Digital Commons Network^™

Study On The Application Of Smart Electric Meters For Secondary Voltage Protection, Jayaditya Sisodia

Master's Theses

The purpose of our research is to utilize PG&E’s Smart Meters installed across California to protect the Secondary Voltage delivered to the meter. This means detecting electrical faults between the utility’s distribution transformer and the installed Smart Meter. Our goal is to propose and implement various solutions through additional devices and protocols to detect and prevent these faults, communicate them with the meter, and forward fault information to the utility. A device will be designed to be installed on the transformer, detect faults, shut off power transmission, and communicate to the meter via fiber optic cable. Research will then be …

Open Source Asic Design Curriculum, Francisco Wilken

Master's Theses

The ever-growing importance of Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) in a high-compute world necessitates that college graduates entering the workforce are well prepared to design them. This thesis details the design of novel ASIC curriculum, using open source tools to teach at the undergraduate level. By moving to a higher level of abstraction than classical transistor-focused coursework, chip design material can be made accessible earlier in an undergraduate degree. Additionally, open source tools provide a powerful, free, and portable platform for students to create their own designs, solving assignments focused on industry readiness. Finally, this thesis studies the results and challenges …

Steiner Coset Partitions Of Groups, Fusun Akman, Papa Sissokho

Faculty Publications – Mathematics

A coset partition of a group G is a set partition of G into finitely many left cosets of one or more subgroups. A driving force in this research area is the Herzog–Schönheim Conjecture, which states that any nontrivial coset partition of a group contains at least two cosets with the same index. Although many families of groups have been shown to satisfy the conjecture, it remains open.

A Steiner coset partition of G, with respect to distinct subgroups H₁,...,H_r, is a coset partition of G that contains exactly one coset of each …

Political Sociology, Talha C. Issevenler

Open Educational Resources

This open-access textbook on political sociology introduces and problematizes the classical categories and parameters of the field. It explores the main approaches to the state and governance, while conceptualizing a turn toward network power. Specific chapters address political spacetime, violence, secrecy, social movements, politicization, interdisciplinarity, media, biopolitics, and event-analysis. Multimedia pedagogical exercises accompany the conceptual exposition.

"A Man’S Home Is His Castle"? Intimate Partner Violence, Firearm Surrender, And Home Searches Under Article I, Section 7 Of The Washington Constitution, Dana Raigrodski

Washington Law Review

Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a vexing problem in Washington. Firearms make intimate partner violence much more dangerous and, frequently, deadly. To protect victims of IPV and to reduce its severity when guns are present, the State of Washington put in place a comprehensive statutory scheme to disarm perpetrators of IPV. In 2022, however, the Washington Court of Appeals for Division II held, in State v. Flannery, that the statutory firearm surrender scheme violates article I, section 7 of the Washington Constitution, which prohibits disturbing a person’s private affairs or invading their home without authority of law. This Article …

Why Medicaid Is Addressing Homelessness With Section 1115 Waivers: A Critical Examination Of The United States' Federalist Mental Health System, Joshua Haas

Washington Law Review

Housing and health care are deeply interconnected, and their systemic relationship profoundly affects individual and societal well-being. Inadequate funding has undermined the American mental health system for decades, leading to gaps in care that have caused lasting harm to vulnerable individuals and society as a whole. This Comment examines the historical connections between homelessness and the American mental health system. It explores the benefits and criticisms of the United States’ federalist approach to health care, particularly focusing on Medicaid and its “section 1115 waivers,” which grant states flexibility to develop innovative, state-specific Medicaid programs. Recently, states began to utilize section …

Under The Umbrella Of Water Law: Why Rainwater Harvesting Should Constitute A Valid Water Right, Jordann Krouse

Washington Law Review

Rain is a major source of water. It provides for our greatest needs, such as feeding our gardens, crops, rivers, and lakes. As global climate change continues to unfold, the impacts of water availability and water pollution simultaneously grow more urgent. Water rights are a mechanism in the United States’ legal system to allocate, regulate, and manage water as a natural resource. These rights are limited, however, in their coverage and varied in their application. For example, access to rainwater is not a recognized water right despite being a major source of water. The ecological and economic incentives of rainwater …

A Noncompete By Any Other Name: Assessing The Validity Of Training Repayment Agreements Under Washington Law, Hannah Lukomski

Washington Law Review

Training Repayment Agreements (TRAs) are restrictive employment covenants that require an employee to pay their employer a fixed or prorated sum for training costs if the employee quits their job within some period defined by the agreement. The prevalence of TRAs has drastically increased in low-wage employment. TRAs harm employees by imposing an artificial financial constraint that disincentivizes employees from leaving their employer within the contract duration. The Washington State Legislature has not directly addressed TRAs despite having articulated limits on other restrictive employment covenants, like noncompetition agreements. This Comment reviews federal agency actions and other states’ approaches in response …

Community-Based Approaches For Strengthening Quality, Access And Utilization Of Maternal And Newborn Health Services In Kenya—Stakeholders Workshop Report, Population Council Kenya

Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Choices

No abstract provided.

The Epidemiology And Burden Of Cardiovascular Diseases In Countries Of The Association Of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), 1990–2021: Findings From The Global Burden Of Disease Study 2021, Gbd 2021 Asean Cardiovascular Diseases Collaborators, Veincent Christian Pepito

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Background: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has undergone substantial epidemiological changes over the past three decades, characterised by a growing burden of cardiovascular disease. This study provides an epidemiological overview of cardiovascular diseases across ASEAN.

Methods: As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2021, we assessed the prevalence, mortality, years of life lost, years lived with disability, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) of 12 cardiovascular diseases, stratified by age, sex, and location, for ten ASEAN member states (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam) from 1990 to …

The Epidemiology And Burden Of Injury In Countries Of The Association Of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), 1990–2021: Findings From The Global Burden Of Disease Study 2021, Stephanie C C Van Der Lube, Lin Siew Chong, Simon I. Hay, Catherine Bisignano, Spencer I. James, Xiaochen Dai, Lay Hoon Goh, Swetha Acharya, Qorinah Estiningtyas Sakilah Adnani, Naveed Ahmed, Budi Aji, Joseph Uy Almazan, Carl Abelardo T. Antonio, Sumadi Lukman Anwar, Muhammad Shahzad Aslam, Atif Amin Baig, Amiel Nazer C. Bermudez, Ahmad Naoras Naoras Bitar, Muthia Cenderadewi, Hana Chen, Nicholas Ws Chew, Bryan Chong, Mayank Dalakoti, Hisham Atan Edinur, Crystal Amiel M. Estrada, Emerito Jose Aquino Faraon, Nelsensius Klau Fauk, Ni Kadek Yuni Fridayani, Fernando Barroga Garcia, Arief Hargono, Eka Mishbahatul Marah Has, Paul Michael Rafa Hernandez, Nahlah Elkudssiah Ismail, Vikash Jaiswal, Roland Dominic G. Jamora, Jost B. Jonas, Kehinde Kazeem Kanmodi, Inn Kynn Khaing, Yun Jin Kim, Chong-Han Kua, Maria Dyah Kurniasari, Dian Kusuma, Hilton Lam, Shaun Wen Huey Lee, Zheng Feei Ma, Roy Rillera Marzo, Kamarul Imran Musa, Firzan Nainu, Dina Nur Anggraini Ningrum, Sok King Ong, Veincent Christian Pepito, Thantrira Porntaveetus, Dimas Ria Angga Pribadi, Sheena Ramazanu, Bedanta Roy, Yoseph Leonardo Samodra, Siddharthan Selvaraj, Shazlin Shaharudin, Robert Sinto, Solikhah Solikhah, Chandrashekhar T. Sreeramareddy, Vetriselvan Subramaniyan, Thitiporn Sukaew, Ingan Ukur Tarigan, Jansje Henny Vera Ticoalu, Narayanaswamy Venketasubramanian, Taweewat Wiangkham, Anggi Lukman Wicaksana, Siyan Yi, Mustafa Z. Younis, Christopher J L Murray, Kanyin Liane Ong, Yee Wei Lim, Marie Ng

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Background Injuries are among the top causes of mortality and disability in southeast Asia. Although injury prevention is a key health priority in the Post-2015 Health Development Agenda of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the focus was placed solely on road injuries. The absence of a broader recognition of injury burden and trends hinders future intervention efforts. This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the burden and epidemiological trends of all injuries across ASEAN countries.

Methods In this analysis of the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021, we estimated incidence, cause-specific …

"Maine Office Of Behavioral Health’S Section 17 Self-Direction Pilot Program: Evaluation Report", Rachel M. Gallo Mph, Sarah Goan, Emma Schwartz, Aaron Rose

Publications

Maine’s Office of Behavioral Health conducted a nine-month pilot of Self-Directed Care to support adults with serious mental illness in Cumberland, Hancock, and Washington Counties. The program allowed eligible participants receiving MaineCare Section 17 services to manage a personal budget, guided by trained Support Brokers from Alpha One, to purchase goods and services that would advance their recovery goals. The pilot aimed to increase participant choice, autonomy, and flexibility in managing their mental health needs. Support Brokers worked closely with participants and Case Managers to develop and approve individualized purchase plans, monitor expenditures, and ensure alignment with treatment objectives. A …

Thermally Perfect Augmentation Of A Supersonic Inlet Design Tool That Uses Method Of Characteristics, Mario V. Guardado

Master's Theses

This work is the first in a series to augment a supersonic air inlet design tool based in Python 3 to incorporate new models that increase the range of applicability of the tool. This effort focuses on improving the thermodynamics model by incorporating a thermally perfect gas model. This tool utilizes method of characteristics to solve the governing equations for an inviscid, irrotational, isentropic, steady, supersonic flow field. Multiple test cases are used to assess the accuracy of all new models. A comparison is made between the original code’s test case for a supersonic inlet at low temperatures to verify …

Reverse Engineering Bring Up And Profiling Of Multi-Fpga Systems, Henry A. Evans

Master's Theses

FPGAs have long been used for prototyping and verifying high-speed digital designs in industry and in academic research. As ASIC designs have grown in complexity and size, prototyping those designs on FPGAs has required multiple FPGAs that sometimes span multiple servers. Western Digital donated multiple FPGA-based systems to Cal Poly in 2023. These servers contain multiple high-end AMD FPGAs that are ideal for prototyping large high-speed digital designs, however the full documentation on how to use the servers and how the servers work was not provided. The servers did not come with any information on how to program the FPGAs, …

Griddle: A Novel Hardware Based Matrix Multiplier Architecture, Seth Kiefer

Master's Theses

Matrix multiplication is a computational cornerstone in modern artificial intelligence and scientific computing, yet general-purpose processors struggle to perform these operations efficiently at scale. This thesis presents Griddle, a novel hardware architecture for matrix multiplication implemented on a Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA. Griddle focuses on flexibility and scalability by adopting a purely iterative approach that supports arbitrarily shaped input matrices without requiring padding or strict dimensional constraints. The architecture uses computational pipelines to execute a multiplication operation. Each pipe consists of a multiplication core and accumulation buffer that compute matrix products in parallel. The multiplication core contains a set of multiplier …

Streamlined Intelligence: Resource-Efficient Machine Learning For 5g Nr V2v Channel Equalization, Jacqueline G. Radding

Master's Theses

As autonomous vehicles continue to evolve, reliable and efficient real-time communication between vehicles is essential for safety and performance. This thesis explores Streamlined Intelligence: Resource Efficient machine learning for 5G NR V2V Channel Equalization, focusing on lightweight random forest decision tree models to address the challenges of channel equalization in 5G New Radio (NR) vehicle to vehicle (V2V) systems. Using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with QPSK modulation, the study simulates data transmission in nonlinear channels characterized by obstructions, Doppler shifts, and fading. Decision trees are proposed as a computationally efficient alternative to other machine learning methods while being compared …

"Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow": Disneyland, Science, And The Cultural Cold War, Emily Searson

Master's Theses

Disneyland, the popular Anaheim-based theme park in California, opened its doors during heightened Cold War tensions in 1955. In this thesis, I trace the origins of Tomorrowland, one of the five original themed lands in Disneyland that included futuristic rides and attractions to depict Walt Disney’s imagining of the year 1986. I examine Tomorrowland in particular to argue that WED Enterprises (Disneyland, Inc.’s research and development arm) and Disney’s vision of scientific progress aligned with U.S. Cold War policy goals, especially containment. Disney and WED Enterprises meticulously planned Tomorrowland with the help of notable American defense contractors, including the Monsanto …

Experimental Characterization And Finite Element Analysis Of The Effects Of Pitting Corrosion On The Mechanical Properties Of Stainless Steel, Duncan Jay Fure, Long Wang

Master's Theses

Many structures do not fail from poor design, but instead from environmental degradation. Corrosion is one mode whose effects can be diminished, but not eliminated, by employing corrosion resistant materials, such as 304 stainless steel, which are still subject to pitting corrosion. Pitting corrosion is a chemical process of the localized removal of material leaving cavities. Despite the prevalence of pitting corrosion, there has been limited testing conducted of the effect of stress during corrosion. This study conducted accelerated controlled corrosion experiments with and without mechanical loading and various corrosion times. Pit morphology of different conditions was analyzed with statistical …

Low Earth Orbit Drag Sail Degradation Due To Atomic Oxygen And Ultraviolet Radiation, Hannah Rost

Master's Theses

As the orbital debris population increases, so does the risk of collisions with operational spacecraft. In response, the Federal Communications Commission has shortened the deorbit requirement from 25 years to five years. While natural atmospheric decay was sufficient under the previous guideline, many objects with low area to mass ratios can no longer passively comply. Smaller, non-propellant-carrying space objects such as CubeSats lack the ability to maneuver and must rely on alternative deorbit methods. One proposed solution is to deploy a drag sail at end of life to increase atmospheric drag and accelerate orbital decay. However, exposure to atomic oxygen …

Morris Climate Action Plan, University Of Minnesota - Morris

Miscellaneous Campus Publications

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century and impacts people, communities, and ecosystems—both locally and globally. The University of Minnesota Morris Climate Action Plan (CAP) provides a road map to address climate change through strategic mitigation and adaptation in alignment with the campus mission, goals and objectives. The 2025 CAP charts the course to reduce campus greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 87% by 2035 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

The CAP was developed in tandem with the 2025 UMN Morris Campus Plan to address intrinsically linked strategic goals stated in MPact 2025 Systemwide Strategic Plan. …

Design And Development Of A Half-Bridge Llc Resonant Converter Laboratory Module, Alyssa Lam

Master's Theses

Resonant DC-DC converters have become a well-known solution in power supplies due to their ability to improve efficiency by utilizing soft-switching techniques. This further has caused a growing interest in industry to use these converters for high-switching-frequency, high-efficiency, and high-power applications such as EV charging stations, photovoltaic systems, battery chargers, etc. One particular resonant topology that has gained popularity in recent years is the LLC resonant converter. Due to the prevalent use of the LLC resonant converter, it is therefore crucial for students preparing for a career path in power electronics to become well-versed in the concept and implementation of …

Tuned Liquid Damper Design Using Liquid Sloshing In A Horizontal Cylindrical Tank, Vedant M. Patel

Master's Theses

Vibration isolation is an essential design requirement for several real word applications including industrial machinery, automobiles and building structures. Different techniques of vibration isolation are employed in each of these applications. One such vibration isolator used in tall buildings is known as the Tuned Mass Damper , where a mechanical mass (pendulum, bogey, cylinder) is located at the top portion of the building and is connected to the building through a suspension. This mechanical mass – suspension system is designed to oscillate out of phase with the building in order to dissipate the vibration. Several buildings such as, Taipei 101, …

Coherent Synchronization For Distributed Digital Phased Arrays, Zachary C. Numa

Master's Theses

Distributed digital phased arrays are rising technologies that help enable applications such as search and rescue operations, wireless communication, radar navigation, and military operations, among many others. Due to their improved angular resolution, digital phased arrays offer superior direction-finding capabilities compared to traditional analog phased array systems. However, this improvement comes at the cost of increased complexity—specifically, the need for precise synchronization of phase, time, and frequency across physically separated nodes. Without synchronization, the distributed phased array's gain and direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimations deteriorate significantly.

There are multiple aspects to implementing and synchronizing a non-stationary distributed digital phased array. This research …

A Decision Support System For Conference Session Selection Using Natural Language Processing, Tillman E. Erb

Master's Theses

Conference attendees are faced with selecting from hundreds to thousands of presentations and sessions in pursuit of new findings and methods relevant to their area of interest, an overwhelming amount of information from which to clearly make a decision. To address this, we developed a decision support system leveraging natural language processing (NLP) techniques such as semantic matching. By creating and matching embeddings of conference presentation abstracts and titles, the application provides improved query matching compared to keyword searching. We introduce Session Scout, a novel conference decision support system built upon a semantic retrieval framework. Session Scout is designed to …

Open Source Microgrid Integration, Zachary J. Kwast

Master's Theses

Microgrids are small-scale electrical systems that operate in tandem with a centralized grid to provide power to a smaller group of target devices. These microgrids are used for a wide range of different purposes, which invites the need for a generalized model that can be tweaked for a variety of uses. This document goes over the theory used to design an open source AC and DC microgrid meant for use by anyone. The microgrid is created using a Raspberry Pi that controls two different power converters so that a wide range of voltage and current characteristics can be achieved. These …

Density-Based And Model-Based Clustering With Tidyclust In R, Brendan S. Callender

Master's Theses

Clustering is a fundamental technique in unsupervised learning that can be used to find hidden patterns and structures within unlabeled data. The tidyclust package in R provides a unified interface for applying various clustering techniques to data. This paper outlines the addition of density-based clustering with DBSCAN, and model-based clustering using Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) to the tidyclust package. DBSCAN can be performed using the db_clust() function and makes use of the dbscan package implementation as its engine. GMMs can be fit using the gm_clust() function which makes use of the mclust package implementation. This paper highlights the changes made …

Statistical Investigations Of Strategies In The Game Ecosystem, Dylan Li

Master's Theses

This work provides a probability-based analysis of strategies in the board game Ecosystem. Ecosystem is a turn-based multiplayer tiling game, where players take turns picking a wildlife card from a limited pool of cards then placing that card on their personal 4x5 grid. The objective of the game is to place the wildlife cards to maximize your score, as each card’s scoring condition depends on the presence or absence of certain cards surrounding it. The goal of this project is to determine optimal strategies for tiling your grid using techniques such as simulation to find optimal grid arrangements and clustering …

Bandwagon Behavior In Major League Baseball, Daniel E. Erro

Master's Theses

This study investigates “bandwagon” behavior among Major League Baseball (MLB) fans by analyzing Google search interest data from 2004 to 2019. Drawing on publicly available information from Google Trends, the analysis explores how fluctuations in search activity align with team performance during both the regular season and postseason. Hierarchical linear models are used to estimate expected levels of fan interest based on team performance and market characteristics. Deviations from these expectations during the regular season are interpreted as evidence of bandwagon or anti-bandwagon behavior. A drop-off in interest following playoff elimination is also examined to capture shifts in fan attention …

Babies, Babes, And Bayes: Modeling Mother-Infant Feedings With Bayesian Multilevel Hidden Markov Models, Zachary G. Felix

Master's Theses

Understanding the interaction between mother and baby during feeding is critical for the long-term development health of the baby. Overfeeding can lead to later obesity, while underfeeding can lead to malnutrition. In a recent study, the behaviors exhibited by mother-infant dyads across multiple ages of infants have been observed and coded according to the Baby Behaviors when Satiated (BABES) coding scheme. However, creating models using the data obtained from this coding is no simple task since the data coding is continuous, multivariate, and longitudinal in nature. The specific model utilized for these data is a hidden Markov model, since there …

Topiarism: The Kernel Embedding Of Distributions Applied To Modern Portfolio Theory, Stephen G. Cook

Master's Theses

The method of kernel embedding of distributions on a set $\Omega$ into a reproducing kernel Hilbert space is a method of studying the space of measures on a set $\Omega$ using Hilbert space geometry. Because positively weighted portfolios can be interpreted as nonnegative probability measures on the space of assets, we are able to apply this technique to portfolio theory. In this thesis, we discuss the theory of "topiarism", the study of positively weighted probability measures on compact sets under the kernel embedding of distributions. Given a specific payoff function $\psi$ on the set of assets $\Omega$, we optimize a …