Digital Commons Network^™

The Right To (Human) Counsel: Real Responsibility For Artificial Intelligence, Keith Swisher

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Surface Fluid Entrapment In A Laminar Flat Plate Boundary Layer, Abigail Hays

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

For streamlined objects in laminar flow, the drag is dominated by friction drag. To counteract this, the boundary condition of the object can be changed to introduce an apparent slip on the surface. A number of approaches have been proposed for introducing surface slip to reduce drag and viscous resistance in fluid flows. This work investigates a novel approach to providing slip via fluid entrapment in a perforated domain embedded in the surface. The fluid entrapment system uses a cavity underneath the domain to allow entrapment of fluid of the same type, or supply air to the surface perforations in …

Inter-Procedural Program Synthesis For Automatic Architectural Tactic Implementation, Ali Shokri

Theses

Software architectural tactics are design decisions made by software architects to address important quality attributes of software systems such as security, availability, and reliability. Software developers incorporate API of software frameworks, as building blocks, for implementing architectural tactics in a software system to achieve the mentioned quality attributes. The correct implementation of such tactics is a challenging and error-prone task, especially for novice programmers. Component-based program synthesis aims to help such programmers by automatically constructing a code snippet from a given set of components, e.g., APIs, as well as the specification of the desired code. However, despite the advances in …

Modified Geometries, Clifford Algebras And Graphs: Their Impact On Discreteness, Locality And Symmetr, Roman Sverdlov

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

In this dissertation I will explore the question whether various entities commonly used in quantum field theory can be “constructed". In particular, can spacetime be “constructed" out of building blocks, and can Berezin integral be “constructed" in terms of Riemann integrals.

As far as “constructing" spacetime out of building blocks, it has been attempted by multiple scientific communities and various models were proposed. But the common downfall is they break the principles of relativity. I will explore the ways of doing so in such a way that principles of relativity are respected. One of my approaches is to replace points …

Dice: Blessed Or Cursed?, Warren Campbell, Cameron Miller, Xavier Simpson

SEAS Faculty Publications

Every year, hundreds of millions of dice are manufactured and sold. Because of the impossibility of precise dimensional control and nonuniform density, none of these dice are fair. Polyhedral dice manufactured for role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons typically contain 4-sided, 6-sided, 8-sided, 10-sided, 12-sided, and 20-sided dice (D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, and D20). D20s are especially problematic. In 3000-roll tests of several D20s, only about one-quarter tested fair. In light of the inherent unfairness of most dice, we explored the possibility of using dice mechanics involving multiple dice to obtain fairer results. For D20s, summing three dice gave …

Improving Reading Comprehension And Vocabulary For English Language Learners, Rachael Vande Hoef

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Research on the education of English Language Learners (ELL) has shown that ELL students underperform native English speakers academically. Right from the start, students’ home language impacts school readiness amongst ELL students. Fortunately, implementing vocabulary and reading interventions is successful in closing learning gaps among ELL students. The implementation of a blended learning approach has been found to increase literary gains among ELL students. Given this research, a school improvement plan was developed to enhance the literary gains of ELL students. This multi-faceted plan involves teacher collaboration, parental engagement, vocabulary and reading interventions, as well as a blended learning approach.

Improving Understanding Of Mathematics Concepts In Kindergarten Students Through Movement Integration, Kendall Stallings

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This action research project stemmed from the noticeable benefit of movement woven throughout the Wilson Fundations curriculum in developing early phonemic awareness. Knowing that kindergarteners have a natural inclination to move, this project aimed to determine whether similar benefits of movement could be garnered in mathematics instruction by boosting number sense and fact fluency. Participants completed an end-of-unit assessment and then received instruction with movement integration for the following unit before completing its endof- unit assessment. Assessment scores were converted into the school’s grading scale of M, W, or B, and a chi-square test of association was used to determine …

Addressing The Behavioral And Emotional Needs Of Elementary School Students: A School Improvement Project, Katherine Ross

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Elementary school students are found to have increased behavioral and emotional needs require support above and beyond the scope of a general educator's capabilities. Research indicates the need for additional teacher training in the areas of adolescent behavioral disorders and trauma informed care in order for them to provide the best possible education, academically and socially. School counselors are often called upon to address student social emotional needs, however classroom teachers are typically the first to notice when a student needs access to additional support and also spend the most time with students; this school improvement plan addresses the necessity …

Extended Sentinel Monitoring Of Helicoverpa Zea Resistance To Cry And Vip3aa Toxins In Bt Sweet Corn: Assessing Changes In Phenotypic And Allele Frequencies Of Resistance, Galen P. Dively, Tom P. Kuhar, Sally V. Taylor, Helene Doughty, Kristian Holmstrom, Daniel O. Gilrein, Brian A. Nault, Joseph Ingerson-Mahar, Anders Huseth, Dominic Reisig, Shelby Fleischer, David Owens, Kelley Tilmon, Francis Reay-Jones, Pat Porter, Jocelyn Smith, Julien Saguez, Jason Wells, Caitlin Congdon, Holly Byker, Bryan Jensen, Chris Difonzo, William D. Hutchison, Eric Burkness, Robert Wright, Michael Crossley, Heather Darby, Tom Bilbo, Nicholas Seiter, Christian Krupke, Craig Abel, Brad S. Coates, Bradley Mcmanus

Faculty Publications

Transgenic corn and cotton that produce Cry and Vip3Aa toxins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are widely planted in the United States to control lepidopteran pests. The sustainability of these Bt crops is threatened because the corn earworm/bollworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), is evolving a resistance to these toxins. Using Bt sweet corn as a sentinel plant to monitor the evolution of resistance, collaborators established 146 trials in twenty-five states and five Canadian provinces during 2020–2022. The study evaluated overall changes in the phenotypic frequency of resistance (the ratio of larval densities in Bt ears relative to densities in non-Bt ears) …

Exploring Barriers To Sars-Cov-2 Testing Uptake In Underserved Black Communities In Louisiana, Peter T. Katzmarzyk, Candice A. Myers, Michelle R. Nelson, Kara D. Denstel, Emily F. Mire, Robert L. Newton, Stephanie T. Broyles, John P. Kirwan

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

Objective: To collect qualitative data on approaches that can potentially reduce barriers to, and create strategies for, increasing SARS-CoV-2 testing uptake in underserved Black communities in Louisiana. Methods: A series of eight focus groups, including 41 participants, were conducted in primarily Black communities. The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) was used to determine perceptions of COVID-19 as a disease, access to testing, and barriers limiting testing uptake. Results: Common barriers to SARS-CoV-2 testing were identified as lack of transportation, misinformation/lack of information, lack of time/long wait times, fear of the test being uncomfortable and/or testing positive, the cost of testing, and …

Simulation Of Radioactive Plume Transport In The Atmosphere Including Dynamics Of Particle Aggregation And Breakup, Alexander I. Wiechert, Austin P. Ladshaw, Yong Ha Kim, Costas Tsouris, Sotira Yiacoumi

Faculty Publications

Accurate prediction of the atmospheric transport of debris particles relies heavily on our knowledge of the size distribution of the particles within a debris cloud. Assuming a fixed particle size during simulations is not always viable since the size distribution of the debris can change during transport. Various microphysical processes, such as aggregation and breakup, influence debris particles and dictate any changes to the size distribution. To track those changes that can occur, a population balance model can be adopted and instituted within a model framework. Nonetheless, many of the models that simulate the transport of radioactive debris following a …

Monarch, Philip Walzer (Editor)

Monarch Magazine

Summer 2023 issue of Monarch, the Old Dominion University Magazine.

Subtitled: The Launch of a New Era

Clear As Glass: Novel Antibiotic Glasses Vitrified From Solution, Claire Lamberti

Chemistry Theses and Dissertations

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has maintained a list of essential medicines since 1977 (1). This list contains the medications considered to be the most effective and of the utmost importance to the needs of worldwide healthcare systems. If new forms of these drugs can be created, they can be studied for potential stability and transportation purposes, as well as drug delivery mechanisms. There are strategies to try and improve the physicochemical properties including forming polymorphs, salts, cocrystals, and amorphous formulations. There are issues with these techniques, and a large one is that in most cases the crystal structures of …

The Decomposition Of Normal Vibrational Modes In Different Chemistry Problems, Mateus Macedo Quintano

Chemistry Theses and Dissertations

The least action principle yields the Euler-Lagrange equations, which explain molecular vibrations in minimizing action. Subsequently, the Lagrangian gives rise to the equations of motion using the Euler-Lagrange equations. We can then solve the characteristic value problem to obtain normal vibrational modes. Ultimately, the vibrational spectrum of a molecule can be extracted from the characteristic values. Normal coordinates are linear combinations of internal or Cartesian coordinates. However, the delocalization of normal vibrational modes across the molecule restricts the direct use of normal mode frequencies and force constants for measuring bond strength. From the force constant matrix and the normal mode …

The Sound Of Geological Targets On Mars From The Absolute Intensity Of Laser-Induced Sparks Shock Waves, C. Alvarez-Llamas, J. Laserna, J. Moros, P. Purohit, L. García-Gómez, S. M. Angel Ph.D., P. Bernardi, B. Bousquet, A. Cadu, E. Dauson, O. Forni, T. Fouchet, O. Gasnault, X. Jacob, G. Lacombe, N. L. Lanza, C. Larmat, J. Lasue, R. D. Lorenz, P. Y. Meslin, D. Mimoun, F. Montmessin, N. Murdoch, A. M. Ollila, P. Pilleri, N. Randazzo, A. L. Reyes-Newell, S. Schröder, A. Stott, J. Ten Cate, A. Udry, D. Vogt

Faculty Publications

Inspection of geological material is one of the main goals of the Perseverance rover during its journey across the landscape of the Jezero crater in Mars. NASA's rover integrates SuperCam, an instrument capable of performing standoff characterization of samples using a variety of techniques. Among those tools, SuperCam can perform laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) studies to elucidate the chemical composition of the targets of interest. Data from optical spectroscopy can be supplemented by simultaneously-produced laser-produced plasma acoustics in order to expand the information acquired from the probed rocks thanks to the SuperCam's microphone (MIC) as it can be synchronized with …

A Semantic Understanding Oriented Evaluation Of The Intelligent Q&A Service On Chinese Provincial Government Websites, Fang Wang, Zhonghan Wei, Zhixuan Lian, Jia Kang

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance]Intelligent question answering （Q&A） system has become an important facility for websites to provide consulting services. The complexity of government consultation issues poses higher requirements for the semantic understanding ability of intelligent Q&A systems on government websites.[Method/process]This study evaluates the Q&A systems of 30 Chinese provincial government websites from three aspects of problem solving quality,service interaction quality and basic construction quality by using the "Semantic Understanding based Evaluation Indicator System for Intelligent Q&A Service on Government Websites" developed by the Center for Network Society Governance of Nankai University and the supporting test sets.[Result/conclusion]The results show that Shanghai, Zhejiang and Beijing …

Optimal Experimental Planning Of Reliability Experiments Based On Coherent Systems, Yang Yu

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

In industrial engineering and manufacturing, assessing the reliability of a product or system is an important topic. Life-testing and reliability experiments are commonly used reliability assessment methods to gain sound knowledge about product or system lifetime distributions. Usually, a sample of items of interest is subjected to stresses and environmental conditions that characterize the normal operating conditions. During the life-test, successive times to failure are recorded and lifetime data are collected. Life-testing is useful in many industrial environments, including the automobile, materials, telecommunications, and electronics industries.

There are different kinds of life-testing experiments that can be applied for different purposes. …

The Jwst Pearls View Of The El Gordo Galaxy Cluster And Of The Structure It Magnifies, Brenda L. Frye, Massimo Pascale, Nicholas Foo, Reagen Leimbach, Nikhil Garuda, Paulina Soto Robles, Jake Summers, Carlos Diaz, Patrick Kamieneski, Lukas J. Furtak, Seth H. Cohen, Jose Diego, Benjamin Beauchesne, Rogier A. Windhorst, S. P. Willner, Anton M. Koekemoer, Adi Zitrin, Gabriel Caminha, Karina I. Caputi, Dan Coe, Christopher J. Conselice, Liang Dai, Hervé Dole, Simon P. Driver, Norman A. Grogin, Kevin Harrington, Rolf A. Jansen, Jean Paul Kneib, Matt Lehnert, James Lowenthal, Madeline A. Marshall, Felipe Menanteau

Astronomy: Faculty Publications

The massive galaxy cluster El Gordo (z = 0.87) imprints multitudes of gravitationally lensed arcs onto James Webb Space Telescope Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) images. Eight bands of NIRCam imaging were obtained in the “Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science” (“PEARLS”) program. Point-spread function-matched photometry across Hubble Space Telescope and NIRCam filters supplies new photometric redshifts. A new light-traces-mass lens model based on 56 image multiplicities identifies the two mass peaks and yields a mass estimate within 500 kpc of (7.0 ± 0.30) × 1014 M ⊙. A search for substructure in the 140 cluster members with spectroscopic redshifts …

Teaching Learning Newsletter Vol 3 Issue 2, Sastra Deemed To Be University

TLC Newsletter

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Confidence Intervals In State Space Models, Jinyu Du

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

This thesis develops general procedures for constructing confidence intervals (CIs) of the error disturbance parameters (standard deviations) and transformations of the error disturbance parameters in time-invariant state space models (ssm). With only a set of observations, estimating individual error disturbance parameters accurately in the presence of other unknown parameters in ssm is a very challenging problem. We attempted to construct four different types of confidence intervals, Wald, likelihood ratio, score, and higher-order asymptotic intervals for both the simple local level model and the general time-invariant state space models (ssm). We show that for a simple local level model, both the …

Early Health Conditions, Family Processes, And Educational Achievements, Han Liu

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines how childhood health affects children’s own and their siblings’ educational attainment through home environments and family processes. While health and socioeconomic status have been recognized as reinforcing dimensions of stratification in the past few decades, their linkage has not been contextualized in the critical social institution of families. To fill this gap in prior research, this project uses rich data on childhood health, home environments, academic achievement and educational attainment, sociodemographic background, and linkages between family members from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Children and Young Adults to (1) estimate the extent to which home …

Understanding The Dynamics Of Accountability In The U.S. Public Sector, Jisang Kim

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Building upon the historical Friedrich-Finer debate of the 1940s, this dissertation has shed light on the critical issue raised by these two scholars: the tension between accountability and autonomy inherent in public administration (PA). Over the last 80 years, the landscape of accountability in PA has dramatically changed due to the drastic expansion of the scope and role of government, which were never anticipated at the time of the debate. Many public administrators are now highly specialized experts dealing with complex issues, and holding them accountable for their actions and decisions has become much more challenging. Consequently, the unresolved tension …

Mining And Black-Box Learning Of Relationship-Based Access Control Policies, Ravishankar Padmavathi Iyer

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Information systems collect a huge volume of data about individuals such as social interactions, health/educational records, etc. To protect such data and mitigate privacy risks, access control policies specify what actions different users are authorized to perform in a system. It is important to obtain an accurate specification of the access control policy implemented in a system to 1) safely and effectively use the system as end-users and 2) ensure that it meets developers' expectations of security/privacy. Unfortunately, most systems today do not come with a clearly documented access control policy. Even worse, the access controls implemented in a system …

Near-Optimal Motion Planning Algorithms Via A Topological And Geometric Perspective, Aakriti Kumari Upadhyay

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Motion planning is a fundamental problem in robotics, which involves finding a path for an autonomous system, such as a robot, from a given source to a destination while avoiding collisions with obstacles. The properties of the planning space heavily influence the performance of existing motion planning algorithms, which can pose significant challenges in handling complex regions, such as narrow passages or cluttered environments, even for simple objects. The problem of motion planning becomes deterministic if the details of the space are fully known, which is often difficult to achieve in constantly changing environments. Sampling-based algorithms are widely used among …

Well-Conditioned T-Matrix Formulation For Scattering By A Dielectric Obstacle, Murat Enes Hati̇poğlu, Fati̇h Di̇kmen

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The classic formulation of the extended boundary condition method is revisited to inject the regularization operators for the unknown coefficients of the eigen-function expansions for the travelling and standing waves throughout the dielectric scatterer. It is shown that, using the new definitions, the existing algorithm of the scattering field calculation can be kept the same for its well-conditioned version. This is exemplified for scalar 2D problems for both TM and TE polarization under illumination of a line source. The condition numbers of the matrix operators in the new version of the algorithm are drastically reduced when the regularization interfaces are …

Lightweight Deep Neural Network Models For Electromyography Signal Recognition For Prosthetic Control, Ahmet Mert

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this paper, lightweight deep learning methods are proposed to recognize multichannel electromyography (EMG) signals against varying contraction levels. The classical machine learning, and signal processing methods namely, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA), root mean square (RMS), and waveform length (WL) are adopted to convolutional neural network (CNN), and long short-term memory neural network (LSTM). Eight-channel recordings of nine amputees from a publicly available dataset are used for training and testing the proposed models considering prosthetic control strategies. Six class hand movements with three contraction levels are applied to WL and RMS-based feature extraction. After that, they …

A Practical Framework For Early Detection Of Diabetes Using Ensemble Machine Learning Models, Qusay Saihood, Emrullah Sonuç

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The diagnosis of diabetes, a prevalent global health condition, is crucial for preventing severe complications. In recent years, there has been a growing effort to develop intelligent diagnostic systems for diabetes utilizing machine learning (ML) algorithms. Despite these efforts, achieving high accuracy rates using such systems remains a significant challenge. Recent advancements in ensemble ML methods offer promising opportunities for early detection of diabetes, as they are known to be faster and more cost-effective than traditional approaches. Therefore, this study proposes a practical framework for diagnosing diabetes that involves three stages. The data preprocessing stage encompasses several crucial tasks, including …

Improving Unet Segmentation Performance Using An Ensemble Model In Images Containing Railway Lines, Mehmet Sevi̇, İlhan Aydin

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This study aims to make sense of the autonomous system and the railway environment for railway vehicles. For this purpose, by determining the railway line, information about the general condition of the line can be obtained along the way. In addition, objects such as pedestrian crossings, people, cars, and traffic signs on the line will be extracted. The rails and the rail environment in the images will be segmented with a semantic segmentation network. In order to ensure the safety of rail transport, computer vision, and deep learning-based methods are increasingly used to inspect railway tracks and surrounding objects. In …

A Review Of Solar Hybrid Photovoltaic-Thermal (Pv-T) Collectors And Systems, Todd Otanicar

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in hybrid PV-T collectors and the wider systems within which they can be implemented, and assess the worldwide energy and carbon mitigation potential of these systems. We cover both experimental and computational studies, identify opportunities for performance enhancement, pathways for collector innovation, and implications of their wider deployment at the solar-generation system level. First, we classify and review the main types of PV-T collectors, including air-based, liquid-based, dual air–water, heat-pipe, building integrated and concentrated PV-T collectors. This is followed by a presentation of performance enhancement opportunities and pathways for …

Water Current, Volume 55, No. 2, Summer 2023

Water Current Newsletter

No abstract provided.