Digital Commons Network^™

Optimizing Flow Routing Using Network Performance Analysis, Muna Al-Saadi

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The main task of a network is to hold and transfer data between its nodes. To achieve this task, the network needs to find the optimal route for data to travel by employing a particular routing system. This system has a specific job that examines each possible path for data and chooses the suitable one and transmit the data packets where it needs to go as fast as possible. In addition, it contributes to enhance the performance of network as optimal routing algorithm helps to run network efficiently. The clear performance advantage that provides by routing procedures is the faster …

Utilising Event Cognition Principles To Explore The Effects Of Location Change On Memory Within Immersive Virtual Environments, Paul Watson

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The thesis covers a series of studies that explore and investigate the application of event cognition theory to the design of virtual reality (VR) spaces for improved memory recall. The thesis starts with a usability study of a recovery position VR training app developed within the University of Plymouth (Watson 2018, 2021). This work compares the recall and satisfaction of using this application across mobile VR, desktop displays, and pre-recorded video. Based on the first prototype the question then posed is: “Can we better design immersive virtual training spaces that support cognitive processes that might aid learning.” Although enhancing memory …

Immersive Multidimensional Data Visualisation Using Geon Based Objects, Marius Varga

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

In an ever-expanding technologically driven society large amounts of data are being generated daily. The sheer volume of data is becoming a challenge to understand or use in the decision-making process. This is not only limited to businesses, politicians or scientists but it is becoming more relevant to the general public as well. The data has become a commodity, but its value is closely tied to our ability, as data owners, to extract meaning from it. Typically, the process is complex and mainly reserved for proficient data scientists who are familiar with the process of extracting information and the specialised …

Myopia Outcome Study Of Atropine In Children: Two-Year Result Of Daily 0.01% Atropine In A European Population, James Loughman, Emmanuel Kobia-Acquah, Gareth Lingham, John Butler, Ekaterina Loskutova, David A. Mackey, Samantha S.Y. Lee, Daniel I. Flintcroft

Articles

The Myopia Outcome Study of Atropine in Children (MOSAIC) is an investigator-led, double-masked, randomized controlled trial investigating the efficacy and safety of 0.01% atropine eye drops for managing myopia progression in a predominantly White, European population.

Enhancing The Thermo-Optic Tuning Performance Of Whispering Gallery Modes In A Microcapillary Resonator Filled With Nematic Liquid Crystals, Zhe Wang, Arun Kumar Mallik, Fangfang Wei, Zhuochen Wang, Anuradha Rout, Qiang Wu, Yuliya Semenova

Articles

We investigated both theoretically and experimentally, the thermo-optic tuning of whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) in a microcapillary resonator filled with nematic liquid-crystal (LC). The tuning of WGMs was realized due to the photo-thermal effect of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) on the surface of a fiber half-taper connected to a pump laser source, resulting in temperature-induced refractive index (RI) changes of the LC material. Based on perturbation theory, we analyzed the influence the RI and the wall thickness on the sensitivity of the proposed tuning scheme. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrated that increasing the thickness of the MNPs coating on the fiber taper surface …

Detailed Analysis Of The Tev Γ-Ray Sources 3hwc J1928+178, 3hwc J1930+188, And The New Source Hawc J1932+192, A. Albert, R. Alfaro, C. Alvarez, J. C. Arteaga-Velázquez, D. Avila Rojas, H. A.Ayala Solares, R. Babu, D. Huang, P. Hüntemeyer, R. Turner, X. Wang, Et Al.

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

The latest High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) point-like source catalog up to 56 TeV reported the detection of two sources in the region of the Galactic plane at galactic longitude 52° < ℓ < 55°, 3HWC J1930+188 and 3HWC J1928+178. The first one is associated with a known TeV source, the supernova remnant SNR G054.1+00.3. It was discovered by one of the currently operating Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT), the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS), detected by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S), and identified as a composite SNR. However, the source 3HWC J1928+178, discovered by HAWC and coincident with the pulsar PSR J1928+1746, was not detected by any IACT despite their long exposure on the region, until a recent new analysis of H.E.S.S. data was able to confirm it. Moreover, no X-ray counterpart has been detected from this pulsar. We present a multicomponent fit of this region using the latest HAWC data. This reveals an additional new source, HAWC J1932+192, which is potentially associated with the pulsar PSR J1932+1916, whose γ-ray emission could come from the acceleration of particles in its pulsar wind nebula. In the case of 3HWC J1928+178, several possible explanations are explored, in an attempt to unveil the origins of the very-high-energy γ-ray emission.

Something More Beautiful: Educational And Epistemic Integrations Beyond Inequities In Muslim-Minority Contexts, Claire Alkouatli, Nadeem Memom, Dylan Chown, Youcef Sai

Journal Articles

Islamic schools in Western secular societies are evolving in response to collective concerns over marginalization of Muslim children and communities and to increasing demands for high-quality education in the faith tradition. These schools are at the center of public debate over how they fit within secular societies. This paper aims to take a pedagogic look at the literature in the field of Islamic Education Studies.

Workplace Implications For Female Leaders From Stereotype Threat In A Video Conferencing Context, Roisin Donnelly, Anthony Ryan

Journal Articles

Purpose – This study considered the use of video conferencing virtual backgrounds with employees located in a large multinational corporate organisation in Ireland and the USA to discern if background images evoking gendered stereotypes of leadership can cue stereotype threat in female technology workers undertaking a leadership activity, thus negatively effecting performance. This study aims to contribute to the body of research on stereotype threat by establishing whether virtual backgrounds used in video conferencing software are inherently identity safe or whether their use could have a negative performance impact onmarginalised groups.

Mealybug Vectors: A Review Of Their Transmission Of Plant Viruses And Their Management Strategies, Abdul Razak Ahmed, Samuel Obeng Apori, Abdul Aziz Karim

Articles

Mealybugs cause mechanical damage and diseases to plants. Through their feeding activities, they reduce the yield, quality and productivity of crops. This review discusses mealybug vectors of plant viruses, the economic losses they cause, mealybug species and their hosts. Among the numerous mealybug species, Planococcus species are the most effective vector of plant viruses, transmitting many Ampeloviruses. Diverse methods for the control and regulation of mealybugs are also discussed. Physical, cultural and biological control methods are labor-intensive but environmentally friendly compared to chemical methods. However, chlorpyrifos are one the active ingredients of insecticides effective against several mealybug species. Using plant …

Probabilistic Network Analysis Of Social-Ecological Relationships Emerging From Eu Life Projects For Nature And Biodiversity: An Application Of Ergm Models In The Case Study Of The Veneto Region (Italy), Elena Andriollo, Laura Secco, Alberto Caimo, Elena Pisani

Articles

Considering social-ecological relationships in managing protected areas is fundamental to ensuring effective biodiversity conservation and restoration governance. Network analysis offers valuable methods to disentangle intangible relations between and within the social and ecological systems. In this way, it could be possible to identify and integrate multiple social and ecological variables that inevitably affect collaborative environmental governance's effectiveness. Nevertheless, this research area is still nascent, with few methodologies and concrete applications reported in the scientific literature. With this study, we aim to propose a robust novel application of a network methodology to enrich the evaluation of the effectiveness of collaborative environmental …

A Covariance Formula For The Number Of Excursion Set Components Of Gaussian Fields And Applications, Dmitry Beliaev, Michael Mcauley, Stephen Muirhead

Articles

We derive a covariance formula for the number of excursion or level set components of a smooth stationary Gaussian field on R^d contained in compact domains. We also present two applications of this formula: (1) for fields whose correlations are integrable we prove that the variance of the component count in large domains is of volume order and give an expression for the leading constant, and (2) for fields with slower decay of correlation we give an upper bound on the variance which is of optimal order if correlations are regularly varying, and improves on best-known bounds if correlations …

Stem Education And Research At The University Of Aruba For Sustainable Development Of Small Island Developing States: Case Studies On Energy Efficiency And Waste Management., Alba De Agustin Camacho, Mieke De Droog, Wim Van Petegem

Practice Papers

SISSTEM “Sustainable Island Solutions through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics” is a higher educational programme created in 2019 at the University of Aruba in response to the need for engineering education and research in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). In this contribution, the SISSTEM programme is introduced, and how SISSTEM equips engineering students with hard and soft skills while addressing local sustainability challenges is showcased through two case studies. The first case study presents a bachelor course that combines sustainability theory with a teamwork project in which students conduct an energy audit to a local institution. With this course, students …

Amplifying New Voices And Making Space For Alternative Knowledge Systems In Engineering Curricula – The Example Of Ubuntu, Anita Occhio, Fiona Caroline Saunders, Gladson Chikwa, Dawn Theresa Nicholson

Practice Papers

Engineering projects are ubiquitous; from developing COVID-19 vaccines to building new cities and developing climate change solutions. An inclusive approach to teaching engineers how to master the complexities of engineering project management is vital to the deliverability of sustainability and net zero initiatives (Hockings 2010). Yet, our engineering curricula remain deeply rooted in Western epistemology (Winter et al. 2022, Mbembe 2015). Arguably, this is an opportune time to consider decolonising our curricula. At a fundamental level, ‘decolonising the curriculum’ means introducing previously ignored voices, images, authors, theories and arguments into our teaching (Rogers et al. 2022). This is a challenge …

An Embodied Cognition Approach To Collaborative Engineering Design Activities, Gitte Van Helden, Barry Zandbergen, Anna Shvarts, Marcus Specht, Eberhard Gill

Practice Papers

Higher educational institutions have broadly adopted Collaborative Engineering Design (CED) activities to prepare students for complex problem-solving in multidisciplinary settings. These activities are non-linear and mediated by various social practices and tools. Therefore educators might struggle in facilitating the achievement of specific learning goals. Embodied cognition is an approach that explains non-linear behaviour through orgamism-environment interactions and might therefore provide educators with insights on how to prompt students towards desired actions in CED activities. According to embodied cognition, we learn through actions that emerge as a response to a problem (task) and environmental constraints. Educators can guide students’ behaviour by …

Measuring Effects Of Mini-Lectures On Improving Student Engagement And Outcomes, Vincent Engbers, Rowel Gündlach, Marta Regis, Maria Vlasiou

Practice Papers

In the current age, digital advancements have shaped the educational landscape by providing numerous possibilities for a fast and on-demand influx of information for students. This brings an additional difficulty for course designers in how to incorporate such technologies in teaching in an optimal way. Key examples are educational videos, which are especially relevant now due to the increase in accessibility of pre-made videos and recording technology since the pandemic. This puts post-pandemic teaching in the new but revolutionary position to complement in-person teaching with videos.

In this study, we examine the effect of videos combined with in-person teaching in …

Enhancing Professional Skills Among Engineering Students By Interdisciplinary International Collaboration, Thomas Mejtoft, Helen Cripps, Melissa Fong-Emmerson, Christoper Blöcker

Practice Papers

Providing necessary knowledge and skills for engineering students to become successful professionals is a tricky task. Besides disciplinary knowledge, e.g., communication skills, ability to work in teams, and international experience are often mentioned as important. Regarding internationalization, most engineering programs in Sweden rely on either student exchange or low-level internationalization-at-home, such as international literature and lecturers. This paper explores sustainable international experiences for students on their home turf provided through an international interdisciplinary collaboration where engineering students in Sweden and marketing students in Australia work together on a project. The setup simulates a consultancy firm with development and marketing offices …

Does Interdisciplinary Creative Coding Boost Creativity? A Mixed Methods Approach, Arne Duyver, Wouter Groeneveld, Kris Aerts

Practice Papers

This study explores the influence of an interdisciplinary intervention on creative problem-solving skills. Literature deems such skills as vital for software engineering (SE) students in higher education. 39 SE students and graphic design (GD) students were randomly paired to work on an open-ended creative coding assignment in p5.js, an online JS-based Processing editor that makes it easy for novices to quickly and easily code visual webpages. Three categories were formed: the test group SE+GD (18 students), and control groups SE+SE (10) and GD+GD (11).

A mixed methods approach was taken to gather and interpret results: Amabile's Consensual Assessment Technique provided …

The Conceptual Understanding Of Basic Electricity Concepts By Junior Engineering Students: An Update, Aidan O'Dwyer

Practice Papers

The paper reports, analyses and reflects on the results of a multiple-choice diagnostic test to assess student understanding of basic electricity concepts (developed for U.S. high school and college students [1]) taken by nine cohorts of first year engineering students (n=1286) at the authors university, from 2014 to date. The diagnostic test was taken prior to instruction by all student cohorts, and post-instruction by some student cohorts. This paper updates a previous contribution by the author which described the application of the test to seven cohorts of junior engineering students (n=203) from 2008 to 2013. The manner in which this …

Improving Motivation And Continuous Assessment In Engineering Classrooms Through Student Response Systems, María Dolores Merchán Moreno, Elena Pascual Corral, Cristina Prieto Calvo, Mario Miguel Hernández, María Jesús Santos Sánchez

Practice Papers

The use of Student Response Systems (SRS) is highly recommended to encourage the active and meaningful learning of students in each lecture. SRS promotes the motivation of students and improves the system of continuous assessment. One of the most popular applications designed for SRS is Socrative (Socrative n.d.). The use of Socrative gives real meaning to continuous assessment, since the teacher has an easily manageable record of the evolution of their students‘learning and will help the teacher to schedule both formative and summative assessment. The application allows the detection of topics that each student may not have understood and determines …

Project “Acércate A La Ingeniería”: Impact Assessment And Satisfaction Questionnaire, Annabella Narganes-Pineda, Roberto E. Araña-Suárez, Mariana Hernández-Pérez, Paula González-Suárez, Pedro M. Hernández-Castellano, María Dolores Marrero-Alemán

Practice Papers

Engineering is a key discipline in today’s society, as it is sustainability. Therefore, this are concepts that must be introduced in early educational levels. In this context, the project “Acércate a la Ingeniería” (Get closer to Engineering), designed and carried out by the Department of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands in collaboration with the Industrial and Civil Engineering School (EIIC) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), has arisen. This project brings together eighteen secondary schools (IES) from five of the eight Canary Islands. The aim of this project is to educate students to …

Eng+ | Ethics For Sustainable Development In Engineering Programmes A Praxis Report Of Tu Berlin’S Think Tank Technology Reflection, Sabine Ammon, Mareen Derda, Tim Hildebrandt, Stefan Kühne, Nadine Klein

Practice Papers

Many technical universities alike, TU Berlin is in a future-oriented process of programme transformation to invite a holistic perspective on technology which includes critical thinking and ethical reflection. To this end, TU Berlin recently issued a general study guideline calling for an orientation of all programmes toward sustainable development. Accordingly, students should know about the historical, social and cultural contexts of science and technology and learn to reflect on the ethical consequences of their actions. Together with training in good scientific practice, this content should comprise 12 ECTS in each respective BA and MA programme. With only minor integration of …

Unlocking Deeper Insights: A Qualitative Approach To Evaluating Stem Outreach In Engineering Education, Yiduo Wang, Lauren Schrock, Jane Andrews, Robin Clark

Practice Papers

Much previous research and evaluation has been conducted of STEM Outreach activities in schools using quantitative approaches. Surveys in particular are popular as they are low-cost and time-saving. However, quantitative methods are limited in that they do not generally generate deeper insights into students’ experiences in STEM; usually lacking rich detail about the context and complexity of the data being analysed. Hence, this paper proposes a different approach to evaluating STEM outreach: a unique multi-method, qualitative approach.

Starting with the Research Question “How to qualitatively evaluate STEM outreach in Engineering Education?”, this paper is grounded in ongoing doctoral research that …

Identifying The Characteristics, Constraints, And Enablers To Creating Value In Applied Performance Analysis, Denise Martin, Peter G. O'Donoghue, Jonathan Bradley, Sam Robertson, Denise Mcgrath

Articles

While applied performance analysts (PAs) are a well-established applied sports science practitioner group, there is no clear definition of the purpose of an analyst, their key relationships, or the expertise required to execute the role successfully. This research sought to understand how PA practitioners and educators perceive their role as applied PA practitioners. Twenty-seven applied PAs and educators with applied PA experience participated in six online focus groups, completing an online survey in advance. Reflexive thematic analysis of transcripts and survey data generated an overarching theme: embedded applied PA practitioners have a value co-creation role within performance ecosystems which is …

Determining Child Sexual Abuse Posts Based On Artificial Intelligence, Susan Mckeever, Christina Thorpe, Vuong Ngo

Conference papers

The volume of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) created and shared daily both surface web platforms such as Twitter and dark web forums is very high. Based on volume, it is not viable for human experts to intercept or identify CSAM manually. However, automatically detecting and analysing child sexual abusive language in online text is challenging and time-intensive, mostly due to the variety of data formats and privacy constraints of hosting platforms. We propose a CSAM detection intelligence algorithm based on natural language processing and machine learning techniques. Our CSAM detection model is not only used to remove CSAM on …

Work In Progress: A Virtual Educational Robotics Coding Club Framework To Improve K-6 Students Emotional Engagement In Stem, Kate Carmody, Julie Booth, Jospehine Bleach, Pramod Pathak, Paul Styles

Conference papers

The growing popularity and deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has led to serious security concerns. The integration of a security operations center (SOC) becomes increasingly important in this situation to ensure the security of IoT devices. In this article, we will present a summary of IoT device security issues, their vulnerabilities, a review of current challenges to keep these devices secure, and discuss the role that SOC can bring in protecting IoT devices while considering the challenges encountered and the directions to consider when implementing a reliable SOC for IoT monitoring.

Robustness Of Image-Based Malware Classification Models Trained With Generative Adversarial Networks, Ciaran Reilly, Stephen O Shaughnessy, Christina Thorpe

Conference papers

As malware continues to evolve, deep learning models are increasingly used for malware detection and classification, including image based classification. However, adversarial attacks can be used to perturb images so as to evade detection by these models. This study investigates the effectiveness of training deep learning models with Generative Adversarial Network-generated data to improve their robustness against such attacks. Two image conversion methods, byte plot and space-filling curves, were used to represent the malware samples, and a ResNet-50 architecture was used to train models on the image datasets. The models were then tested against a projected gradient descent attack. It …

Interpretable Input-Output Hidden Markov Model-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning For The Predictive Maintenance Of Turbofan Engines, Ammar N. Abbas, Georgios C. Chasparis, John Kelleher

Conference papers

An open research question in deep reinforcement learning is how to focus the policy learning of key decisions within a sparse domain. This paper emphasizes on combining the advantages of input-output hidden Markov models and reinforcement learning. We propose a novel hierarchical modeling methodology that, at a high level, detects and interprets the root cause of a failure as well as the health degradation of the turbofan engine, while at a low level, provides the optimal replacement policy. This approach outperforms baseline deep reinforcement learning (DRL) models and has performance comparable to that of a state-of-the-art reinforcement learning system while …

Nesdeepnet: A Fusion Framework For Multi-Step Forecasting Of Near-Surface Air Pollutants, Prasanjit Dey, Soumyabrata Dev, Bianca Schoen-Phelan

Conference papers

Air pollution is a global issue that poses significant threats to human health and the environment due to industrial development. Forecasting the concentrations of major pollutants such as NO₂ and CO can provide early warnings of harmful substances, minimizing health risks and losses. Recent deep learning models have shown promise in air quality prediction, but they have limitations such as insufficient feature representation, high computational costs, and poor generalization. This paper proposes a near-surface deep network (NeSDeepNet) to overcome these limitations. The NeSDeepNet integrates multiple deep learning models and a shallow model to form a hybrid forecasting system. The …

Synthetic Heart Sound Dataset, Davoud Shariat Panah, Andrew Hines, Susan Mckeever

Datasets

The repository contains synthetic heart sound recordings. The publication related to this dataset is "Exploring the impact of noise and degradations on heart sound classification models", Biomedical Signal Processing and Control journal.

Hdd Dataset: Optimising Retrofitted Insulation For Irish Residential Building Walls, Rakshit D. Muddu, Aimee Byrne, Anthony James Robinson

Datasets

In this study, a thermal-economic analysis was conducted to determine the optimum insulation thickness of retrofitted insulation walls in different regions in Ireland. This was based on the Heating Degree Day method (HDD). This dataset contains optimum insulation thickness, payback period, cost savings and carbon emission for all 25 counties in the Republic of Ireland