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Math 1203 College Algebra, Zachary Payton

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Exploring Factors That Predict Marketing Of E-Cigarette Products On Twitter: Infodemiology Approach Using Time Series, Nnamdi C. Ezike, Allison Ames Boykin, Page D. Dobbs, Huy Mai, Brian A. Primack

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background:

Electronic nicotine delivery systems (known as electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes) increase risk for adverse health outcomes among naïve tobacco users, particularly youth and young adults. This vulnerable population is also at risk for exposed brand marketing and advertisement of e-cigarettes on social media. Understanding predictors of how e-cigarette manufacturers conduct social media advertising and marketing could benefit public health approaches to addressing e-cigarette use.

Objective:

This study documents factors that predict changes in daily frequency of commercial tweets about e-cigarettes using time series modeling techniques.

Methods:

We analyzed data on the daily frequency of commercial tweets about e-cigarettes collected …

Biofabrication Of Magnetic Nanoparticles And Their Use As Carriers For Pectinase And Xylanase, Shady S. Hassan, Brendan Duffy, Gwilym A. Williams, Amit Jaiswal

Articles

In this study, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MNPs) were synthesized via exposure of fungal cell filtrate from Aspergillus flavus to aqueous iron ions. The extracellular synthesis of MNPs was monitored by UV–Vis spectrophotometry and showed an absorption peak at 310 nm. The morphology of MNPs was found to be flake-like, as confirmed by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), while the average crystallite size was ∼16 nm, as determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis was performed to confirm the presence of elemental Fe in the sample. Pectinase and xylanase were covalently immobilized on MNPs with efficiencies …

Review Of Analytical Techniques For Arsenic Detection And Determination In Drinking Water, Abhijnan Bhat, Tony O'Hara, Furong Tian, Baljit Singh Dr.

Articles

Arsenic occurs in the natural environment in four oxidation states: As(V), As(III), As(0) and As(−III). The behavior of arsenic species changes depending on the biotic or abiotic conditions in water. In groundwater, arsenic is predominantly present as As(III) and As(V), with a minor amount of methyl and dimethyl arsenic compounds being reported. Global intake of As(III) and As(V) via drinking water and food has dramatically increased in recent years. The commonly used term inorganic arsenic includes both As(III) and As(V) species and constitutes the highest toxicological risk associated with arsenic in water compared to the organic arsenic species. Inorganic arsenic …

Data Driven Bayesian Network To Predict Critical Alarm, Joseph Mietkiewicz, Anders Madsen

Articles

Modern industrial plants rely on alarm systems to ensure their safe and effective functioning. Alarms give the operator knowledge about the current state of the industrial plants. Trip alarms indicating a trip event indicate the shutdown of systems. Trip events in power plants can be costly and critical for the running of the operation.This paper demonstrates how trips events based on an alarm log from an offshore gas production can be reliably predicted using a Bayesian network. If a trip event is reliably predicted and the main cause of it is identified, it will allow the operator to prevent it. …

Improvement Of The Fine Tuning Algorithm, Joseph Mietkiewicz, Anders Madsen

Articles

Khalil El Hindi has developed a fine-tuning algorithm to
improve the classification accuracy of the Naive Bayes. His algorithm optimizes the conditional probability tables of the Naive Bayes after the
training phase. The values of the probabilities of a variable are modified if it causes misclassification of a training instance. The algorithm out-performs in many cases the Naive Bayes. We analyze the performance
of the algorithm, discussed its issues, and compare it to a modified algorithm. The new algorithm simplifies the formula used in the fine-tuning algorithm and uses a more efficient scoring metric, the Brier score, to
fine-tune the …

Application Of Climate-Smart Forestry – Forest Manager Response To The Relevance Of European Definition And Indicators, Euan Bowditch, Giovanni Santopuoli, Boyżdar Neroj, Jan Svetlik Jan Svetlik, Mark Tominlson, Vivien Pohl, Admir Avdagić, Miren Del Rio, Tzetvan Zlatanov Tzetvan Zlatanov, Höhn Maria, Gabriela Jamnická, Yusuf Serengil, Murat Sarginci, Sigríður Júlía Brynleifsdóttir, Jerzy Lesinki, João C. Azevedo

Articles

Climate change impacts are an increasing threat to forests and current approaches to management. In 2020, Climate-smart Forestry (CSF) definition and set of indicators was published. This study further developed this work by testing the definition and indicators through a forest manager survey across fifteen member European countries. The survey covered topic areas of demographics, climate change impacts, definition and indicators assessment, as well as knowledge and communication. Overall, forest managers considered the threat of climate change to their forests as high or critical and 62% found the CSF definition clear and concise; however, the minority suggested greater simplification or …

Disruptive Technologies In Smart Farming: An Expanded View With Sentiment Analysis, Sargam Yadav, Abhishek Kaushik, Mahak Sharma, Shubham Sharma

Articles

Smart Farming (SF) is an emerging technology in the current agricultural landscape. The aim of Smart Farming is to provide tools for various agricultural and farming operations to improve yield by reducing cost, waste, and required manpower. SF is a data-driven approach that can mitigate losses that occur due to extreme weather conditions and calamities. The influx of data from various sensors, and the introduction of information communication technologies (ICTs) in the field of farming has accelerated the implementation of disruptive technologies (DTs) such as machine learning and big data. Application of these predictive and innovative tools in agriculture is …

Measurement Of Orientation And Distance Change Using Circularly Polarized Uwb Signals, Janusz Przewocki, Max Ammann, Adam Narbudowicz

Articles

The article proposes methodology to use circularly polarized (CP) ultra-wideband (UWB) signals for simultaneous measurement of orientation and distance changes between transmitter and receiver. The proposed technique uses the rotational Doppler effect on CP pulsed communication. The amplitude of a CP signal is immune to polarization misalignment in the presence of rotation; however, the phase is subjected to a frequency-invariant shift proportional to the rotation angle. This significantly distorts the pulse shape in the time domain and can be used for the measurement of the rotated angle. By combining the technique with the well-known localization capability of UWB systems, one …

Surficial Geologic Map Of The Upton 7.5-Minute Quadrangle, Kentucky, Meredith Swallom, Matthew Massey, Maxwell L. Hammond Iii, Antonia Bottoms, Ann Hislop, Michele M. Mchugh

Contract Reports--KGS

The Upton 7.5-minute quadrangle is located south of Elizabethtown along the boundaries between Hardin, Hart, and Larue Counties and within the Mississippian Plateau physiographic region (McDowell, 1986). Topography is characterized by the low relief Pennyroyal plain that sits at altitudes below about 750 ft above sea level, the ridges, spurs, and isolated knobs of the intensely dissected Dripping Springs escarpment; the low relief cap of the escarpment landforms is part of the Mammoth Cave plateau region. Moore (1972) mapped the bedrock geology of the quadrangle, which was later digitized by Toth (2006). Mississippian bedrock is exposed throughout most of the …

Final Design Report, Team 12: The Rad Finders, Jacqueline Schings, Carlos Casanova, Cameron Lavoie, Michael Peters

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

The Rad Finder team was tasked with developing an array of detectors that could locate the position of a radioactive gamma-ray source in three dimensions. Since the strength of the source was to be unknown, standard triangulation algorithms would not work. Thus, the team had to develop a method of triangulation that, to the team’s knowledge, had never been done before. This project was sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and overseen by Dr. Bahram Nassersharif from the University of Rhode Island. The detection array, the “RADFINDER”, consisted of three gamma-ray detector wands attached to three subsequent analyzers from …

Tree Climber Inventor, Chris Gaipo, Gage Coburn, Steven Rebori, Brendan Maymon

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

Team 16 was tasked with the problem of developing a device to climb a tree with the ability to work freely while the device is in the tree. To accomplish this, previous designs were thoroughly researched, specific materials and tree types were inspected by team members and a preliminary patent search was conducted to further the knowledge base of previous designs and ideas for the device. Conducted literature searches brought information about frame shape, orientation and weight as well as specific types of metals that should be used for a lightweight but durable design. The team generated 120 design concepts, …

Underwater Nuclear Inspection Drone, Felicity Griffin, Ryan Wisniewski, Paulina Loredo, Jacob Glantz, Emmett Nguyen

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

Team 10, the Rhody ROVs, was tasked by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center (RINSC) with designing an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for use in the inspection of fuel elements at the research nuclear reactor located at the University of Rhode Island (URI) Bay Campus in Narragansett. The ROV needed to be radiation resistant, provide a stable camera feed, and be able to move around to inspect multiple fuel elements. The ROV needed to be operable by the staff at RINSC. The team outlined the design specifications and problem definition then performed …

Skimshark, Nick Hill, Austin Pratt, Grace Darkow, Matthew Annantuonio

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

Conventionally, a pool's surface is cleaned by two main methods; by stationary skimmers built into the walls of pools, and by hand. Stationary, built in skimmers are connected into the pool’s plumbing system and use the water recycling and cleaning system built into the pool. As water flows to these outlets on the side of the pool, the water flows through a one-way flap and into skimmer baskets. The other method, by hand, involves someone using a skimmer on a long pole to scoop out leaves and other debris by reaching the pole out and under the debris and lifting …

High-Speed Rotation Of Nuclear Fuel Elements In Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal Propulsion System Applications, Honghao Zhen, Danny Kruzick, Morgan O'Connor, Anthony Veroline, Collin Treacy

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

Team 20 was charged with the responsibility of developing solutions to produce high speed rotations (up to 5000 RPM at full scale) of nuclear fuel rods within a centrifugal nuclear thermal rocket (CNTR) under the guidance of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. With Mars as the next space frontier, NASA is continuing to pursue nuclear capability within their aerospace fleet in order to accomplish the travel distances associated with the red planet (approximately 200x further than the Moon). The current CNTR designs house nineteen nuclear fuel rods within a reactor, providing a continual supply of heat for the rocket’s hydrogen …

A Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of The American Woodcock, Anna R. Fateiger

Open Access Master's Theses

The decline in young forests has caused almost 70% of the birds that flourish in such habitats to experience a severe population decline over the past 60 years. The American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) is no exception to this population reduction due to its heavy reliance on such habitats, making them a key indicator species for young forest management. Conservationists rely on information received from tracking woodcock for details about the young forest vegetation in hopes of preserving the habitat and protecting the wildlife that flourishes in such areas. This paper expands on previous research that focused heavily on …

Predicting Pain Presence In Icu Patients Using Physiological Signals, Derek Jacobs

Open Access Master's Theses

Physiological data can be used to detect the presence of pain, a problem that up to this point has entirely subjective solutions. While there are general indicators of pain, physiological signals have been shown to alter as a response to painful stimuli. Prior work has primarily focused on predicting a level of pain reported by a patient based on the assumption that pain is present. In this work, we present a means of using machine learning to identify the presence of pain using data collected from a freely available database MIMIC-III. Our methodology involves constructing an image reconstruction based classifier …

Diving In: Learning Best Practices From Belize’S Managed Access Program Fisheries Policy, Mary Carper

Open Access Master's Theses

Belize has recently transitioned from an open access fisheries management regime to a program called Managed Access, based on a form of spatial management known as Territorial User Rights for Fishers (TURFs). Coastal communities rely on fishing activity for a variety of reasons including food and job security. Community well-being refers to the holistic definition of the human state, indicated by a variety of socioeconomic factors. This multi-strategy research with a concurrent nested design looks at a combination of interview and archival document data, along with demographics from the Statistical Institute of Belize in order to understand the impacts of …

Wireless Temperature Sensing Using Transient Sintering Behavior Of Glass Ceramics, Noah Alexander Burke

Open Access Master's Theses

Temperature measurements are critical in gas turbine engine design but difficult to obtain due to the extreme environment. Temperature indicating paints (thermal paints) have been used for decades to map maximum temperature fields on superalloy components but have numerous weaknesses. Developed here are three novel glass-ceramic thermal paints that undergo viscous flow sintering to indicate temperatures up to 900°C, with high resolution (±5°C), by an optical transition. The paints adhere to Nickel-based superalloys due to their matching coefficients of thermal expansion and function for times above 60 hours. By utilizing automation and a UV:VIS spectrometer, quantitative temperature maps can be …

Proof Of Concept Prototype For A Phased Array Radar With In-Sensor Neural Network Preprocessing, Mark Bruckner

Open Access Master's Theses

Currently available automotive radars are designed to stream real-time 2D image data over high-speed links to a central ADAS (Advance Driver-Assistance System) computer for object recognition, which considerably contributes to the system’s power consumption and complexity. This thesis presents a preliminary work for the implementation of a new in-sensor computer architecture to extract representative features from raw sensor data to detect and identify objects with radar signals. Such new architecture makes it possible to reduce the data transferred between sensors and the central ADAS computer significantly, giving rise to significant energy savings and latency reductions, while still maintaining sufficient accuracy …

Measuring And Modeling Turbulence Using Particle Image Velocimetry And Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics; Applications To External Flows, Sandra Deeb

Open Access Master's Theses

Understanding the flow field around objects (i.e. external flow) is very important for various engineering and scientific application at all scales. The overall objective of this study is to better understand the flow field and turbulence in a wave-current flume for internal and external flow studies using particle image velocimetry and to investigate the capabilities and limitations of the Lagrangian smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method to simulate external flows using the collected experimental data in the wave-current flume. Laboratory studies are useful for observation of physical phenomena in a controlled environment in addition to their being less expensive and more …

Enhanced Deep Template-Based Object Instance Detection, Travis Frink

Open Access Master's Theses

Three alterations are investigated: The addition of a feature pyramid network to improve small object recognition, a loss weighting strategy dependent on object poses, and the addition of a transformer for feature comparisons.As a result increased performance was achieved for both the FPN and loss weighting alterations while the transformer alterations slightly underperformed the original model.

Parallelized Implementation Of A Genetic Algorithm On A Field Programmable Gate Array (Fpga) To Provide Heuristic Solutions For The Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (Cvrp), Maximilian Jakob Heer

Open Access Master's Theses

This thesis reports on the implementation of a Genetic Algorithm for finding heuristic solutions to the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) on High-Performance Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). The heuristic approach to the class of NP-hard problems related to the Travelling-Salesman-Problem (TSP) has a long tradition in computer science, with this thesis being directly based on an implementation of a specialized Genetic Algorithm for a Graphic Processing Unit (GPU). In my work, I describe how the algorithmic structure can be directly transformed into an adapted computing architecture with special focus on the highest possible degree of parallelism. For that, the …

Automated Extraction Of Fasteners Using Digital Twin Robotics Software And Dcnn Vision System, Austin Clark

Open Access Master's Theses

Installation of mechanical fasteners is one of industries most common tasks handled by robotic systems. Due to highly desirable repeatability and low cycle times, it is a practical task to automate. Disassembly, re-manufacturing, and extraction of mechanical fasteners is however, a highly difficult task to automate and is predominantly handled by human operators. This is largely due to unpredictable and unknown conditions of an end of life (EOL) product where predefined fastener locations are not known with respect to the robot's coordinate system. This task could require any number of advanced techniques, several of which are explored in this work. …

Model Agnostic Feature Selection For Fairness, Surbhi Rathore

Open Access Master's Theses

The study aims to introduce a model agnostic, filter based framework for fairfeature selection. While in the field of fairness, numerous models have been deployed to achieve fair and unbiased results but questions that arise are (i) How often the tasks are designed in association with fairness concepts? (ii) How often we check for dependency between protected attributes (also known as sensitive attributes; e.g. race, age, sex etc.) and other features in the data to assess fairness instead of employing an algorithm right away? (iii) How often we use a framework that yields a fair set of features? An obvious …

Characterizing Game-Play Styles In National Basketball Association, Zian Zheng

Open Access Master's Theses

Data analysis provides important insights to inform decision-making by discovering patterns and trends in datasets. With the increasing collection and availability of large datasets, data science has the potential to revolutionize decision-making in many fields. Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the world,and the application of data science in basketball has attracted a large amount of attention in recent years. Our research explores the dissimilarity and similarity of game-play characteristics through recent years within the National Basketball Association. We focused on the data analysis of basketball teams and player performance, analysis, and prediction of competition results. We …

Computational Thinking In Elementary Science, Jennifer Pietros

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation presents exploratory research on computational thinking in elementary science classrooms. The research presented here attempts to bring knowledge and awareness of computational thinking in elementary science to elementary teachers, administrators, curriculum developers, researchers, and policy makers by learning about descriptions of CT and the different concepts and approaches involved with it. In addition, this research aims to gain a better understanding of the computational thinking concepts and approaches that are occurring in science classrooms across a northeast state and the different variables that predict integration within instruction. This information will be used to determine the areas of need …

The Bolstering Effects Of Psychological Capital On Community College Students, Kyle Normand Gamache

Open Access Dissertations

Community colleges have an important, civic mission to serve the educational needs of the public. Often, community colleges will serve a disproportionate number of students belonging to ethnic minority groups and students of lower socioeconomic status (Cross & Atinde, 2015). Unfortunately, community college students experience lower levels of academic success, often displaying lower academic achievement and degree completion (Dougherty et al., 2017; Rosenbaum et al., 2017). Many studies have sought to understand college student success and investigate ways to bolster student attainment. Research in the field of organizational psychology has developed theories related to psychological capital (PsyCap), psychological constructs that …

Learning To Visualize: Middle-Level Learners Analyzing And Designing Science Infographics, Mark Davis

Open Access Dissertations

Infographics are part of daily life because of the rise of digital media and technology, as learners now encounter a barrage of images carefully designed to convey data and information through social media. But what happens in the classroom when young learners first encounter this expressive genre? This case study examined a unit of instruction on analyzing and creating infographics in a content-area middle school classroom. Data included classroom observations through video and audio recording, examination of a student graphic organizer and student-designed infographics, and semi-structured interviews with students and the facilitating teacher. Results show that students learned how to …

Gender-Specific Experiences Of Women Undergraduate Stem Students In Online Mathematics Courses During A Pandemic, Erika R. Fiore

Open Access Dissertations

Introductory college math courses have proven to be a significant barrier to degree completion for students in STEM. In particular, research shows women are more likely to leave STEM fields after failing a math course than their male peers. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic beginning in March of 2020, most students and instructors across the globe were forced to learn and teach in an online format. Many of these students and instructors were dissatisfied with their online experience, while others began to realize the opportunities that online learning has to offer, especially for some marginalized populations. This phenomenological dissertation investigates …