Digital Commons Network^™

Optimizing Transport Predictive Modeling With Simulation-Based Statistical Inference Authors, Mamunur Rashid, Quyen Tran

Mathematics Faculty Publications

Simulation-based statistical inference (SBI) leverages computer simulations to help scientists understand and analyze complex data. This paper explores how SBI techniques can be used to analyze transportation data. We use modern computational methods, including machine learning models, to improve the accuracy of predictions and decision-making in transportation planning. Our study focuses on two SBI methods, Approximate Bayesian Computation - Markov Chain Monte Carlo and Synthetic Likelihood, to create synthetic data for training machine learning models. These models show the potential of SBI to handle uncertain transportation data. It also highlights the practical benefits of SBI in making better decisions for …

If Only Justice Could Heal Or Make Whole: Hard Lessons From Rwanda’S Legal Responses To Genocide And Mass Atrocity, Gerald Gahima

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

My reflections on the limits of legal responses in Rwanda stem from both academic and lived experience. I served as Rwanda’s Deputy Minister of Justice (1996–1999), Prosecutor General (1999–2003), and Deputy Chief Justice (2003–2004) during the period after the genocide. In those roles, I had access to a large volume of information drawn from policy- making roles, case files of members of my staff, as well as my own fieldwork relating to the suffering of victims of the genocide. While I obviously believe that justice for those crimes is not in vain, my work with survivors left me with an …

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Sbcca Principles For A Greener Cleanup Report, Josh Bryson

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Narrative Engineering: Tools, Computational Structure, And Impact Of Stories, Michael A. Debuse

Theses and Dissertations

Computational Linguistics has a long history of applying mathematics to the grammatical and syntactic structure of language; however, applying math to the more complex aspects of language, such as narrative, plot, scenes, character relations, causation, etc. remains a difficult topic. The goal of my research is to bridge the narrative humanities with mathematics, to computationally grasp at these difficult topic, and help develop the field of Narrative Engineering. I view narrative and story with the same mathematical scrutiny as other engineering fields, to take the creativity and fluidity of story and encode it in mathematical representations that have meaning beyond …

Feasibility Of Lh2 Magnetic Positive Positioning To Minimize Spacecraft Propellant Tank Heat Leak, Emma Kate Hughes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Previous studies have determined that a magnetically susceptible fluid can be influenced by a magnetic field of sufficient strength in low gravity conditions. The use of magnetic positive positioning to manipulate magnetically susceptible fluids has potential uses in both specifying location and reducing the thermal heat leak as a means of effective positive positioning. A computational simulation is used to model the phase separation in cryogenic propellant tanks as in previous studies, while an analytic model is created to represent the magnetic field of a real permanent magnet. Previous studies have focused on the cryogenic propellant, liquid oxygen, which is …

For A Better Tomorrow Partners With Iwu To Host Second Steam Olympics Competition, Jeffery Woodard

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Role Of The I-Ii Linker In Nav1.5, Emily Wagner

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The cardiac voltage-gated sodium channel, Nav1.5 is essential for initiating the cardiac action potential. Its dysfunction can lead to dangerous arrhythmias, sudden cardiac arrest, and death. Like many channels, its known properties depend heavily on its structure. The functional core of the alpha subunit consists of four homologous repeats (I, II, III, and IV), each formed from a voltage sensing domain and a pore domain. The channel also contains two cytoplasmic termini and three cytoplasmic linkers (I-II, II-III, and III-IV). While most of the channel has been resolved in multiple structures, the I-II and II-III linkers have remained conspicuously absent …

Quantitative Approaches To Unravel The Mechanobiology Of Cortical Folding, Ramin Balouchzadeh

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Quantitative Approaches to Unravel the Mechanobiology of Cortical Folding by Ramin Balouchzadeh Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering Washington University in St. Louis, 2024 Professor Philip V. Bayly, Chair Professor Kara E. Garcia, Co-Chair Brain development is a highly complex process driven by mechanical forces and material properties that shape the cerebral cortex’s characteristic gyri and sulci. Abnormalities in this folding pro?cess are associated with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Despite significant advancements, the underlying mechanical principles governing brain morphogenesis remain incompletely understood. This body of work investigates three key aspects of brain de?velopment: stress-dependent growth, evolving tissue …

Coding For Decentralized Systems And Forensic 3d Fingerprinting, Canran Wang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presents novel coding techniques that optimize communication costs and address security challenges in decentralized systems and 3D printing technologies. The first part focuses on encoding data in distributed systems in a decentralized manner, i.e., without a central processor which orchestrates the operation. In such systems, processors require coded data generated from inputs provided by source processors. An example is a distributed storage system with geographically dispersed nodes storing a large database collected by specific source processors. To reduce communication costs, we propose a universal solution applicable to any linear code, with optimizations for systematic Reed-Solomon and Lagrange codes, …

Investigating The Role Of The I-Ii Linker In Nav1.5, Emily Wagner

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The cardiac voltage-gated sodium channel, Nav1.5 is essential for initiating the cardiac action potential. Its dysfunction can lead to dangerous arrhythmias, sudden cardiac arrest, and death. Like many channels, its known properties depend heavily on its structure. The functional core of the alpha subunit consists of four homologous repeats (I, II, III, and IV), each formed from a voltage sensing domain and a pore domain. The channel also contains two cytoplasmic termini and three cytoplasmic linkers (I-II, II-III, and III-IV). While most of the channel has been resolved in multiple structures, the I-II and II-III linkers have remained conspicuously absent …

Promoting And Developing Industrial Organic Clusters In Egypt: Case Study Of Damietta Furniture Cluster, Nermen Abdelmoula

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the development of industrial clusters in Egypt, with a specific focus on the Damietta Furniture Cluster, an organic industrial cluster known for its rich tradition in furniture craftsmanship. These industrial clusters, which are primarily composed of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), are characterized by the geographical concentration of interconnected firms and institutions, play a critical role in fostering economic growth, innovation, and competitiveness, particularly in emerging economies. The research explores the key factors affecting the development of the Damietta Furniture Cluster, identifies the challenges it faces, and provides policy recommendations to enhance its growth and global …

In Situ Preparation Of Silver Nanoparticles/Organophilic-Clay/Polyethylene Glycol Nanocomposites For The Reduction Of Organic Pollutants, Amina Sardi, Bouhadjar Boukoussa, Aouicha Benmaati, Kheira Chinoune, Adel Mokhtar, Mohammed Hachemaoui, Soumia Abdelkrim, Issam Ismail, Jibran Iqbal, Shashikant P. Patole, Gianluca Viscusi, Mohamed Abboud

All Works

This work focuses on the preparation and application of silver nanoparticles/organophilic clay/polyethylene glycol for the catalytic reduction of the contaminants methylene blue (MB) and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) in a simple and binary system. Algerian clay was subjected to a series of treatments including acid treatment, ion exchange with the surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HTABr), immobilization of polyethylene glycol polymer, and finally dispersion of AgNPs. The molecular weight of polyethylene glycol was varied (100, 200, and 4000) to study its effect on the stabilization of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and the catalytic activity of the resulting samples. The results showed that the catalyst with …

Reply Brief For Plaintiff-Appellant Brandon Velez, Stephen T. Martin, Seth J. Hipple, Madeline H. Meth

Faculty Scholarship

Defendants don’t want to face the evidence, including video footage, that shows them escalating a traffic stop in front of Velez’s home to a forceful arrest because Velez exercised his First Amendment rights. So, instead of dealing with the record directly, Defendants rely entirely on the district court’s (improper) view of the record, which on appeal from that court’s grant of summary judgment is subject to this Court’s de novo review. Besides ignoring the evidence that favors Velez, Defendants leave unaddressed this Court’s key cases, citing only precedent in which officers confronted wildly different circumstances from those presented here.

When …

Reconstructing Superoscillations Buried Deeply In Noise, Derek D. White, Shunxing Zhang, Barbara Šoda, Achim Kempf, Daniele C. Struppa, Andrew N. Jordan, John C. Howell

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We utilize a method using frequency combs to construct waves that feature superoscillations—local regions of the wave that exhibit a change in phase that the bandlimits of the wave should not otherwise allow. This method has been shown to create superoscillating regions that mimic any analytic function—even ones well outside the bandlimits—to an arbitrary degree of accuracy. We experimentally demonstrate that these waves are extremely robust against noise, allowing for accurate reconstruction of a superoscillating target function thoroughly buried in noise. We additionally show that such a construction can be easily used to range-resolve a signal well below the commonly …

Physics-Informed Heterogeneous Spatiotemporal Graph Neural Network For Reservoir Simulation, Ahmed A.M.A. Abdullah

LSU Master's Theses

Reservoir simulation is the state-of-the-art method for predicting the flow of petroleum reservoir fluids in porous media. It provides an accurate and unbiased prediction of the performance of petroleum reservoirs under different operating conditions. Despite its advantages, reservoir simulation is computationally expensive; with typical full-field simulation models running for several hours. This limitation is worsened when simulating reservoirs with several equations for each cell, such as multiphysics or compositional reservoir simulation. The goal of this research is to provide a fast and accurate spatiotemporal machine-learning model that incorporates discretized governing mass balance equations for training. To achieve this, we propose …

Imagining Hydropower: Transnational Narratives And Realities Of The Stiegler’S Gorge Project In Tanzania, 1960s–1980s, Emma Athanasio Minja

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Hydropower development in the Global South has attracted several donor programmes for decades. How have such interventions shaped energy imaginations in Tanzania? Adopting a historical perspective and drawing on transnationalism and travelling frameworks, this article examines hydropower aid interventions and the dynamic shifts of specific actors and discourses in bilateral relations. The primary focus is on Norway, a leading actor in planning the Stiegler’s Gorge hydropower project in Tanzania’s Rufiji Basin in the 1970s to mid-1980s. It seeks to understand how, despite substantial aid support, the project failed to kick off in the face of the country’s post-independence drive for …

Design, Control, And Evaluation Of A Photovoltaic Snow Removal Strategy Based On A Bidirectional Dc-Dc Converter For Photovoltaic–Electric Vehicle Application, Salma Elakkad, Mohamed Hesham, Hany Ayad Bastawrous, Peter Makeen

Electrical Engineering

A novel self-heating technique is proposed to clear snow from photovoltaic panels as a solution to the issue of winter snow accumulation in photovoltaic (PV) power plants. This approach aims to address the shortcomings of existing methods. It reduces PV cell wear, resource loss, and safety risks, without the need for additional devices. A self-heating current is applied to the solar panel to melt the snow covering its surface, which is then allowed to slide off the panel due to gravity. The proposed system consists of a bidirectional DC-DC converter, which removes the snow cover by heating the solar PV …

Flamingo Search Algorithm For Aircraft Landing Scheduling, Zied O. Ahmed, Noor T. Mahmood, Sura Mazin Ali

Baghdad Science Journal

Aircraft landing scheduling (ALS) is the process of organizing the arrival and departure of aircraft at an airport. This process is managed by air traffic controllers who use various tools and techniques to ensure that aircraft land and take off safely and efficiently. The goal of aircraft landing scheduling is to minimize delays and maximize the number of aircraft that can be accommodated at the airport. This is done by carefully coordinating the arrival and departure times of aircraft and the number of aircraft that can be safely accommodated. Flamingo Search is an optimization algorithm stimulated by the flamingos’ behavior. …

Predicting Movie Production Years Through Facial Recognition Of Actors With Machine Learning, Asraa Muayed Abdalah, Noor Redha Alkazaz

Baghdad Science Journal

This study used machine learning algorithms to identify actors and extract the age of actors from images taken randomly from movies. The use of images taken from Arab movies includes challenges such as non-uniform lighting, different and multiple poses for the actors and multiple elements with the actor or a group of actors. Additionally, the use of make-up, wigs, beards, and wearing different accessories and costumes made it difficult for the system to identify the personality of the same actor. The Arab Actors Dataset-AAD comprises 574 images sourced from various movies, encompassing both black and white as well as color …

Studying Of The Process Of Obtaining Monocalcium Phosphate Based On Extraction Phosphoric Acid From Phosphorites Of Central Kyzylkum, Mokhichekhra Shaymardanova, Kholtura Mirzakulov, Gavkhar Melikulova, Sakhomiddin. Khodjamkulov, Abror Nomozov, Oybek Toshmamatov

Baghdad Science Journal

In this paper, a study of monocalcium phosphate production based on extractable phosphoric acid obtained from Central Kyzyl-Kum phosphorites was conducted. Effects of various parameters (density, temperature, and viscosity of starting materials) on the process of defluoridation and desulfation of extraction phosphoric acid and production of monocalcium phosphate based on calcium carbonate were studied. The experiments were mainly conducted on two samples, and the composition of the substances before and after the process was studied. According to the results, the contents of other components also increase proportionally (sample 1). Thus, the content of calcium oxide increases from 1.58% to 5.54% …

Solving Edges Deletion Problem Of Complete Graphs, Anwar N. Jasim, Alaa A. Najim

Baghdad Science Journal

As the network size increases, there is an increased probability that some components will fail. It is therefore necessary for the network to be able to maintain the interconnection even in the presence of faulty components. The likelihood of a failure in the connections between stations is higher than that of a failure in the stations themselves because of the nature of many networks. Numerous graph-theoretic methods can be used to examine the reliability and efficacy of a network, and the network's dependability is determined by its connectivity. For a parallel and distributed system, the maximum connection time between any …

Graph Entropy Of Some Special Chemical Graphs, B. I. Andrew, A Anuradha

Baghdad Science Journal

Chemical graph theory plays an important role in modelling molecules, especially examining physico-chemical properties of the chemical compounds. Alkanes are one of the chemical compounds which are made up of hydrogen and carbon atoms, generally known as hydrocarbons. These alkanes having empirical formula ������2(��+1). Structural/constitutional isomers are the collection of chemical compounds having same empirical formula but different structural arrangements, this lead to the diversity in the physico-chemical properties. Graph descriptors are the essential tools in the graph theory to study about these physico-chemical properties. Some of these graph descriptors are graph spectrum, graph energy and graph entropy which contribute …

‘Prevention Is Better Than Cure’: Smallpox Vaccination In Postcolonial Tanzania, 1961–1980, Musa Sadock

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article examines the smallpox vaccination programme in postcolonial Tanzania from the 1960s to the early 1980s as part of the postcolonial future making in preventive medicine. The article departs from extant scholarship on smallpox vaccination in postcolonial Tanzania, which depicts the intervention as a success, while relegating to the background challenges associated with the intervention. The article argues that the smallpox vaccination programme registered challenges and successes that offer lessons for combating of future epidemics. The achievements of the programme were due to the adoption of specific public health policies, namely mass vaccination and public health education as well …

Compulsory Heterosexuality And Regulatory Hegemony In English Textbooks, Angelika Mae N. Balingasa

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Gender representations are crucial in textbooks given that these instructional materials are integral and widely-acknowledged in the field of education. However, despite various efforts to circumvent gender inequalities, textbooks still remain as conduits for proliferating gender biases and heteronormativity. In this study, secondary English textbooks were examined and sequential explanatory research design was used to investigate how genders were demonstrated in the textbooks through the lens of gender performativity theory. The findings revealed that the textbooks adhered to historical gender conventions, as opposed to genders’ fluid and contingent nature. Additionally, all of the textbooks promote hegemonic masculinity with men dominating …

Reflecting On Shakespeare’S Accessibility And Relevance In A Chinese University: The Case For Translanguaging And A Genai-Proficient Educator, Therese P. Abonales

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

This paper reflects on the implementation of an approach that integrates Generative AI (GenAI), specifically the Chinese GenAI model Wenxi Yiyan (also known as Ernie Bot in English), along with translanguaging into the teaching of Shakespearean literature and language instruction.The approach, tested with a group of third-year English majors at Jimei University (JMU), Xiamen, China, using Sonnet 116 as the primary topic, leveraged Wenxin Yiyan using both Chinese and English, to enhance pedagogical strategies, simplifying complex Shakespearean language, instead of mere translation, to make it more accessible and engaging for Chinese English majors. This paper begins by exploring Shakespeare's relevance …

Optimizing Encrypted Search In The Cloud Using Autoencoder-Based Query Approximation, Mahmoud Mohamed, Khaled Alosman

Baghdad Science Journal

Searching over encrypted data is critical for secure cloud services. However, encryption reduces search efficiency due to inability to directly compute on ciphertexts. This leads to an inherent tradeoff between privacy and usability that has motivated extensive research on enabling effective encrypted search. Recent work has explored using machine learning models like autoencoders to optimize similarity search under encryption. Autoencoders compress data into low-dimensional vectors capturing semantic information. Documents and queries can be encoded for efficient similarity computation without decryption. However, existing analysis remains limited in scope and scale. The research address these gaps through large-scale experiments and novel optimizations. …

Determination Uranium And Its Isotopes In Biological Samples Of Smokers, Abdulhussein A. Alkufi, Mohanad H. Oleiwi, Ali Abid Abojassim, Noor Ulhuda G. Mohammed, Ali Saeed Jassim, Michele Guida

Baghdad Science Journal

This study was conducted in the Najaf Governorate- Iraq, to analyze biological samples from smokers and non-smokers. The samples, including blood serum, urine, hair, and nails, were used as biomarkers to determine uranium concentrations (UC) and isotopes (238U, 235U, and 234U). Using a natural exposure method, the nuclear track detector (CR-39, UK) was utilized to measure these Uc in the samples. Seventy-five samples of blood serum, urine, hair, and nails were collected for smokers of healthy people and fifty samples for non-smokers of healthy people in five age groups. This study was based on age and smoking to compare the …

Adaptive Lossy Color Image Compression System Based On Hybrid Algorithm, Husam Khalid Khammas, Ayça Kurnaz Türkben

Baghdad Science Journal

As the digital age progresses, multimedia technologies have become commonplace, with users expecting high-quality audio, video, and image content across various platforms and devices. As a result, the quantity of data produced by these multimedia programs has grown substantially. Also, the explosive growth in the use of multimedia has led to a rise in the quantity of images that are used and created, which creates challenges, in relation to the requirement for increased storage capacity and enhanced data transport speed. To address these challenges, image compression has emerged as a critical solution by decreasing the volume of the image without …

An Ensemble Model For Predicting Cardiovascular Disease Utilizing Nature Inspired Optimization, Annwesha Banerjee Majumder, Somsubhra Gupta, Sourav Majumder, Dharmpal Singh

Baghdad Science Journal

This paper represents an efficient model for heart disease prediction model utilizing an ensemble mechanism optimized through BAT algorithm. Worldwide mortality rates are widely acknowledged to be significantly influenced by the prevalence of cardiovascular disease, particularly in economically disadvantaged regions. The need to mitigate the potentially severe repercussions associated with this particular health concern highlights the requirement for accurate and timely outcome prediction. Proposed methodology incorporates Mutual Information for feature selection, Inter Quartile Range for outlier removal. The StandardScaler method is used to achieve feature-wise standardisation in order to mitigate any bias resulting from varying scale disparities. Gradient boosting is …

Enterprise Content Management In Cultural Heritage Institutions: A Study Of Sharjah Landscape, United Arab Emirates, Ahmed Adel Zidan, Mohamed Boufarss

All Works

This study examines the landscape of digital content management within heritage institutions in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It aims to evaluate the state, characteristics, and roles of these processes in preserving and promoting cultural heritage in the digital sphere. Utilizing a descriptive analytical approach, the research employs a checklist as the primary data collection instrument to investigate existing policies, plans, systems, and projects. Findings highlight the absence of formalized content management strategies in most institutions, which rely on unwritten, tacit policies. This lack of structured frameworks adversely impacts communication, operational performance, service delivery, and the long-term sustainability of their work. …