Digital Commons Network^™

Outsourcing Service Fair Payment Based On Blockchain And Its Applications In Cloud Computing, Yinghui Zhang, Robert H. Deng, Ximeng Liu, Dong Zheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As a milestone in the development of outsourcing services, cloud computing enables an increasing number of individuals and enterprises to enjoy the most advanced services from outsourcing service providers. Because online payment and data security issues are involved in outsourcing services, the mutual distrust between users and service providers may severely impede the wide adoption of cloud computing. Nevertheless, most existing solutions only consider a specific type of services and rely on a trusted third-party to realize fair payment. In this paper, to realize secure and fair payment of outsourcing services in general without relying on any third-party, trusted or …

Towards An Optimal Model Of Directors' Duties In The Zone Of Insolvency: An Economic And Comparative Approach, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

When a company becomes factually insolvent but it is not yet subject to a formal insolvency proceeding, the shareholders - or the directors acting on their behalf - may engage, even in good faith, in various forms of behaviour that can divert or destroy value at the expense of the creditors. For this reason, many jurisdictions impose special directors’ duties in the zone of insolvency. From a sample of more than 25 countries from North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa, Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific, this article seeks to explore the most common regulatory models of directors’ duties in the …

Gaps And Opportunities In Accessibility Policy For Autonomous Vehicles, William Riggs, Anurag Pande

Mineta Transportation Institute

Nearly 1 in 5 people in the US have a disability (more than 57 million) (U.S. Census Bureau), and people with disabilities use the automobile as a travel mode at significantly lower rates than people without disabilities (Bureau of Transportation Statistics). For example, people aged 18 to 64 with disabilities make 28% fewer trips per day (2.6 v. 3.6 trips) on average than people without disabilities. The disparity is even more significant for non-workers. These statistics highlight the notable technological, design, and policy failings in today’s transportation system - that disabled individuals have considerable suppressed demand for travel that is …

How Do Environmental Factors Affect Drivers’ Gaze And Head Movements?, Arash Tavakoli, Vahid Balali, Arsalan Heydarian

Mineta Transportation Institute

Studies have shown that environmental factors affect driving behaviors. For instance, weather conditions and the presence of a passenger have been shown to significantly affect the speed of the driver. As one of the important measures of driving behavior is the gaze and head movements of the driver, such metrics can be potentially used towards understanding the effects of environmental factors on the driver’s behavior in real-time. In this study, using a naturalistic study platform, videos have been collected from six participants for more than four weeks of a fully naturalistic driving scenario. The videos of both the participants’ faces …

Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of The Roadside Transportation Related Air Quality (Startraq) And Neighborhood Characterization, Jaymin Kwon, Yushin Ahn, Steve Chung

Mineta Transportation Institute

To promote active transportation modes (such as bike ride and walking), and to create safer communities for easier access to transit, it is essential to provide consolidated data-driven transportation information to the public. The relevant and timely information from data facilitates the improvement of decision-making processes for the establishment of public policy and urban planning for sustainable growth, and for promoting public health in the region. For the characterization of the spatial variation of transportation-emitted air pollution in the Fresno/Clovis neighborhood in California, various species of particulate matters emitted from traffic sources were measured using real-time monitors and GPS loggers …

Applications Of Deep Learning Augmented Systems For Covid-19 Predictions- A Literature Review, Cherie Noteboom, David Zeng, Rajesh Godasu, Kruttika Sutrave

Research & Publications

Covid-19 Diagnosis needs new Information Systems technologies as Deep learning methods, especially in medical image screening. We aim to review the applications of deep learning augmented systems in Covid-19 predictions with the help of a large literature collection from four major databases IEEE explore, ACM, Web of Science, and PubMed. We have identified three major research themes from the current literature, Image Classification, Image segmentation, and evaluation methods for DL models. Among the DL techniques, Transfer Learning is identified as the most popular method for different tasks on Chest X-rays and CT scans. Pre-trained models such as ResNet, VGG, DenseNet, …

A Research Project To Investigate The Instructional Preferences Of Alternatively Certified Career And Technical Education Teachers, Jessica Deceuster

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Industry career workers that have transitioned to teaching within the education sector have the knowledge base to develop “what” needs to be taught in Career and Technical Education (CTE) curriculum; however, they do not have adequate knowledge about instructional strategies or “how” the curriculum content should be taught. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to document the instructional strategies, techniques, and coursework that were taught through the Utah State University Career and Technical Education Academy, to Career and Technical Education teachers that have transitioned from industry to education, and to assess how well the instructional strategies, techniques, and coursework …

No Evidence Of Stochastic Resonance In Postural Sway Response To Noisy Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation In Healthy Young Adults, Dominique Rice

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The transcutaneous application of a sub-sensory electrical stimulation to the vestibular afferents, known as noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation (nGVS), is thought to cause a reduction in postural sway at optimal amplitude intensities due to a mechanism known as stochastic resonance (SR). SR is a phenomenon whereby the addition of low amplitude noise to a non-linear system can be beneficial rather than detrimental. In humans, behavioral markers of SR in postural sway have been inconsistent, potentially due to insufficient power or false positives. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to determine whether the frequency of observing SR-like effects improves …

The Impact Of Environmental Turbulence On The Strategic Decision-Making Process In Irish Quantity Surveying (Qs) Professional Service Firms (Psfs), Roisin Murphy Dr, Oluwasegun Seriki

Articles

Construction firms operate within a business environment characterized by uncertainty and a lack of predictability, increasing the complexity of strategic decision-making. Construction contractor firms’ strategic response to environmental turbulence is appropriately documented but evidence regarding Construction Professional Service Firms (CPSF’S) remains scarce. CPSF’s are characteristically different from contractor organizations due to the intangibility of services and high knowledge intensity. The purpose of the study is to ascertain the impact of environmental turbulence on strategic decision-making process characteristics in CPSF’s, specifically Irish Quantity Surveying (QS) practices. Using a mixed-methods research strategy, data collected over two dissimilar stages on the economic cycle …

Voltage-Controlled Magnetization In Chromia-Based Magnetic Heterostructures, William Echtenkamp

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Spintronics promises a new generation of low-power, high-speed, non-volatile memory and logic devices. Heterostructures based on magnetoelectric chromia enable the direct manipulation of magnetization by applied electric fields and emerged as a promising building block for spintronic devices. In this dissertation, several interesting emergent magnetic properties arising in these device-enabling building blocks are examined. In some cases, exchange coupling at the interface between the magnetoelectric antiferromagnet and an adjacent ferromagnet stabilizes the interfacial antiferromagnetic domain state against the electrically induced rotation of the bulk spin structure. Upon magnetically cycling the ferromagnet, the magnetoelectric antiferromagnet relaxes towards a commensurate spin structure …

Manipulation Of Spin Crossover Phenomenon In An Fe(Ii) Molecular Complex And Application To Molecular Spintronics, Guanhua Hao

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Molecules with a large local magnetic moment have attracted considerable attention for application in spintronic devices. One candidate of a suitable device goes to the spin crossover molecule, where these 3d transition metal compounds are able to exhibit a robust spin state transition between distinct states. By proper design, the spintronic devices fabricated via spin crossover molecular thin films could achieve novel functionality while retaining flexibility and other traits based on its “organic” nature.

Controlling the spin state transition is a key factor of these possibilities. This thesis work investigates the manipulation of the spin state transition in [Fe{H …

The Design, Creation, And Cognitive Evaluation Of Ranking Tasks In Introductory Astronomy, Emily A. Welch

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Ranking tasks are a type of interactive formative assessment. They allow students to explore a concept by ranking similar situations for a specified variable, preferably without computation of that variable. I created two sets of introductory astronomy ranking tasks: the first connects the Hertzsprung–Russell (HR) diagram and the Stephan-Boltzmann luminosity equation; the second uses the transit method (TM) to rank exoplanets by comparing the depth, duration, and frequency of transits.

These tasks are designed within the constructivist pedagogical framework. They require students to call upon their own relevant schema to establish an assessment rule by which to rank the tasks. …

Evaluating Evapotranspiration And Management Of Glyphosate-Resistant Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus Palmeri S. Watson), Jasmine M. Mausbach

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Palmer amaranth (PA) is the most problematic weed in agronomic cropping systems in the United States. Acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitor-/glyphosate-resistant (GR) PA has been confirmed in Nebraska and is widespread in several counties. Soybean resistant to isoxaflutole/glufosinate/glyphosate has been developed to provide additional herbicide sites of action for control of herbicide-resistant weeds. The objectives of this study were to evaluate herbicide programs for control of ALS inhibitor/GR PA and their effect on PA density and biomass, as well as soybean injury and yield in isoxaflutole/glufosinate/glyphosate-resistant soybean. A PRE herbicide fb glufosinate controlled PA 80%–99% 21 d after late-POST in 2018 …

Reasons And Remedies To The Dying Plant Walls, Hayley Q. Mcgough

Construction Management

Sustainability in construction has been increasingly popular and detrimental with the state of the planet and climate change. One of the more popular solutions is the addition of plant façades to a building, which are plants that are put on the vertical of a building. The benefits that come with plant facades include and are not limited to: Reduction of the urban heat island effect, improved air quality, local job creation, improved energy efficiency, building structure protection, noise reduction, increased biodiversity, urban agriculture. These benefits are not reaching their full potential because these plant façades keep dying creating a bigger …

Studies On Milling And Baking Quality And In Vitro Protein Digestibility Of Historical And Modern Wheats, Sujun Liu

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There is considerable controversy among the public and the scientific community about whether modern wheats are harmful for human health and responsible for the increase of Celiac disease compared with historical varieties. Therefore, the milling and baking quality, protein digestibility, and protein composition of historical and modern wheats adapted to the Great Plains of the US were evaluated in this thesis. One objective of this thesis was to determine how end-use quality of wheat changed with wheat cultivar release year. Kernel physical characteristics, milling yield, whole-wheat flour quality, flour protein content, mixing quality and baking quality of 23 hard winter …

Thermomechanical Modeling In Laser Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing Using Graph Theory: Application To Prediction Of Recoater Crash, Md Humaun Kobir

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This work pertains to the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing process. The objective of this thesis is to predict a frequently occurring type of thermal-induced process failure in LPBF called recoater crash. To ascertain the likelihood of a recoater crash before the part is printed, we develop and apply a computationally efficient thermomechanical modeling approach based on graph theory.

Despite its demonstrated ability to overcome the design and processing constraints of conventional subtractive and formative manufacturing, the production-level scaleup of LPBF is hindered by frequent build failures. For example, the part often deforms as it is being printed …

Toward An Understanding Of Fundamental Mechanisms In Transitional And Turbulence Flow Control, Ethan A. Davis

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Turbulence is an emergent phenomenon found throughout nature and engineering, alike. It plays a vital role in the aquatic locomotion of organisms, scalar mixing, fluid transport, shipping and transportation, and even the flow of biological fluids in the human body. Therefore, it is of utmost importance in both a practical and engineering sense to better understand turbulence with the goal of better controlling it. This dissertation focuses broadly on better understanding the underlying mechanisms behind wall-bounded turbulent flows, with an emphasis on exploiting those mechanisms for turbulence flow control.

We developed a numerical simulation to study the effect of slip …

Biofiltration Application At Ethanol Plants: Analysis Of Aqueous Streams And Treatment Of Vocs, Katie Marie Mowat

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

The United States used 14.5 billion gallons of the biofuel ethanol in 2019 produced primarily (82%) in dry-mill corn ethanol plants. These plants produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) — some of which are hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) — during production. Traditional treatment methods for gaseous emissions use a large quantity of water or natural gas. Thus, a bio-trickling filter (BTF) is considered an innovative alternative treatment method. A lab-scale BTF was used in this study to look at the effect of ethanol concentration and temperature on the treatment of a HAPs mixture. Gaseous and aqueous testing were performed on the …

Uptake Analysis Of As(Iii) And As(V) By Cassia Fistula Seedlings, Valeria Velazquez

Theses and Dissertations

The natural and anthropogenic contamination of water by arsenic has become a major concern to the environment and public health. Phytoremediation is an attractive alternative to ecologically friendly remove contaminants at a potential high efficiency and low cost. Absorption of As(III) and As(V) was evaluated by the measuring the content of arsenic in the roots, leaves and stems Cassia fistula grown under controlled conditions in a hydroponics system. After seeds were germinated, the plants were grown in Hoagland nutrient solution individually supplemented with 1, 2, 5 ppm of As(III) and As(V). After two weeks of exposure, samples of leaves, roots, …

An Assessment Of Hotel Guests’ Perceptions Of Preventive Safety Measures In The Era Of Covid-19, Un Hyeok Ko

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the era of COVID-19, hospitality was one of the industries that was most severely impacted by the virus. Spread of the virus was rapid enough to force hotels to close properties worldwide, and hotels were required to adopt safety measures and protocols in order to re-open or remain open. New types of measures, some never seen before the pandemic, were created and implemented throughout the hotel industry.

The main purpose of this study is to assess guests' perception of preventive safety initiatives and measures in the era of COVID-19 and to determine their level of satisfaction with such measures. …

Numerical Investigation Of Effects Of Pressure And Chemistry On Characteristics Of Turbulent Premixed Flames, Jamie Bowers

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Turbulent premixed flames are used in many energy conversion and propulsion devices. The efficiency and performance of these devices are affected by operating conditions, which also affect the highly nonlinear turbulence-chemistry interactions (TCIs). Previous fundamental studies characterize TCIs at atmospheric pressure, but relevant devices usually operate at higher pressures. This study investigates the effects of elevated pressure and finite-rate chemistry on methane/air turbulent premixed flames using direct numerical simulations performed at pressures of 1 atm and 10 atm and utilize an 8-species and 4-steps mechanism and a 13-species and 73-steps mechanism. The effects of pressure and chemistry on TCIs are …

Splash: Learnable Activation Functions For Improving Accuracy And Adversarial Robustness, Mohammadamin Tavakoli, Forest Agostinelli, Pierre Baldi

Publications

We introduce SPLASH units, a class of learnable activation functions shown to simultaneously improve the accuracy of deep neural networks while also improving their robustness to adversarial attacks. SPLASH units have both a simple parameterization and maintain the ability to approximate a wide range of non-linear functions. SPLASH units are: (1) continuous; (2) grounded (f(0)=0"); (3) use symmetric hinges; and (4) their hinges are placed at fixed locations which are derived from the data (i.e. no learning required). Compared to nine other learned and fixed activation functions, including ReLU and its variants, SPLASH units show superior performance across three datasets …

Evaluating The Safety Cultures Of Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Maintenance Crews, Ashtarout Ammar, Zamaan Al-Shabbani, Hala Nassereddine, Chris Van Dyke, Gabriel B. Dadi

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Highway work zones can be dangerous and unpredictable. Between 2003 and 2017, over 1,800 workers died on road construction sites. Eliminating injuries and deaths requires state transportation agencies to adopt robust safety cultures as there is a clear relationship between these cultures and worker behaviors. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is committed to improving safety performance by nurturing a positive safety climate among highway maintenance crews. To understand the safety cultures of KYTC maintenance crews, researchers administered a survey based on the Safety Climate Assessment Tool (S-CAT) developed by the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR). This is the …

Investigations Of Elastin Recoil On Molecular And Macroscopic Levels., Nour Mohammad Jamhawi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Elastin is one of the most hydrophobic proteins, and it is extremely flexible when hydrated. The driving force for recoil is the decrease in entropy of the protein and/or the hydrating solvent. This dissertation is a study of both mechanisms. Following an introduction (Chapter 1), Chapters 2 and 3 investigate the recoil mechanism on the molecular level in the hydrating solvent and in the protein, respectively. Chapter 4 examines macroscopic properties of recoil by thermomechanics. Conclusions are discussed in Chapter 5. Using double quantum NMR, the deuterated water ordering at the elastin surface was studied quantitatively as a function of …

High-Density Parking For Autonomous Vehicles., Parag J. Siddique

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a common parking lot, much of the space is devoted to lanes. Lanes must not be blocked for one simple reason: a blocked car might need to leave before the car that blocks it. However, the advent of autonomous vehicles gives us an opportunity to overcome this constraint, and to achieve a higher storage capacity of cars. Taking advantage of self-parking and intelligent communication systems of autonomous vehicles, we propose puzzle-based parking, a high-density design for a parking lot. We introduce a novel method of vehicle parking, which leads to maximum parking density. We then propose a heuristic method …

Structural, Vibrational And Transport Properties Of Novel Complex Systems., Bhupendra Man Shing Karki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electron correlation effects in quantum materials are very strong. It is critical to investigate the structure of quantum materials to better understand and manipulate their physical properties. Quantum effects are prominent at the atomic microscopic length scale, which can not be examined by average long range structural measurements using traditional diffraction methods. Instead, pair distribution function (PDF) analysis, a local structure probe, can effectively unveil the mystery of local structure, which is more sensitive to local behavior than bulk average features. The first section of my dissertation will concentrate on the local structural study of the Iron oxy-chalcogenides, {\cSSe}, which …

Engineering Performance And Teamwork Perceptions Shaped By Structured Learning Experiences In A Makerspace., Teresa Lee Tinnell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ability to work on teams is of critical importance to the field of engineering and a critical competency for future engineers. Fostering performance of effective teamwork through the education of engineers emphasizes the humanistic dimension of the engineering profession and engages future engineering professionals in complex and dynamic team experiences. Team performance and effectiveness of student teams is strongly influenced by individual student perceptions of teamwork as a learning mechanism for successful collective learning experiences. Initial perceptions of teamwork among first year engineering students are often negative due to prior adverse or unproductive team performance. Makerspace learning environments are …

Typological And Technological Analyses Of Multi-Component Lithic Collection From Eastern Kentucky., Isaac C. Garvin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to perform a typological and technological analysis of the Gibson Collection utilizing statistical analyses and carefully recorded metric data. The Gibson Collection consists of N=472 lithic artifacts from the southern tip of Fleming County in eastern Kentucky, located directly above the Cave Run Reservoir. The main research focus of this project was to assign types to previously unrecorded artifacts with the intention of observing diachronic technological change of eastern Kentucky’s archaeological timeline within the Gibson collection. This thesis uses post-processual archaeological ideology and inquiry as well as statistical analyses and interpretation. Further, through the …

Academy Student Ambassador Perceptions Of The Academy Model: The Successes And Areas For Growth., James Edward Mcmillin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When students see the relevance of their education, whether college-bound or career-bound, it can motivate them to seek out courses and experiences that will prepare them for life after high school (Plank, DeLuca, & Estacion, 2005). The experiences, accomplishments, and social influences a student has throughout their time in school creates meaning and helps inform how they identify career interests and make career choices (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). This is especially true in high school where students begin to develop an awareness of their career interests and start thinking about their life after high school (Erikson, 1963). As the …

Mixed Metal Oxide Nanowires Via Solid State Alloying., Veerendra Atla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mixed metal oxide materials with composition control find applications in energy conversion and storage processes such as heterogenous catalysis, photoelectrochemical catalysis, electrocatalysis, thermal catalysis, and lithium-ion batteries. Mixed metal oxides and/or complex oxides with composition control and in one-dimensional form as nanowires could be interesting to various catalysis applications due to control on single crystal surfaces, active sites, acidity versus basicity site density, and oxygen vacancies. The major challenge is to synthesize mixed metal oxide nanowires beyond binary oxides with composition control. In this dissertation, solid state alloying of binary oxide nanowires with solid and liquid precursors is studied to …