Digital Commons Network^™

Explainability And Understandability Of Artificial Neural Networks, Jan Stodt

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have achieved significant success in fields likehealthcare, but their "black box" nature challenges transparency and user trust.Existing Explainable AI (XAI) methods aim to interpret ANN decisions, yet manyare not understandable to non-AI-experts, emphasizing the need for approachesthat prioritize both accuracy and usability, especially in high-stakes environments.This thesis investigates the reliability and usability of selected existing XAI meth-ods, evaluating how effectively they convey meaningful explanations to users withAI varying expertise. Assessments of methods like LIME, GradCAM, and Fast-CAM identify key limitations, such as inconsistent visual saliency maps and a lackof user-centred design. These findings underpin the need …

Evaluating Road Environment Factors Impacting Cyclist Safety In Dublin City Using Geospatial Solutions, Niamh O' Reilly

Doctoral

Police Collision Reports (PCRs) are used as a measure of road safety but are subject to under reporting and biased to collisions involving motorised vehicles or serious injury outcomes. Understanding the extent and nature of cycling safety and how the road environment contributes to these requires detailed quality data on cyclist collisions. Hospital records, insurance claim records and travel diaries are frequently used to supplement these but provide little or no information about the road environment, particularly its location. This research investigates how effective alternative georeferenced bicycle safety data sources examined through a geospatial lens can address road safety issues …

Signatures Of Time Interval Reproduction In The Human Electroencephalogram (Eeg), Harvey Mccone, John. S. Butler, Redmond. G. O'Connell

Articles

No abstract provided.

Probing A Neural Unreliability Account Of Auditory Sensory Processing Atypicalities In Rett Syndrome, Tufikameni Brima, Shlomit Beker, Kevin D. Prinsloo, John Butler, Aleksandra Djukic, Edward G. Freedman, Sophie Molholm, John J. Foxe

Articles

Background: In the search for objective tools to quantify neural function in Rett Syndrome (RTT), which are crucial in the evaluation of therapeutic efficacy in clinical trials, recordings of sensory-perceptual functioning using event-related potential (ERP) approaches have emerged as potentially powerful tools. Considerable work points to highly anomalous auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) in RTT. However, an assumption of the typical signal-averaging method used to derive these measures is “stationarity” of the underlying responses – i.e. neural responses to each input are highly stereotyped. An alternate possibility is that responses to repeated stimuli are highly variable in RTT. If so, this …

Hamiltonian Models For The Propagation Of Long Gravity Waves, Higher-Order Kdv-Type Equations And Integrability, Rossen Ivanov

Book chapter/book

A single incompressible, inviscid, irrotational fluid medium bounded above by a free surface is considered. The Hamiltonian of the system is expressed in terms of the so-called Dirichlet-Neumann operators. The equations for the surface waves are presented in Hamiltonian form. Specific scaling of the variables is selected which leads to a KdV approximation with higher order nonlinearities and dispersion (higher-order KdV-type equation, or HKdV). The HKdV is related to the known integrable PDEs with an explicit nonlinear and nonlocal transformation.

The University Education Model Collection 2024: “A University Way Of Being”, Fionnuala Darby, Shaun Ferns, Barry J. Ryan

Group Reports

The University Education Model (UEM) revolutionises our approach to education; this approach is grounded in transformative learning opportunities and experiences for all. The UEM is central to the TU Dublin Strategic Intent, which itself is informed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in the case of the UEM, SDG 4 Quality Education. Embedding the UEM into our practice, processes and culture will empower TU Dublin to cater for the largest number of diverse learners, producing the most sought after, digitally literate, graduates.

The central focus of UEM are our learners, grounded in the three components that comprise the …

Exploring The Spiritual Dynamics Of Orthodox Religious Tourism: An In-Depth Study Of Visitor Experience At Osovica Monastery, Ivan Kosta, Anđelina Marić Stanković, Danijel Pavlović, Marija Bratić, Slobodan Čerović

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Religious tourism is increasingly becoming a significant component of global tourism trends, contributing to a substantial increase in tourist traffic worldwide. This study focuses on analysing the motives, reasons, effects, and expectations of visiting Osovica Monastery, a recently renovated sanctuary of the Serbian Orthodox Church within the Banja Luka Diocese in the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through a comprehensive literature review and empirical analysis, this research explores the motivations behind visiting the monastery, the impacts of these motivations on visitor satisfaction, and the factors influencing revisits and positive feedback. Utilising a methodological approach that incorporates both psychological and …

Spectroscopic Serology For The Quantitative Screening Of Carotenoid Compounds In Human Blood – Correlation With Clinical Macular Pigment Factors, Joy Udensi

Doctoral

Carotenoids represent a wide range of naturally occurring pigmented compounds with an obvious presence in many plants and some animals. They constitute an important component of the human diet and have been widely recognised for their antioxidant and vision protection advantages.

Development Of Concrete Façade Sandwich Panels Incorporating Phase Change Materials †, Dervilla Niall, Roger West

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Using the mass of a building to store or dissipate heat can reduce the demand on auxiliary heating and/or cooling systems. There is a scarcity of full-scale and full-year studies in the literature, which this study seeks to address, as it is critical to assess the performance of real phase change material (PCM) composites throughout all seasons. This study involved the design and manufacture of precast cladding sandwich panels with a PCM–concrete inner leaf used in three full-scale huts which were instrumented to record thermal data over 18 months. Analysis of these data showed that when the internal air temperature …

Covid-19 Vaccine Race–The Shadow Of Political And Multinational Interests, Daniel Rajmil, Lucía Morales, Toni Aira

Articles

The COVID-19 pandemic caused global disruption in 2020, throwing the world into an unprecedented health crisis with unpredicted socio-economic consequences. Strikingly, politicians and supranational organizations failed to collaborate and coordinate a united global response. In light of this, this research study explores how the vaccine race may have been used as a weapon of political communication, constantly influenced by international relations and economic interests. This study analyses the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how the vaccine development was used to support Trump's political discourse to gain international political leadership amidst the electoral campaign to become reelected. The core …

Elara Conference - Techniques & Technologies To Support Sustainable Education In The Academic Sphere Year Ii Book 2, Volume 2, European Common Laboratory For Pedagogical Action-Research And Student-Centred Learning (Elara)

Publications

The Fourth Industrial Revolution was and s till is focused on digitalising processes and using AI to increas e productivity. Industry 5.0, on the other hand, focuses on the human factor and the human as the centre of the production process. According to the new paradigm, technology should benefit humans, and human s, in turn, should actively collaborate with machines. In other words, while Industry 4.0 wa s based on the relationship between machines and IT systems, Industry 5.0 brings together the strengths of humans and machines. Following this train of thought, we have come up with the idea to …

Elara Conference - Techniques & Technologies To Support Sustainable Education In The Academic Sphere Year Ii Book 2 Vol 1, European Common Laboratory For Pedagogical Action-Research And Student-Centred Learning (Elara)

Publications

The Fourth Industrial Revolution was and s till is focused on digitalising processes and using AI to increase productivity. Industry 5.0, on the other hand, focuses on the human factor and the human as the centre of the production process. According to the new paradigm, technology should benefit humans, and human s, in turn, should actively collaborate with machines. In other words, while Industry 4.0 wa s based on the relationship between machines and IT systems, Industry 5.0 brings together the strengths of humans and machines. Following this train of thought, we have come up with the idea to initiate …

Quantification Of Swelling In Hematite Pellets Reduced Using Hydrogen–Nitrogen Gas Mixture, Amogh Meshram, Yuri Korobeinikov, Xingwen Wei, Ronald J. O'Malley, Seetharaman Sridhar

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Iron ore pellets are reduced in a 50%H2–50%N2 1 atm gas mixture at 750, 800, 850, 900, and 950 °C while simultaneously documenting swelling (change in pellet radius) and weight change. Swelling increases with increasing temperature, with catastrophic swelling (>20% of reduction swelling index) observed at 850, 900, and 950 °C. As the pellet is reduced, the pellet radius increases until 40–50% reduction is achieved, followed by a decrease in diameter beyond 40–50% reduction at 750 and 850 °C. At 950 °C, the pellet radius continues to increase with additional pellet reduction without any subsequent decrease in diameter. Scanning …

A 30-Year Time Series Analysis Of The Impact Of Climate Change On Corn Yield In Iowa Using The Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model – 1992 To 2022, Tesleem Ajisafe

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Climate change poses significant socio-economic challenges globally, notably altering weather patterns and increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events (Seneviratne et al. 2021). This study investigates the impact of climate change on corn yield in Iowa from 1992 to 2022, using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to analyze time series data on temperature, precipitation, and corn yield at the county level. Iowa, the leading corn producer in the US (Xu, Twine, & Girvetz 2016), has experienced an 8% increase in precipitation from 1873 to 2008, with notable effects in the eastern region (“Climate Change,” n.d.). A detrending …

Modeling Phosphorus Loading Dynamics In Milford Creek Watershed: With Comparison To A Consent Decree Tmdl, Olivia Calvin

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In 1998 Milford Creek, located in northwest Iowa, USA, was included on Iowa’s Impaired Waters List due to its inability to support aquatic life and excessive algal growth that was attributed to an overabundance of phosphorus within the body. In 2001 there was a lawsuit filed against the U.S. EPA regarding the status of Iowa’s Total Daily Maximum Load (TMDL) program. The lawsuit resulted in a consent decree that required the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) to develop a TMDL for all bodies of water on Iowa’s 1998 impaired waters list by December 15, 2009, this list included Milford …

Teacher Use Of Rubrics To Assess Claim, Evidence And Reasonings In The High School Science Classroom, Brianna Finnegan

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This qualitative study examines how high school science teachers in an eastern Iowa high school utilize rubrics to assess students’ claims, evidence, and reasoning (CER) in the science classroom. The research investigates the methodology teachers employ in assessing student proficiency using their own rubrics they have created. Data were collected through think-aloud interviews with participating teachers as they evaluated and scored CER examples. Analysis of interview data involved inductive coding to identify common themes and categories, shedding light on teacher’s scoring practices, rubric construction, and perceptions of student proficiency and rubric validity.

Findings reveal that teachers often weigh evidence and …

Polar Stacking Of Dipole Parallel-Aligned Monolayers Of Unsymmetrical 1,4-Diphenyl-1,3-Butadienes Creates Nonlinear Optical Materials: Insights From Experiments Guide Structure Assignments, Harmeet Bhoday, Justin Nulsen, Steven P. Kelley, Rainer Glaser

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

A series of 1-(4′-halophenyl)-4-(4″-methoxyphenyl) buta-1,3-dienes, (H, MeO, Y)-1,4-diphenylbutadienes with halogens Y = F (1), Cl (2), Br (3), and I (4) are described. Crystal structure analysis establishes that 1-4 present a new class of highly dipole parallel-aligned polar organic molecular materials for nonlinear optics (NLO). Building on previous studies of polar crystals of unsymmetrical acetophenone azines, (R, X, Y)-azines, X-Ph-CR═N-N═CR-Ph-Y (R = Me; X = R'O, PhO, R'OPh; Y = F, Cl, Br, I), we suspected that the all-carbon analogs (R, R'O, Y)-1,4-diphenylbutadienes, R'O-Ph-CR═CH-CH═CR-Ph-Y, could crystallize with polar lattices and feature stronger NLO effects because of their improved conjugation and …

The Effect Of Nanomorphology As Quantified Via The K-Index On The Drug Delivery Properties Of Isocyanate-Derived Aerogels, Stephen Y. Owusu, A. B.M.Shaheen Ud Doulah, Vaibhav A. Edlabadkar, Kamden J. George, Chariklia Sotiriou-Leventis

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study explores the potential to predict the drug-loading and release profiles of aerogels based on their morphologies: a milestone in drug delivery research, which can help save time and cost in formulating new aerogel drug carriers and cut-down evaluation of the drug delivery capabilities of aerogels to a few experimental runs. Polyurea (PUA) and poly(isocyanurate-urethane) (PIR-PUR) aerogels were used as model systems, while 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and paracetamol (PM) were used as model drugs. These model systems were chosen because they can be synthesized into different morphologies, which can be quantified by the so-called K-index (water contact angle divided by …

A Novel Physics-Assisted Genetic Algorithm For Decoupling Capacitor Optimization, Li Jiang, Ling Zhang, Shurun Tan, Da Li, Chulsoon Hwang, Jun Fan, Er Ping Li

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article proposes a new physics-assisted genetic algorithm (PAGA) for decoupling capacitor (decap) optimization in power distribution networks (PDNs), which is a highly efficient approach to minimizing the number of decaps within an enormous search space. In the proposed PAGA method, the priority of the decap ports is first determined based on their physical loop inductances. Then, an initial solution is quickly obtained by placing decaps sequentially on the port with the highest priority. Subsequently, a GA with prior physical knowledge is developed to find better decap solutions progressively. A port removal scheme that eliminates the low-priority ports and a …

Statistical Eye Diagrams For High-Speed Interconnects Of Packages: A Review, Junyong Park, Donghyun Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An eye diagram, a critical metric in signal integrity analysis for high-speed interconnects such as packages, interposer, and printed circuit boards (PCBs), is generated by superposition of the received waveform. Obtaining an eye diagram is time-consuming, thus signal integrity analysis is inefficient. This article reviews that have been proposed to overcome this limitation. The statistical eye diagram provides a probability distribution depending on a sampling time and voltage, therefore it can be expanded to other metrics, such as the bit-error rate and shmoo plot. This article introduces previous research on statistical eye diagrams applied to complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors (CMOSs), noise, and …

A Segmentation Approach For Predicting Plane Wave Coupling To Pcb Structures, Shengxuan Xia, James Hunter, Aaron Harmon, Ahmed M. Hassan, Victor Khilkevich, Daryl G. Beetner

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Evaluating the far-field radio frequency (RF) susceptibility of electronic devices often depends on extensive testing or full wave simulations. These methods are effective when complete system information is available but require substantial time and resources to evaluate a large number of variations in system configurations, where trace routings, integrated circuit (IC) package styles, trace terminations, arrival angle, and polarization of incoming wave, etc., are varied from one configuration to another. The goal of the following article is to develop simulation techniques for studying the statistical characteristics of coupling to typical printed circuit board (PCB) structures. Simulation time can be reduced …

Adaptive Resilient Control For A Class Of Nonlinear Distributed Parameter Systems With Actuator Faults, Hasan Ferdowsi, Jia Cai, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a new model-based fault resilient control scheme for a class of nonlinear distributed parameter systems (DPS) represented by parabolic partial differential equations (PDE) in the presence of actuator faults. A Luenberger-like observer on the basis of nonlinear PDE representation of DPS is developed with boundary measurements. A detection residual is generated by taking the difference between the measured output of the DPS and the estimated one given by the observer. Once a fault is detected, an unknown actuator fault parameter vector together with a known basis function is utilized to adaptively estimate the fault dynamics. A novel …

Meta-Icvi: Ensemble Validity Metrics For Concise Labeling Of Correct, Under- Or Over-Partitioning In Streaming Clustering, Niklas M. Melton, Sasha Petrenko, Donald C. Wunsch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Understanding the performance and validity of clustering algorithms is both challenging and crucial, particularly when clustering must be done online. Until recently, most validation methods have relied on batch calculation and have required considerable human expertise in their interpretation. Improving real-time performance and interpretability of cluster validation, therefore, continues to be an important theme in unsupervised learning. Building upon previous work on incremental cluster validity indices (iCVIs), this paper introduces the Meta- iCVI as a tool for explainable and concise labeling of partition quality in online clustering. Leveraging a time-series classifier and data-fusion techniques, the Meta- iCVI combines the outputs …

Modeling Wideband Radiated Emissions From Pcbs In Shielding Enclosures Based On Single-Plane Phaseless Near-Field Scanning, Zhifei Xiao, Zi An Wang, Li Jun Jiang, Ping Li

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article presents a wideband phase less source reconstruction method (SRM) for the evaluation of the radiated emissions from printed circuit boards (PCBs) in shielding enclosures. The PCBs are modeled with equivalent dipoles, and the numerical Green's function (NGF) is deployed to establish the relationship between the equivalent source and the input near-field (NF) data, thus the electromagnetic influences of the surrounding environments comprehensively accounted. This method only requires magnitude-only NF scanning over a single plane, thus significantly decreasing the NF measurement difficulty. To remedy the lack of phase information of the NF data, the input NF data are equally …

Fabrication And Analysis Of A Gas Sensor Utilizing A Fabry-Perot Interferometer With Varied Thicknesses Of Zif-8 Coating On End-Faced Single-Mode Optical Fiber, Nahideh Salehifar, Rex E. Gerald, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This research investigates the potential of integrating optical fiber and sensitive thin film coating materials to develop diverse chemical sensing platforms. We utilized a layer-by-layer synthesis technique, along with specific pre- post treatment methods, to create highly effective nonporous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), specifically ZIF-8, ranging from the nanometer scale to the micrometer scale (800 nm to 110 μm). Additionally, we successfully cultivated ZIF-8 on both sides of a single-mode fiber (SMF) with thicknesses of 25 μm and 50 μm. In a separate experiment, we successfully grew ZIF-8 on one side of an optical fiber, achieving a thickness of 10 μm. …

Multimode Fiber-Based Interferometric Sensors With Microwave Photonics, Chen Zhu, Shuaifei Tian, Lingmei Ma, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Interferometry is one of the most widely used investigative techniques in various fields. With the implementation of interferometry on optical fibers, fiber optic interferometers (FOIs) have gained tremendous growth and advancement in the past four decades and have been explored for measurements of a diverse array of physical, chemical, and biological parameters. FOIs are typically constructed using single-mode fibers (SMFs) and are interrogated in the optical domain using probing light with a tightly controlled state of polarization (SOP), to ensure high-quality interference signals that facilitate sensing applications. The stringent requirement on the single-mode operation, as well as SOP, has hindered …

Time-Resolved Electromagnetic Near-Field Scanning: Dual Sparse Sampling In Time And Space, Yanming Zhang, Peifeng Ma, Lijun Jiang, Steven Gao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Time-resolved electromagnetic near-field scanning plays a pivotal role in antenna measurement and unraveling complex electromagnetic interference and compatibility issues. However, the rapid acquisition of high-resolution spatio–temporal data remains challenging due to physical constraints, such as moving the probe position and allowing sufficient time for sampling. This article presents a novel hybrid approach combining kriging for sparse spatial measurement, compressed sensing (cs) for sparse temporal sampling, and dynamic mode decomposition (dmd) for comprehensive analysis of the dual-sparse sampling electromagnetic near-field data. We leverage cs to optimize sparse sampling in the time domain and latin hypercube sampling to guide the probe position …

A Robust Demand Regulation Strategy For Ders In A Single-Controllable Active Distribution Network, Shah Fahad, Arman Goudarzi, Rui Bo, Muhammad Waseem, Rashid Al-Ammari, Atif Iqbal

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Over the past decade, pq regulation schemes for a single-controllable active distribution network (adn) using coordination among a network of virtual synchronous generators (vsgs) have been proposed. However, considering the variable nature of intermittent renewable energy sources (iress), coupling a cluster of iress with the point of common coupling (pcc) of adn could inflict transient issues for the power management of the whole adn. To counter these challenges, the proposed study has three main objectives: 1) to propose a modified mathematical model that represents the apparent resistance-reactance at the pcc of adn in relation to the pq coordination among the …

A Wavegan Approach For Mmwave-Based Fanet Topology Optimization, Enas Odat, Hakim Ghazzai, Ahmad Alsharoa

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The integration of dynamic Flying Ad hoc Networks (FANETs) and millimeter Wave (mmWave) technology can offer a promising solution for numerous data-intensive applications, as it enables the establishment of a robust flying infrastructure with significant data transmission capabilities. However, to enable effective mmWave communication within this dynamic network, it is essential to precisely align the steerable antennas mounted on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with their corresponding peer units. Therefore, it is important to design a novel approach that can quickly determine an optimized alignment and network topology. In this paper, we propose a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN)-based approach, called WaveGAN, …

An Equivalent Coil Model Of A Wireless Power Transfer System Including Eddy Loss, Hanyu Zhang, Daryl G. Beetner

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A wireless power transfer (WPT) system suffers from eddy loss if a conductive object is placed near the coupling coil. In this paper, a 3-coil equivalent circuit model for the coupling coil in a WPT system is proposed for analyzing the eddy loss due to nearby conductors. This model uses a third coil with inductive coupling to the original transmitting and receiving coils to model the eddy loss. The proposed model was validated by comparing the Z-parameters with a full-wave simulation and showing good correlation over the frequency of interest, where the traditional 2-coil model fails. The 3-coil model is …