executables. We employ techniques used in natural language processing (NLP) such as word embedding and bidirection LSTMs (biLSTM). We also use convolutional neural networks (CNN). We found that our model consisting of …

1. Test Data, Zhiqu Lu, Likun Zhang, Lei Cao

Gulf Research Program Data Sets

This data set contains recorded and processed bubble sounds under different conditions: a few bubbles vs. constant flow bubbles. Each condition is tested with nitrogen and with methane.

2. Modeling, Zhiqu Lu, Likun Zhang, Lei Cao

Gulf Research Program Data Sets

This data set contains the results for acoustic bubble modeling.

3. Localization, Zhiqu Lu, Likun Zhang, Lei Cao

Gulf Research Program Data Sets

This data set contains the results for oil leakage source localization.

4. Metadata Files, Zhiqu Lu, Likun Zhang, Lei Cao

Gulf Research Program Data Sets

This data set contains all ReadMe files for test data, modeling data, and localization data, as well as the corresponding codes.

5. Programs And Algorithms, Zhiqu Lu, Likun Zhang, Lei Cao

Gulf Research Program Data Sets

This data set contains all codes for the study.

6. Supplemental Materials, Zhiqu Lu, Likun Zhang, Lei Cao

Gulf Research Program Data Sets

This data set contains all conference presentations, manuscripts, technical reports, posters.

Uncertainty Quantification In Unconventional Reservoirs Using Conventional Bootstrap And Modified Bootstrap Methodology, Chukwuemeka Okoli

Engineering

Various uncertainty quantication methodologies are presented using a combination of several deterministic decline curve analysis models and two bootstrapping algorithms. The bootstrapping algorithms are the conventional bootstrapping method (CBM) and the modied bootstrapping method (MBM). The combined deterministic-stochastic combination models are applied to 126 sample wells from the Permian basin. Results are presented for 12 to 72 months of production hindcast given an average well production history of 120 months. Previous researchers used the Arps model and both conventional and modied bootstrapping with block re-sampling techniques to reliably quantify uncertainty in production forecasts. In this work, we applied both stochastic …

Effects Of Sea Ice Seasonal Evolution And Oil Properties On Crude Oil Upward Migration Through Sea Ice, Marc Oggier

Geosciences

Sea ice plays an essential role in polar ecosystems as a habitat for organisms at the base of the food web. Receding Arctic perennial sea ice, potential oil and gas reserves, and increasing industrial activities in the Arctic are likely to increase oil extraction and transport in the maritime Arctic. Despite a decrease in summer sea ice extent, Arctic waters remain covered with sea ice for much of the year, increasing the risk of an oil spill in and under Arctic sea ice. This dissertation addresses the need for a quantitative understanding of the timing of and constraints on oil …

Newsroom, Georgia Southern University

Newsroom (2006-2023)

• Mechanical engineering graduate is ready for duty
• Georgia Southern professor receives University System of Georgia Hall of Fame Faculty Award

Scattering Of Goldstone Bosons And Resonance Production In A Composite Higgs Model On The Lattice, V Drach, T Janowski, C Pica, S Prelovsek

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Scholarly Communications In Knowledge Economy By A Premier Indian Chemical Sciences R&D Laboratory - Csir-Ncl : A Scientometric Evaluation, Gati Krushna Nayak, Sudam Charan Sahu, Vaishali S. Khaparde, Sudeshna Tripathi

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This paper made an attempt to analyze publications of CSIR-NCL, Pune a reputed world class 70 years renowned Chemistry & Chemical Engineering R&D Laboratory during the last 10 years w.e.f. 2010-2019 as reflected in SCOPUS multidisciplinary international database. The total number of 5372 research publications have been downloaded and analyzed according to the objectives. This paper gives a complete view of the evaluation of research outcomes of the CSIR-NCL, Pune the productive and influential in innovative research. This paper vigorously tries to give a complete view of the evaluation of research outcomes of the CSIR-NCL, Pune in India that ought …

On The Effective Finite Element Simplification Of Bolted Joints: Static And Modal Analyses, Abdulrahman Mohammad Ibrahim

Theses

In this paper, the finite element simplification of a standard bolted joint configuration is investigated. Static and modal analyses of a 3D model are used for benchmarking three different simplified finite element models using Siemens NX software. More specifically, the three simplified finite element models utilize beam elements, spring elements and a coupled shell-beamspring elements model. Four margin of safety criteria with respect to slipping, gapping, yield strength and ultimate strength were evaluated. Results show comparable values in the yield and ultimate margins of safety of all three simplified finite element models. Additionally, a parametric analysis relative to bolt size …

Modeling Permafrost Dynamics And Water Balance Of Arctic Watersheds In A Changing Climate, Matvey Vladimirovich Debolskiy

Geosciences

Changes in climate across the Arctic in recent decades and especially the increase of near-surface air temperature promote signicant changes in key natural components of the Arctic including permafrost (defined as soil experiencing subzero temperature for more than two consecutive years). Recent borehole observations exhibit signicant increase in ground temperatures below the depths of seasonal variations. Modeling studies on a global scale suggest a steady decrease in area underlain by near-surface permafrost in the northern hemisphere in recent decades. Global projections for the next century predict further permafrost degradation depending on the greenhouse gas concentration trajectory. Permafrost degradation is not …

Changing Glaciers In The Brooks Range And Western Chugach Mountains, Alaska: Mass Loss, Runoff Increase, And Supraglacial Volcanic Tephra Coverage, Jason Geck

Geosciences

Glaciers in Alaska cover over ~87,000 km² (~ 6 % of the state) with most glaciers thinning and retreating at an increasing rate. The thinning and retreating of glaciers worldwide can have an immediate socio-economic implication in addition to the longer-term glacier meltwater contribution to sea level rise. This dissertation investigated Alaskan glaciers in the Brooks Range for mass loss and area reductions over the period 1970-2001 (Chapter 2), historic mass balance and runoff for Eklutna Glacier, located in western Chugach Mountains, using a temperature index model over 1984-2019 period (Chapter 3), and the persistence of tephra from a volcanic …